Young Negi : An Applied Approach
by C.F.Winchester. Finalage
Summary: Complete. Epilogue:It was the last mistake he, or the rest of the party, ever made. Roaring, the creature lunged forth, darkness swirling about its entire form...
1. Prologue Part i

One thing I hate having to do is repeat myself. Yet I find I must do that in order to get things right. This is an attempt to get things right..This is a re-try of an old friend..I have kept the original for comparison reasons. Young Negi. It was the story that, like all my others, went wrong, but it was the strongest one I had...It's time to take another shot, this one, if not done properly, just might be my last...

Okay, basically put, this story is the opposite of what most Negima fanfics have, my Negi is younger, not older, at the time he comes to Mahora, but for all of his continence, he might as well be older. The reason for this will be explained in the story, so doesn't bug me here about it. For sanities sake, I have places the time at which Negi arrives at Mahora as follows : Fall of 2002.

I do not, in any way at all, own Negima or any of its affiliates.

Note: I did not use spell check. I don't have it, so if there are any typos, sorry, I have however, improved greatly I think, in that direction of typos.

_**Prologue One**_: The wrong footed start.

+---+

Winter, 1997, is where our story starts....

+---+

A biting breeze nips at a young girl's nose. The night is so peaceful, it hurts. It's hard to believe that half the village is on fire...

But it is.

Nekane hears a yell, then a scuffle behind her, and she turns around sharply, little kiddie wand coming forward to point at whatever kind of threat might pop up, a sickly mocking tool of child's play against the demons of the deep.

It was only Stan however, holding a bundle of blankets, which he tosses to her. Something inside it wriggles.

"Take that…it's all that's left of that house. Little thing is squirming to hard for me to hold and keep back those..things."

Nekane looked down at the bundle and instantly realized it was a now orphaned child..

"Who's?"

"How the heck should I know? Just take it away before…shoot!"

Stan jumped aside just in time to avoid a smashing blow from a demon. The wall behind him however, was not so lucky. The creature just laughed and turned to Stan's new position.

"Playing whack a mole is fun this way…"

"Kane…get outta here!"

Looking up, she pointed her wand.

"I said get outta here now!"

"But…"

"NOW!"

Reluctantly stuffing her wand in her sleeve, she turned and, after another shoo movement by Stan, ran off with the bundle in tow. When she did take a glance back, it was to see one of Stan's spells bounce of the demons forehead...

+---+

((I need to do better than that..come on!))

+---+

Snow, snow and more bloody snow. It was as if mother nature was trying to cover up what was happening here, the fire, the demons, the people screaming...snow muffled the sound..swallowed it up inside it's white prison, just like the people being burned alive in their own homes..

Get out of the melodramatic mood Nekane!

She shook her head to shake off some of the aforementioned snow from her hair. She also stopped walking to fix the blanket over her passenger. who really should not have been in a blanket, for they were a bit to big for it... She saw a lock of brilliant auburn hair which made her stop. There was only one red-headed baby she knew of in her village..and that was her cousin, Negi...which meant...that house...

She unfolded the blanket a bit to look at the boy's face, not realizing she had allowed her self to sink to the knees. It was no doubt, that face stuck out anywhere...

Her family had just been reduced to two people in the whole world...and one was a toddler who was with her here in the snow...

Her revere was interrupted by squirming. The kid was waking up, and he did NOT like finding himself in a blanket when he could walk by himself...at least for a little bit..

She had to smile at that, no matter how much she wanted to cry for her dead family. This one had life in him, and he was not gonna let someone carry him around when he could walk himself. Even in the snow, which he was staring up at now in interest. One of her aunts had said the boy had a gift of understanding from birth, even though he had yet to talk..pretty late with that..seeing him stare up at the snow like that, and look at her soberly, she think she understood what she had meant..

"Not far now buddy..but I don't think you'll be walking there with me just yet.."

A muffled, heavy stomping interrupted her. She picked up the boy and covered his back with the blanket. She started to walk again, with a decidedly quicker pace. The boy, surprisingly, did not squirm and fuss.. He seemed to understand the need for quiet and speed. Nekane hardly notices his consideration though. She was holding him almost like one her age would a big teddy bear.

_They can't have followed me, they can't have....they would not care about two escaping villagers, about a girl and a baby...that kind of thing is not enough fun for them to match the trouble.._

Oh but how wrong she was...the baby and she were their main target, it was the rest of the villagers that was for fun...

Eventually Nekane could hear her pursuer's heavy breathing, and she could, if she looked back, see the large shadow of his form.

This was not good...not good at all...

When she saw a couple cottages, she gave silent thanks, especially since the pursuer seemed to have disappeared from behind her.

Imagine her surprise when he appeared in front of her.

"Nice day for a night time stroll no? Good exercise...hehe.."

Nekane meant to say something sharp and biting back at him, but her tongue was caught. She took a step back.

"What's the matter..cat got your tongue?"

It was that over-used and beyond corny line that unstuck her tongue. Yet she only managed to come back with a squeak and a weak one at that.

"Are you the cat?"

The creature smiled.

"Ahh, finally a sense of humor on this one! How would you like to see my claws ehh? I sharpen them twice a day!"

He extended his "hand" in order for her to see the wicked blackish claws he had.

"Nice, no?"

Nekane saw someone step out of their cottage, thank god it was a magic user, he had his wand out and looked like hell was on his heels. She only needed to stall...

"Er..very nice..."

"Haha..shine like a gem they do...they are my gems for ripping and tearing and crushing and mashing...yaddah yaddah. Anyway. You have a baby there. You know who that kid is?"

"..."

"He's my target! Now, I'm not a bad guy...I'll let you go if you give me the kiddie...just my boss wants the kiddie you see? I think he's picked up a maternal instinct..yah know? Ha..ha! "

Nekane saw the man was almost here, and he was muttering under his breath. She only had to deal with this demons breath, which was putrid, and his comments, which were, if possible, even more so, for a little bit longer...but it seemed that the demon was smarted than he looked.

"Give it, or I kill you too, I know you're part of the family..I was told to slaughter the whole damn tree."

She took another step back and pulled out her wand.

"Oh ho ho...a kiddie wand! Lookie it has a heart..aww...cute. Too bad I have to crush it...but first, I'll make you a..GARDEN STATUE!"

It was as if his whole body had been hooked up to an electrical current and someone flipped the switch. He lit up with symbols all over as something that looked like a third eye opened up.

"Here we go. Good bye!"

At that exact moment, three things happened. One, Nekane froze and her grip on Negi loosened. Two, A spell hit the demon in the back, launching him forward and making him misfire, only heading to hit Nekane on the legs now. Meanwhile, the boy, in her arm, had spun around in the loosened grip and said his first word after so long, and perhaps the most useful first word a person can say at this time. That word was Deflexio.. It did not quite work out well though, as the little boy had never been taught how to do magic or even held a wand. It did however, somehow work...but not completely. It deflected some of it, and a small portion hit Nekane on the feet, sending her sprawling. The rest headed right back at a surprised demon, who only had time to say :

"What?! Thats impossibl-"

Poor fool. Now he makes a good greeting staue for those who visit the village...

Nekane though, was hit, and was ever so slowly turning to stone ground up. The stone was not of very good quality either..it was cracking as it was coming up..The mysterious man came up, looked at Nekane and saw her condition and grimaced...

"Damnit..hold on, I'll get a healer...Hope I'm fast enough for it..."

He took off as fast as his legs would take him.

He was not fast enough....

+---+

"Now, can someone tell me, if you double the radius of this circle, does the distance around it also double?"

The entire class remained silent.

"Oh come on…I know it's 8:00 in the morning, but you should be able to at least give me an answer. How many of you college MA 114 students say yes? I see one hand..two hands. Well guess what, two out of twenty eight are correct. Pay attention more.."

The professor turned back to the board and then spun back around.

"Someone tell me quickly, what's three divided by a half?"

"1.5"

"Uhh.."

"Six."

The professor looked up at that answer.

"Who said six?!"

"I did."

"Thank god, you're not all dunces. Six people, six!!"

+---+

"He'll never make it. Not as a professor of those students he won't…"

"It's why we still need you."

"Can't I'm resigning, and I'm not even really a professor here. I only tutor part time as a hobby."

"Damn Japs get everything good, including people."

"Don't damn them, It's not like I'm going to go live there for good."

"You stay flipping British when you're over there then, give um hell."

"I'm not going to give old acquaintances and my student's hell Professor Carmant."

"Still give um bloody hell. I don't care."

The addressee looked up, and up…and up…until his eyes met Professor Carmant, who stood an impressive five foot eight when compared to him.

"Have it your way then…"

+---+

An airport is a huge, confusing and noisy place…and like many huge, confusing and noisy things, small, sensible and quiet things normally get lost in the fray of the former. Such was the case now, and Negi only could roll his eyes at his "guide's" confusion.

"Gate thirty five is that way."

"Oh shut your pie. I've been here a million times, I know where I'm going.."

"Then why does it say food court instead of bag check?"

The woman blushed a deep blood red.

"Shut your pie little boy!"

Negi could only shake his head and sigh.

"Do you need to be here?"

'No, I don't, I'm only doing this as a favor to your acquaintances."

Negi smiled then.

"Then do me a favor."

She narrowed her eyes and looked down at him, that smile was a bit creepy…

"What?"

"Give me the map, leave, and call your contact telling them you completed your task. I'll confirm it for them when I get where I'm going. Just get out of my way, because last time I checked, restrooms are not metal detectors and x-rays."


	2. Prologue Part ii

I left you all with something to chew on. But I neglected to close my chapter! Ahh, but it is but one part of a prologue my friends, there is more, if you want it. I seem to have a better shot now, college does, indeed, allow someone free time to type, much more so than home. Anyway...I must continue, the story is, as always, knocking on the back of my eyes, praying for release...I shall provide it with the proper vessel for it, I will not deny it!

I do not, in any way, own Negima or any of its affiliates.

+---+

Prologue 2 : Wait..why are you all alone?

After the woman had left in a huff, Negi only glanced at the map for two seconds and he had it in his head, not memorized, but an accurate mental picture placed there. He looked up from the piece of paper and slowly turned around, analyzing each detail around him and imagining how it would look from an aerial view. He then compared that resulting image to his mental image, and located where he was..then, in a way, cut and paste his current position aerial image on top of the map sketch. Now continuing to hold the single image, he had his eyes closed as he examined it for the place he needed to be....

"Gotcha."

Negi set off in a brisk walk, his luggage back rolling along, bumping and skittering in an attempt to keep up with the hand pulling it.

Don't we all wish we could be a space analyzing genius like that?

+---+

It took Negi a mere ten minutes sprint to get to the place he needed to be. What ate at him was how short the line was.

Ehh you say? He was worried about how short it was?

Simply put, if the line is short, you are either very early, very lucky, or quite late.

Negi did not think he was lucky and he knew he was not early, which meant he was most likely late and if he did not hurry, he would miss his flight. If only he had not been so determined to avoid rudeness earlier and told of the woman sooner..but, no time to simmer now. Negi was next, and he simply put his backpack on the belt, opened it up and took out a laptop, and placed his suitcase and rolling luggage bag next to them. He then waltzed through the metal detector, flashing his identification, and picking up his luggage, sped off to where he could get his plane before it left.

A high pitched and quick tempo beep crushed his hopes of that. He had forgotten to mask the thing!

"Okay kid...I was kinda surprised, you coming in here alone like that, showing now I see I was right, something's up. You got anything on yah you shouldn't have?"

_If one gun, one staff-sword, five ninja stars and throwing darts, a short sword and two small daggers is something I should not have...then yes. If not, then no._

"Im a martial arts student." Negi said, unhelpfully.

"Put whatever you got in here." He pulled out a plastic netted basket. Negi looked down at it.

_Sure, but it's not all gonna fit._

Negi started by reaching into his backpack, which had passed the scanner test, and surprised the guard by pulling out a long, golden object with a huge, heart shaped gem and metallic wings attacked to one end. It was wrapped in bandages, but Negi had unwrapped them earlier and forgot to put back the wrappings. He grabbed the heart end, between the wings and the bottom of the heart, where there was a grip. He twisted it slightly and pulled, revealing a rapier inside the golden tube that had been attached. He lay both pieces in the basket like a mother would their child to sleep.

"How the heck did that thing not show up on the bag scanner..?!"

"Don't ask me." Negi simply replied, although he already knew why.

He then simply and ceremoniously placed his daggers, knives, stars, gun and short sword in the basket. It did not, as Negi thought it would not, all fit.

It was at that time that Negi looked up to see the guard was frozen perfectly still. Negi looked around at the empty gate, and then looked closely at the guard to see a thin film of ice completely covered him.

"Well good lord, that certainly took a lot longer than it should have. Geeze."

Taking back his weapons and stuffing them back where they belonged quickly, being careful with "Heartbreaker" his winged staff, he simply walked through the gate and ignored the beeping. He picked up his luggage, aimed a pleasant and false memory at the guard via an unincanted memory modification spell, and simply walked, or should I say ran, off. allowing the ice to melt and crack quickly behind him...he would only be as damp as a good workout would make him...

+---+

"Peanuts?"

Negi looked up from his laptop to smile at the attendant.

"No thanks."

She looked at the empty seat next to him.

"Where's your Mom and Dad?"

She asked this question automatically, as it was a simple way to get a kid to talk. She did not expect the simple, logical response she received though.

"Mom took a different plane, Dad's in the bathroom. I'm not supposed to talk to you, not because you're a stranger, but because It's not right to keep you from your job. Sorry."

She looked at him a little surprised, but she moved on. No peanuts for that one then...

Negi went back to his typing, undaunted by the fact he had just manufactured false parents and placed them in false positions upon a real map. It was simple, everyday business. He knew people would ask questions about a six year old boy alone on a plane, and he knew that people excepted children as "innocent" and thus unable, for some reason, to lie effectively. He took advantage of this all the time. It was the way he went about his business without anyone bothering him...

The cursor flew across the screen as he typed....

+---+

(A few hours later)

+---+

*Pong* ATTENTION: We will be making a stop in Hong Kong for refueling and passenger departure, please return to your seats and have them in an upright position. Remember to replace your seatbelts and remain calm and seated during decent....

_After a million movies featuring that statement, you'd think they'd change it or rearrange it, or simply shorten it, but no, they continue going on and on and on...I hear that almost every single day....It drive me nuts...ohh..what's this?_

The attendant, currently off duty, saw the same boy from earlier still sitting by himself.

_Either his daddy's got bathroom problems, or there's something going on here...._

She was about to confront him when she was interrupted by a call for her to return to the staff area to strap in. She cast a glance at the boy.

_He better not be going to China, I wanna figure this out..._

She walked away back to her place for decent.

+---+

_I thought something was up...I've passed about twenty times, I have yet to see a man return to sit with him..Is he alone? Why? How? Who would leave a little kid like him on a plane by himself? True, he seems to be able to sit still and, by the speed at which he's typing there, he probably is smart for his age, but he still should not be alone on a plane...right?_

She approached him slowly..but once again, he surprised her.

"Back again mam?"

Negi looked up.

"Okay, so you asked me a question and I lied to you, but tell me how many times have you lied in your life, hmm?"

She stared at him. This was not the kind of confrontation she had expected...

"It's easier to simply tell people what they want to hear, and then they will leave you alone..that's the basis of most reasons for lying. From simple white lies like " Oh, I buy it for you next week" when you really plan to forget about the item as soon as you can, to more complicated ones like "Oh, my Mom's on another plane and my Dad is in the bathroom." When the truth is that I am alone and have never known either of my parents."

He said this quietly, and she, not having her brain in gear yet, did not process it, and simply walked away back the employees quarters…or maybe her brain was no in gear on purpose, not her purpose, but Negi's purpose, said Negi looking straight at the back of her head as if he could see through it to the brain within.

_I'm alone and have never known my parents._

Negi sighed. He'd have to modify her memories too. He looked back at his laptop and saw the monitor had gone to sleep. He stared at his reflection on a black, shiny screen.

_Who am I really? Who are those who brought me into this world and then were taken away from me? Why? What did they look like? Did one of them have this fire head that sticks out anywhere, or did their later relatives have it? Did one of them have this accursed gift of quick learning and ease of retaining information, intelligence?_

*Pong* ATTENTION: We will be landing in Tokyo in approximately two hours. The time there should be about 5 AM, September 30th.

_Great, I'm going to teach a bunch of students English and I've gotten myself into a slump I'm not likely to get out of before class. Not good._

+---+

The prologue continues. It's so long…and kinda sketchy, yes I know, the first and this is sketchy, simply because this is not the story yet, it's still the prologue. Hang on there, the story will come soon, but next is part three of the prologue…maybe I can squeeze the first chapter in too..who knows?


	3. The Onion has Landed, Chap 1 Prologue 3

You know, this might actually be something good for my writing, being busy in college..It actually allows me to type my stories as I do my reports. Interesting development. Anyway, this will most likely be the last part of the prologue and chapter three all together in one piece, so watch out. I'm back...and with a better plan than ever...never mind if no one has not reviewed yet..I'm not into the story yet, so I expect that.

I do not, in any way shape or form, own Negima.

+---+

Prologue part three: At last, the land of the setting sun...wait..what?

*Attention all passengers, please return to your seats, we are approaching our destination, and will land very shortly..*

Negi reached up and grabbed his seat belt, strapping himself in without even letting his eyes stray from his computer screen. He was reading a fan fiction on a book he had recently read, Ender's Game. The writer had good ideas, but he displayed them horribly....

Negi inwardly sighed as an orange light popped up on the side of his laptop.

_Battery is low. Figures. No time to recharge it anyway..._

He put the laptop to shut down and closed its cover. He then simply popped it into his bag and sat back with a bored look on his face. He allowed a thin object to slide down his sleeve and for its head to come to a rest in his left hand. He fingered the star shaped object wordlessly, keeping it out of sight. This was what Negi had used to freeze the guard, and muddle the mind of the flight attendant. Over the years of his training, Negi had become quite skilled in unincanted magic...made him think back to when he had first learned it...

Negi leaned back, closed his eyes, and let the memories roll. Nothing else to do....

+---+

The cold, damp air penetrated deep into Negi's robes, whipping them in a wayward dance about his ankles as he read by wand light. He was sitting cross legged on the floor, the book open in his lap, back bent over it to read it's cryptic Greek text. He was far from engrossed though. He heard every breath of the person approaching, every little pause or gasp they made. He even measured their footsteps as they came up almost to his row in the forbidden library.

It was obviously a first year, and they, she most likely, was scared out of her wits and seriously regretting sneaking in here.

It was a bet all first years seemed to make. Who could sneak into the forbidden library and learn a forbidden spell by tomorrow. It was always one person who was forced into the place by peer pressure, and they always got caught...for the rest of their school lives here, they would be watched.

Negi was an exception. When he first came to this school, he had begged to go in, and he had won the right. Unlike the others though, he was never caught. He learned a spell and came back that night..Now he was a regular visitor. It had taken him only a month to exhaust all the books in the first year's library, so he had kept going to the forbidden one. Now he was a senior...he would graduate this year, so he was trying to get as much of what this vast area had to offer in his head as possible. He knew much...but could he use it? Heck no. He still knew it though, in hopes he would master it one day. Spells of such complexity, they made his head spin, ones so wicked, their very pages seemed to shiver as he read them...

The girl entered his row and froze. He slowly turned his head and analyzed her.

She was about the same age as he was, maybe slightly older. The normal model for a first year. Long red hair framed her face, which held brown eyes that looked innocent, but, for one who looked closely, held a bright fire. She was thin, and looked like a cornered mouse teetering on the edge of playing dead. When he first opened his mouth, she flinched.

"I was wondering when you'd get to this section. You know anyone with a decent set of ears can hear you coming from about twenty feet away?"

She took a step back and swallowed.

"W-what's it to y-you?"

Negi shook his head and suppressed some odd, random laughter that would only serve to put the girl further on edge and make him look like an...Well, an ass.

"I'm only telling you so you you'll be more careful, you know what happens if you get caught?"\

"I turn into something like you?"

"Yo-wait..what?"

"You look like a first year, but I'm the only one that went in here..I know that..are you the..GHOST OF ONE?!"

Negi stood up quickly and held his finger to his lips.

"Shush your mouth! You want to get caught? I'm not a ghost for heaven's sake. I'm a senior!"

That drew a surprised look from her. In fact, it drew a smile too, one that she had to slap a hand over her mouth before it turned into a fully fledged case of the giggles.

"What, what may I ask, is so flipping funny?"

"Why are you so...weensy?"

Negi's face instantly fell, the change was so dramatic, and the girl stopped laughing.

"That is not a word you know...why am I so tiny? I'm the same age as you! I just started really early, and skipped a couple of grades, ehh?"

She was about to answer, but footsteps could be heard, and these were sure, quick ones, with a long stride....

"Shit. Get over here..."

"What?"

"Oh keehaul it all...."

Negi stuffed the book he had been holding back in its proper place, extinguished the light on his wand and walked over to where she was, pushing her unto one side of the hallway, right up to the bookcase.

"Hey-"

Negi put his right hand straight over her mouth and spoke quietly and frankly.

"Shut it."

He turned around and held up his wand. The footsteps sounded too close to allow him to mutter a spell, sound carried incredibly on the damp, cool air. There was nowhere to hide either. The girl was struggling too...only one thing to do. He had to do it sooner or later...He closed his eyes and recited the spell for making something invisible, the target being himself and the girl, about ten times. Images of himself being brought to the principal, having got explain his reason for being there, having all of his grades scrapped under the pretense he could have cheated on his tests, having to start all over if they let him do so at all.....He then heard the steps reach the area they were in.

Out of time.

He opened his eyes to at least give a smiling send off in hopes of startling the adult so he could run, but then he realized that the man was looking right at him.

No, not at him..._through _him.

_Wait a second..I felt no drain...I'm targeting her and myself, normally targeting people is the hardest, yourself even more so, plus the fact multiple objects are being targeted..I should have felt a drain...but...It worked? How can it have worked?_

Negi cast a glance at the girl, and his smile held, now for a different purpose. He let his hand slide off her mouth, but not before having his wand hand secured on her arm. He needed to maintain contact..He had no idea how well the spell was cast..He then quickly grabbed the same arm with his free hand so he could release his wand one and observe the intruder.

_I just casted my first unincanted spell...._

The "intruder" was Mister Harthrope, a regular patroller of the library..In fact, he was its keeper, although Negi was pretty sure he knew more about the place than Harthrope would even dream of it. The man had a quick, long stride that was signature in the hallways, but on a carpeted floor, fell to near silence unless he broke into the swift run he was capable of. Negi knew the man well enough to know that if he had been able to hear Harthrope coming, he had heard _them_, and was probably going to check every nook and cranny of this and the next three rows on each side. One of the heartbreaking things was that this man was an expert in nullifying spells, and was one who could well detect deception or subterfuge.

Perhaps the worst person who could step into the row saves the principal himself.

Negi made a motion to the girl to move in the opposite direction of the man _slowly_.

She nodded and took a step backwards..Then made a sound halfway between that of a dying mouse and an angry bird as she tripped over her robes. Negi managed to keep her upright, but Harthope's head snapped to the direction of where the sound was. Negi thanked whatever luck he had that it was darker than usual this night as it was in the new moon phase...the forbidden part of the library was near pitch black, and Harthrope would have a hard time trying to see an invisibility spell, even with his sharp, experienced eyes. Nevertheless, he took a step in their direction.

"What have we here a rodent infestation or a person trying to hide?"

That statement gave Negi an idea. He had done it once this night...maybe his luck would hold out? Yet..Holding two spells at once was difficult enough, holding one that had been done unincanted on a large target (two people) and trying to cast another unincanted spell, one that was complex...that was kinda pushing his luck...but what choice did he have? If he was caught, he was dead.

His mind raced to assemble the words needed to activate the spell while the man peered into the darkness. A small thought wondered what deity was keeping Harthrope from reaching for his wand for light. Harthrope answered his question though.

"Blasted...flipping wand's in my other robes no doubt. Darker than Satin's heart in here..."

As the man rummaged and peered, Negi heard another squeak. His head shot to look at the girl, but she had her mouth covered. He looked down. Harthrope looked up again, and stared at the place on the opposite side from Negi in the row.

_The heck, again? What am I...hooked up to a generator today? This is supposed to drain me.... _

As ordered, there was an apparated mouse on the opposite bookshelf from Negi, looking as real as anything and blinking its shiny black eyes. Its teeth were a little to white though..and it was a bit big...more like a rat...

All the more visible. Harthrope narrowed his eyes and spotted it when it uttered another sound, this time closer to him.

"Pah, what have we here? Rodent, eating my books I daresay! Come here! No....hey! Ouch! That hurts you little rascal!"

Like the obsessed being he was, Harthrope began trying to perform the impossible task of capturing a mouse in the pitch black of night with just his hands and bare eyes. He saw it run out of the row and, being who he was, gave chase. Negi felt something shaking his arm slightly and when he turned around, saw the girl still had her hand to her mouth, but it was suppressing giggles now.

Bubbly little thing...

+----+

Negi was startled awake by a familiar bell-like tone normally heard on an aircraft, the seatbelt light going off. He was here…The next few minutes were spent in brief orientation of procedure, collection of personal bags/things and finally, the walk out. Negi placed himself somewhere in the middle of the crowd leaving to minimize how much he stuck out. Particularly, he stuck by a family of convenient redheads, making it seem as if they now, suddenly, had four kids instead of three with one, perhaps coming. It did not, however, fool the attendant who he had run into earlier, He walked by her just as she was about to say something, and down slid the wand into his palm to actuate the words in his mind. As her mouth closed and she looked at the sudden sea of red in front of her, confusion written on her face, Negi only thought one thing before passing by with his cover "family"

_No thank you miss, I didn't come this far to attract attention and sympathy from you and yours._

+---+

Bags take a heck of a long time to come down the conveyor, don't they? Where in bloody hell was his luggage? The poor boy could only try and stand on tiptoe to try and see if his bag was somewhere deeper on the line. The family that had been his cover had long gone with _their_ luggage..

_Why did they make this blasted thing so high up? It __**has**__ to be here by now, and has probably been circulating away somewhere where I will never see it until about two or four years have passed and I grow enough. I thought Japan was a technology leader, they shouldn't need such a large stand for their conveyor...even England's is lower than this! Or maybe they just did not consider someone short trying to get something on here? Whatever happened to midget awareness? I'm a midget and I want to be in some engineers mind when they design something like this! Blast it!_

Negi thought he saw his bag, but, it was, just as his infernal luck might have it, right at the opposite side of the belt, where an adult could easily bend down and reach, but where Negi had no chance.

Negi pushed his glasses up until they rested on his forehead and sunk down, leaning on the circulating stand. He put his hand across his eyes and groaned.

"Good grief."

As luck would have it, a security guard had been watching him for some time. The man decided enough was enough and headed over to the downed boy.

(Japanese is translated to English for simple sanity's sake..)

"Need some help there kid?"

Negi looked up. His first thought was to bluntly and blandly say the famous: "What do you think?" Courtesy stopped him though. Maybe it was too much tea all the time.

"Uhh..well, yes sir..I can't…Well….I can't reach my bags…"

The man looked down at him for a split second.

"Okay, which one is it?"

I have three, One is a brown hiking bag. It has a green sleeping bag rolled up and latched down at the top, and several pouches attached to its left side. Do you see that one?

"No..no…wait..Is it a big one? With a bunch of bandages sticking out of a side pocket?"

"How'd those get out? Yes. That's it…ahh, yes, that's it.."

"This thing's almost as big as you kid…speaking of which you don't sound like the average kid to me..and this things heavy!"

Negi gave a small smile and took the bag easily from the man. He took off his shoulder mail carrier and put on the backpack before answering the man and replacing the mail carrier bag.

"I'm not your average "kid" I'm a professor who happens to be…quite short and youthful looking. Some become giants, others are dwarfs. I'm a dwarf…I think I see my other bag…"

"You mean a green mail carrier like the one you've got on?"

"No, a big rolling luggage one, it's dark brown, It has a bunch of black ink stains on its outside due to a former colleagues pen fiasco about a week ago.."

"This?...God..this thing is heavy to..what are you, carrying bodies in here?!"

"Books, materials, research papers, personal belongings…I am moving here to Japan form England, so I need to carry a lot of stuff..this feels lighter than it should..is there something loose floating around on the belt there?"

"Yeah..Some books that say..aww dang, it's in English…I'm not good with it..those words look long."

"If they are thick and leather cloth bound, they are most likely mine…. Readings in Anthropology : A study of the art and practice and Advanced dc/ac Circuit Analysis : Building, Relaying and Constructing on the processor level."

"Whatever that mumbo jumbo you just let loose, here they are."

Negi allowed that small smile to replay upon his lips for another few seconds.

"Yep, these are mine..One last one and I'm out of your hair. A black suitcase with gold colored lock fastenings. It's a metal one with a leather lining..That is the most important of all..It has my documents…"

"Wait..it's all the way over…there we go..this one?"

He sighed and nodded. Thank god. He took it from the man and thanked him. He then reached into one of his pouches on the bag and pulled out…oddly a bento.

"I'm a bit late for this, so my hunger vanished on me. Would you like it? It might be a bit cold though…"

The guard looked at him strangely.

"Uhh..no thanks..thank you anyway.."

Negi shrugged and placed it back where it belonged. He picked up the handle to his rolling luggage bag, and with mail carrier, suitcase and backpack in tow, walked off. The guard shook his head.

"Speaks the language like a pro, but he's still obviously a foreigner. Doesn't he know it's not proper to hand another person a bento like that? Especially one of the same gender..Englishmen…"

+---+

Finally, the prologue is finished! Now, the chapter, the first one…

+---+

Did I mention that I don't own Negima?

+---+

Chapter One: The Onion has landed.

"That was not funny Konoka-san..not..funny.."

"Oh come on, you're just to gullible..You'll believe anything once it comes to Takahata-sensei."

Asuna shook her head as she tried to keep up with her roller-skating roommate. That still didn't make what she had done to her recently..twice…right or nice. First the fish costume and then the newspaper. What kind of friend did that to a girl? Ehh?

"Asuuuna-san…keep up! Were gonna be late if you don't hurry! Takahata-sensei won't like that! It's the first day back for this semester.."

"I'm coming! I'm..huh?"

She saw something slide past her and into her frontal view, it was a kid..

He was running at a speed faster than her on his short legs, and he was at pace with Konoka, pushing for the lead. He was heavily loaded too, with bags of all kinds and a luggage roller practically abandoning its wheels in exchange for wings with the speed it was going along to keep up. He had a similar hair color to hers, if a bit darker, which was something you did not see everyday..how many red heads in Japan were there after all? The thing that caught her attention though was not his appearance or his speed, but where he was _going._ By now, if you were going this way, there was only one place you would wind up. Mahora Middle School for girls. Something this little kid was obviously not. He was not a middle-schooler and he was definitely not a girl…She sped up to try and catch up with Konoka, pushing in between the two of them, Konoka had only just noticed him running along about two feet from her.

"Ohh lookie, isn't he cute?"

"Where is your brain Konoka?"

Konoka looked at Asuna oddly, then as if she came from Mars.

"Asuna, I did not think you were that dumb. It's in the head silly… Where's yours?"

Asuna, tired of the jibing, decided to bite a bit.

"As far as I can tell, your brain isn't in your head, it's so far in my business it might as well be in the toilet. Cute my behind! He's a kid, and a boy, and he's headed _toward our school_.

Konoka did not answer at first, only gave her that weird look again…then it dawned on her. She took it as a joke though, and claimed lightly:

'Oh. I guess I'm stupid today."

Asuna looked over and discovered the boy had managed to pull ahead a bit.

_How the heck can he do that on such short legs..?_

She had an advantage though, and she used it to pull in front of him and step right in his path. He impressed her by being able to stop on a dime right about a foot away from her. He looked up and then quirked an eyebrow.

"Hello. Is something the matter?"

Was something the matter? Oh boy…this one did not know what was left from right did he? Konoka jumped in before Asuna had a chance to ream him though.

"Hello there…are you lost?"

Negi looked up at her. She contrasted the other one. The red-head radiated a kind of frustration and anger, angust and a kind of unrequited love/dense aura. Almost the classic female figure for a romantic/drama comedy routine he realized. This one was more…lighthearted. A poltergeist in angels clothing who has a low level of personal defense against hurt but a high empathy rating. This was going to be a good cop bad cop thing, wasn't it? He didn't have time for this…

"No, not as far as I know…I'm headed for Mahora."

"Mahora Elementary is the next stop on the bus that goes here. The boys division of pre-k is one after that."

Konoka once again reasserted herself into the conversation.

"What she means is that maybe you got off on the wrong stop. This is Mahora, but it's not an elementary school or even an integrated one..It's all girls…"

Negi looked at her a second than slapped his forehead.

"Oh great. That's why my class has so many girls in it…"

Konoka blinked, then smiled.

"Ahh, no, this is an ALL girls school, there are no-"

Negi looked up and opened his suitcase.

"Surely the teachers are not all female..Do you happen to know a..ahh, what would you call him..Oh, you would call him Takahata-sensei, wouldn't you?"

Asuna's head snapped around.

"What would you want with Takahata-sensei, and what are you talking about, you're not a teacher…"

Negi smiled then. He had it now. He could go now.

"Ahh, but that is where you are-"

"Ahh..Negi-kun!"

All three individuals looked up, but for different reasons. Konoka looked up wondering why Takahata-sensei would call an onion his friend, and so loudly so that one could her out the window, Asuna looked up simply because she had a radar for Takahata's voice, and for the fact to make a mental note of, perhaps his affinity with onions? Negi however, looked up because he heard his name.

"Takamitchi!"

Asuna turned around and saw the kid was waving to Takahata.

Wait…what?

"Negi-kun..you're almost late. That never happened before, did something happen when I left Wales?"

"No Takamitchi-sensei...these two happened to me today, coming in my way, they thought I was lost."

Negi pointed to Asuna and Konoka. Asuna stared at the finger and then at the boy. This boy, somehow knowing Takahata-sensei enough to call him without honorific?! Not only that, but what was up with his Japanese? He didn't talk like a kid…

"I'll be up to meet with the dean in a minute Takamitchi-sensei. You can get some rest now, right?"

"No, I still have classes to teach, but this will make it easier on me, especially since I have a co-worker I know I don't have to get used to."

Takahata disappeared from the window and Negi turned around to the two and bowed.

"Good bye for now."

+---+

I want to put more there, and it's a terrible place to end it, but I must, time is against me and my efforts! Pah! The prologue was longer than it should have been! Gah! I'll get you…Next time! Better shot next time, must be, or I'm not gonna be happy…


	4. Chapter II: Since when were onions

Well, looking at this document makes me feel like an idiot. It also makes me think life quick unfair, as always. I had, as this document shows, started writing on the first of October, hoping to meet my deadline of the seventh with ease, but unfortunately…some rough events took place. To make a long story short, I had a surgery that took a turn for the worse and lasted far longer than it should have…and the healing process has been...slow. I have only just come back today, on the thirteenth as I type, to school. I am keeping all of my original text typed here though, for..my own records if nothing else….

I gave myself until October 7th right? Well, this is text is being typed on October 1st, so I know I at least have a bit of a start on it...As for that last..joke of a "chapter" this time I have no prologue bogging me down...well, here we go.

I don't own Negima. For my name is not that of Funimation or Ken Amatsu or any other party that has a share in Negima's rights. Don't come after me please. If you do, the only thing I can give you is a banana peel. Only because they are all over the streets near the grocery store though, so you might as well get a couple hundred yourself if you want them and leave me alone.

+---+

Chapter 2 : Since when have onions become a major part of school curriculum?

Negi looked around the circular office and felt like he was in a private audience with the Devil. This place had all the right elements for it after all.... Deep red colors, a large desk He could literally not see the top of, heavy drapes the restricted light to feeble rays, and a large arm chair in which a shadowy figure sat down, hands folded. Negi did not particularly like the setting, especially when the man in front of him wanted to put him in such an..unfavorable spot to live...

"Do you understand why I am placing you within the dorms now?"

Negi tried to see the man's face, but of course, with the sun in the way and the darkness of the room, it was impossible. His height also further compounded the issue. Oh how he wished he could fly...

"I understand perfectly sir, but I still don't like it. I understand your enemies might try to use your granddaughter as a bargaining chip against you and your son, but I still don't understand how I have to keep Magic such a secret from her, seeing as both you and your son are magic users, she must obviously be one, especially if you claim to have several guards on her already. Why try to protect her power from herself so diligently? If an attack upon your family does take place, she could defend herself, or be able to at least escape. An individual who has magic but does not use it simply becomes a tool for others to use, drawing upon her energy. You make her more vulnerable not revealing this secret to her."

The Dean's head rose up slowly from where it had been resting on his knuckles. Negi could not see it, but two very sharp, dark eyes were examining him very carefully. The boy spoke sense for what he knew, but, as he did not know the entire situation, his words were meaningless

"My methods on raising my granddaughter are of no concern to you, Professor Springfield. I have my reasons for what I do, and you should not speak upon a subject you know little about..."

Negi fell silent then. No use in arguing with that. He would just lose. He simply nodded.

"I have called my granddaughter up here to discuss this. Although, I have neglected to tell her why I called her up here...I suppose I will earn one of her favorite methods of discipline on my head for that..."

Negi made no comment on that, although he did allow himself to think on what kind of discipline a granddaughter could assert upon her grandfather, and how many times this man had received it. He also took in the slight note of worry in the Dean's voice. What kind of girl was his granddaughter anyway?

A click of the latch on the door behind Negi made him spin around, sending the pouches on is backpack clinking in an oddly musical way. He saw the two girls he had seen earlier come in. The red headed one looked very...well, pissed off about something. She even took the liberty of voicing it in the office.

"School Dean! Why did you retire Takahata-sensei from homeroom duties?!"

"Asuna-san!"

"What?"

"Don't talk to grandpa like that."

_Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy...I have to share a room where the owners are..these two? Lord above..take me now. I'll die before I reach seven years of age. One poltergeist and one demon, and apparently, she is really upset I replaced her homeroom teacher. I'm dead. I can't use magic in the regular public, and she can run just as fast as I can. I'm dead. I'll have to leave my luggage if I wanna run..just exit slowly Negi, slowly..._

Too late for that, for the Dean opened his mouth.

"I retired Takahata-sensei from your homeroom because we have a new teacher who will take over your classes..."special" case...I originally thought Takahata could tame you all, but he could not, although he was close. I had to bring in the next step..Springfield-Sensei.

_Crap. I'm a goner. Mother and Father above, whom I never have known, the child you left behind will be coming to you soon._

Negi turned looked at the two of them. He did not need to turn around to know the Dean was pointing at him. He gave a small bow. Courtesy of the English upbringing first Negi, later on you can toss around the language you learned from Americans who came to Oxford...

"We meet again...good morning."

Konoka looked surprised, and so did Asuna, the other girl..but only for a few seconds, then it turned to a rage Negi was expecting. She turned around to the Dean and Negi closed his eyes. Fireworks were about to fly, and he, personally, did not want to get arch eye.

"What the hell?! This is a joke right!?"

"Asuna.."

"Dean, you can't be serious!"

"Miss Kagurazaka, keep in mind I am your Dean, not a random stranger who has just bumped into you and swiped your wallet on a subway Mister Springfield will be rooming with you so please be aware..."

Asuna paused at that. She looked at the Dean, then at Negi, back at the Dean, then back at Negi."

"You have got to be..joking...FLI-"

Negi finally got her name down, one from the Dean and one from his granddaughter, so he asserted that knowledge now to stop her from yelling, for the little he had so far heard told him it would probably wake up any dead in the area.

"Miss Kagurazaka Asuna, please if you value your enrollment in this school, be quiet!"

Asuna stopped then. That was a voice she was not used to, but it had such force and emphasis even if it was barely above a whisper. It took her a few moments to attach it to the red-haired boy off to her right near the Dean's desk. She stared at him. For some reason, she simply had no retort to throw at him. It was like Takahata-sensei in a way. A simple, soft spoken sentence that carried the force to completely halt her in the highest tirade. Only this guy, instead of simply breaking her tirade and rendering her calm, completely silenced her. The heck was this guy?

Konoemon raised an eyebrow.

"Thank you Miister Springfield, I think you see why we need you around..."

Negi still did not turn around to face him. He did however, answer him.

"Anyone can talk in a calm voice Headmaster Dean, Anyone can put force into their voice too. You don't need me for that. Just remember one thing Headmaster, I left a good little college to come here. Sure, it was not big and famous, but it was good, a place where people actually listened to your problems and helped you, one where the community was rich and diverse, a place where I had a well established place and respect. All to take this test of yours. To answer your call. Remember that please and don't try to meddle in my methods of operation, my MO. I have proof they work, and work like a charm."

Negi reached into his bag and pulled out his staff, all bandaged up and neatly tied off on the top. He then turned to the Dean, bowed and walked to the door He turned back though, a puzzled look on his face.

"You mentioned an assistant for the first few days, did you not? Where is she? Wasn't she supposed to meet us here?"

The Dean had a little "sweat drop" moment there, for Negi was picking out on areas of his staff, trying to find faults, he rushed to make an excuse for the woman.

"She was, but she had an emergency, she is our Nurse and Councilor, so these things happen..."

"Ahh, well, you could have at least told me that earlier, it would have spared me the thought of wondering where she was, bad play Dean, bad play.."

He turned around and used the staff to push up the latch, for he was a bit to short for it, and nearly ran into a woman who had been nearing the door at a sprint. Negi flattened himself against the door as she ran past and stopped short a bit awkwardly on heels, blue hair settling a bit askew.

"Ahh, Dean, I'm sorry I'm late, I lost track of-"

"Apparently there was no..emergency then Master Dean, fair enough. I don't mind if your staff makes mistakes sir. People are people, and we are bound to make errors. Lying however, is something I do mind, coming from you."

The woman turned around, looked around, then down. Negi hated when people did that. It told him they never really took the time to listen, only hear. If they listened instead of just heard, they instantly would have know that the voice came from down, and not eye level. He nonetheless walked closer and extended his hand so she would not had to bend…well… at least, not that much.

"Hello Madam. I assume you are the guidance councilor? I am Professor Springfield, the new English teacher here..I presume you have already been informed of your task to .."observe" me and my adjustment into this setting?"

Shizuna looked surprised, but she easily abandoned his method of showing courtesy to her, and showed courtesy to him but squatting down to his level. This surprised him, and he made a mental tally for her tact as she excepted the hand. Classic for a Guidance councilor. The studies of how to put another off guard and at ease, bringing yourself to their plain of thoughts and make them fell..welcome was always the first step...

"Hello Professor, I'm Shizuna-sensei, and yes, he did tell me. I look forward to working with you..Is it true what they say about Oxford?"

"They say a lot of things about Oxford, but no, the floors are not made of gold if that's what you mean. The faculty also will most likely think of you as a number and not a person unless you assert yourself extremely. After all, you are trying to compete with geniuses. I prefer the settings of a small college, even if it does not have all of the state of the art equipment."

"Oh really? Why is that?"

"Friendlier and more down to earth. Oxford is where you speak, as the Americans would call it "French" Community ones are where your speak French only in French class."

Negi looked at his watch and widened his eyes.

"Just enough time to get a _short_ orientation if I hurry…"

Shizuna stood up, and walked to the door.

"Sorry, I forgot you have somewhere to go, I'll show you where the staff room if, your desk and class information is there.."

He followed her out the door.

+---+

That was bad…I need something better. This written now on the thirteenth…

+---+

"The new teacher is late..."

"No he's not; he's just not early like Takahata-sensei normally is."

The class sat in silence…well, about as relatively silent as they got anyway..and as seated.

Okay, I give up, let me rephrase that.

Ayaka sat with her nose buried in a book, ignoring the chaos around her that she, as class president, should rightfully be trying to put a stop to. However, who, I ask, who in their right mind would try and stop this class from being anything _but_ chaotic? Not this girl, that was for sure. The only thing she cared about at the moment was the approaching climax in the novelette in her hands. Somewhere behind her and off to her left, the smell of a meat bun dish began to assert itself. Satsuki and Chao were at it again most likely, and they were probably carting Ku Fei behind them, their hamster in culinary research. A rumor of some old, fat samurai with a groping problem and a lisp being their new teacher flashed around the room. Not a pleasant vision, but one common to the inventive imaginations of this class. Ayaka heard an exasperated groan and then a decidedly more forceful typing. Chisame, the computer orientated one, was once again fed up with her class placement, and was taking it out on the internet, which was big enough to handle just about any ranting.

The door opening signaled a rare quiet.

"Here he comes…"

No one expected to see nothing walk through the door though.

"What the..is it a ghost?"

"No...aww crap, a little kids walked in and tripped the trap!"

It was true. A child in a deep mauve colored suit had walked in, sending a chalk saturated eraser soaring downwards toward his head. The child looked up just in time to send it flying against the window with a well placed chop, shaking most of its dust off by sheer force. It wasn't over yet though. He took a step and tripped a wire, which sent a bucket careening down on him, luckily empty, the bucket joined the eraser on the floor, because Negi did not want to pay for any broken windows. A couple rubber suction cupped arrows assaulted him though, and though he managed to fend off two, the third caught his nose and sent him sliding backwards into the desk, which, being ever so kind, sent a hail of office supplies, including a very unfortunate blow by a stapler, unto him. The class sat stunned a bit as the dust cleared... Literally…that eraser had been chock full of the stuff...

Takahata, who had been standing just behind Negi as he had walked in, just began to laugh as he came through the door after him…just…laughed. It was so typical...and Negi had done far better than expected with the surprise attack.

By now most of the class had already exited their seats to attack Negi with apologies.

"Ahh, we thought you were our new teacher!"

"Is he hurt anywhere?"

"His head's bleeding really badly!"

"No you nitwit, his hair is supposed to be red, can't you tell?"

"Is he dead?"

"Heck no! Can't you see he's moving around?"

"He's a zombie!"

"What?! A zombie? Where?"

"There!"

"That's a squirrel on the window sill you dolt!"

"Zombie squirrel!!!"

_Oh hell…what have I gotten myself into now?_

Takahata decided to assert himself now to end the chaos, even though he could not help but smile at the "Zombie Squirrel" claim. He took a shaky breath, trying not to let it out in a laugh as the class continued it's shenanigans. To think he dealt with this kind of class for years, and now he was passing the enjoyment on…well...he thought of them as an enjoyable class...everybody else ran the other way when they realized this was the class they had to teach…

"Sensei, where's our teacher?"

"Yeah, he's late!"

"The fat samurai's lazy as well as indecent!"

_Fat samurai? Where did that come from now?_

"Your teacher is already here. You already shot him with your arrow."

For all the effect it had when he said it, Takahata might as well have claimed to one third of the class that Armageddon was coming tomorrow.

"What?!"

"This little thing?"

"Wait, he's a shrimp, he can't be our teacher.."

"But he's so cute!"

"What does looks have to do with intelligence?"

"Well, all the teachers I know are older..and there not "cute"…."

"So?"

'Are you saying you believe Takahata-sensei?"

Yue, ever the level headed one, was the only one who decided to address Takahata directly. Looking up at the man, she could not help but feel he was enjoying himself, and that fueled her suspicion further that this was, indeed, a joke. Still, asking couldn't hurt, right?

"This is a joke right.."

Takahata looked down at Yue. Probably one of the most intelligent students in the school..her problem lay in the simple fact that she did not care about her school work or her grades. Classically put, she was the horse that was led to the water that is knowledge every day, but she just refused to drink, and he could not make her…or more efficiently put, she would drink, but, when it came to plowing the field, here labeled as showing her worth in work, she simply refused to try.

"Nope, no joke. He's really your teacher…"

Takahata felt something seem to claw at the back of his neck, and realized it was a stare. Someone with that rare talent to make one uncomfortable by staring at them, even from the back, was working their magic. It was pretty strong too, that feeling…he turned around and encountered a blue faced Negi, being squashed by his students, staring at Takahata with demon eyes.

_Now, I don't care what anyone says, suffocation by mammary gland has to be illegal. Takamitchi…pay attention already! Get them off me! I can't use magic here!_

Takahata only paused to think how that powerful, burning stare had belonged not only to his Mother, who could burn the back of your neck with her anger, but his father, who could torch your very soul if he met your eyes, but who had no effect upon a turned back. Negi had both skills it seemed, and Takahata's pause was a guilty one. He did not like to see those burning eyes on so young an individual…

"Alright, alright, break it up, your suffocating him. Come on…he's not a teddy bear. Hoii!"

+---+

_A few minutes later… _

"Are you sure you don't need me here Negi-kun..ahh, sorry, Springfield Sensei?"

"I am fine Takahata-sensei. I think I can manage now…"

Takahata shook his head, but he decided he'd just have to watch from a distance. He closed the door and pretended to walk down the hallway.

Negi stepped to the middle of the classroom and disappeared behind the desk, which made some students giggle a bit. The chair seemed to pull itself out the desk, and, just as Ayaka was about to get up out of her seat, the tiny teacher emerged on top of the chair. Chisame, having been aroused out of her "net idol" mode from pure class disruption, inwardly groaned. _This_ was their new teacher? She would have preferred the samurai. She did however at least try to give him the proper respect for the first class, and powered down her laptop.

"Good Morning. Now, currently, I am told your first two classes, Math and History, have been cancelled, your teachers are out and they have no substitute, so you are here. I am your Homeroom teacher, Negi Springfield.."

As he said it, he acquired a few odd looks, so he added the next line out of pure spite.

"Before you even start, Yes, I have a sense of humor, but no, I am not edible, except if you are a cannibal, on that case you must tell me so I can run. I do not want to hear any onion jokes. Say them in your head if need be, but if I catch them floating around, fire and ice on your head there will be. Now, that said..."

He got down off the chair and sat on his desk. Picking up a roll of tape and a meter stick, he quickly attached his chalk holder to the stick in a manner that showed everyone he was used to doing this sort of thing. As he worked, he spoke.

"Now, ordinarily, When a substitute is out, the homeroom teacher has to teach the subject. However, no one seems to know where this class is up to in Mathematics, so that leaves me in a kind of weird position, doesn't it?" So, for now, I'd just like to get some of your names down. I already have the class list.."

He held up the thin black planner Shizuna-sensei had just given to him.

"..but if any of you would like to introduce yourselves a bit more thoroughly, so I can recognize your face, faster, it would help. I don't like wasting time in the morning with attendance. I'll warn you with that now. For the first two or three days, I'll do it, but after that, don't expect it. I mark attendance after class when everyone is gone from memory. If you don't make yourself known, It's almost as if your not here anyway, and I don't count people who simply stay for the first ten minutes and then walk out so they can be marked "present" I record that too."

Chisame raised her eyebrows as the kid continued. He was actually making sense…but if he expected this class to absorb anything he was saying, he had another thing coming. Heck if even the first few words got past three fourths of the class...and yet, there was Ayaka, actually copying down what he was saying, what was she…nuts? He was being frank and conversational, there was no lecture here..She kinda felt sorry for him, so she decided..for once, to test him out and give him some material. She waited until he paused and stuck up her hand. He instantaneously saw it and pointed.

"Yes…Ahh..Chisame-san, is it?"

"Yes.." _That's impressive, without glancing at his book he's trying to recall my name._

"Well, you wanted to tell me a little bit about yourself? From what I managed to gather, your quite computer orientated. Is your interest more rendering or coding I was told you could do both well.."

_Once again, impressive. Researching students interests, and that extensively.. or is it just me? No, why would he just research me?"_

"Coding and html."

"So you work with CSS them, but what do you think of recent kernel technologies?"

_Oh..I thought I could get him with HTML, but no..he seems to be a computer person too. Wait..why am I excited about a little kid knowing computer lingo?_

"There an interesting development, but they don't leave much flexibility.."

"You mean hack-ability..yes, it is rigid, and is a problem arises, it is difficult to fix. I prefer the configuration codes and patch method myself…oh, another hand…question Miss…ahh, I know I can get the full name here…Setsuna Sakurazaki-san..did I say that correctly?

_Reg codes? He's that far into it? True that kernels exclude all outside interference for the rookie hacker and work by themselves, but for him to know that already places him on a fast track to respectability…he's a bit awkward in his placement though. Still, knowing computers does not make him a suitable homeroom teacher. He can't even reach the board without the meter stick._

"Yes, you did Sensei."

"Good...Japanese is still awkward for me. Anyway, you had a question?"

Yuna cut her off as she was about to speak.

"Wait, Japanese is not your first language? It's good! When did you learn it?"

Negi screwed up his mouth. "It's not nice to cut off other people Miss Yuna..I believe…but yes, English was my first. I started to learn Japanese about a month ago…I'm still working on it though."

"Wait..it took you only a month?!"

"How many languages do you know?"

"Where are you from?"

"How come you're our teacher, aren't you still a kid?

"How old are you anyway?"

"I still want to know why a zombie is our teacher.

"Enough with the zombies! He's not a zombie!"

"Why don't you blow his brains out and see if he gets up, if he does, then I'll believe you when you say he's a zombie."

"Who's got a gun?"

"Why do you want a gun?"

"Too shoot sensei with."

"Who gave you that idea!? Why?"

"To prove he's a zombie."

_This class…like a bunch of headless chickens running loose…or some very, very impressionable three year olds…anything that randomly appears captures their attention. _

"YO!"

Half the class turned their heads to see Negi was standing on his desk.

"Okay, I'm sorry to bring slang into the classroom, but I had to get control somehow. Now, Miss Sakurazaki, I believe you wanted to ask me something?

The school bell rang, signaling the end of the period. About two thirds of the class got up to pack, while the rest of them looked at the others as if they were stupid until the whole room remembered they were still here for another period..in fact, they would be here for two more periods..after History was English…Negi however, waved them off, his other hand covering his face.

"Free period. I don't particularly feel like diving into Historical studies at the moment. Your History teacher is very cryptic about where you all are, but I suspect it's somewhere right in the beginning of the book…if you leave the classroom, don't go too far, and come back before English starts."

Of course, the words free period made the _real_ chaos of the room start, but at least if wasn't directly focused on Negi anymore. He got off the desk and sat in the chair that his feet had vacated a couple minutes before. He put his head down upon the desk and sighed. He barely was able to bend over the thing… Now he knew what he was dealing with..question was could he deal with it?

He sure hoped he could. Although, normally first days were the calm ones…yet here his class was, already threatening to blow his head off with a gun to prove if he was a zombie or not. A girl approached him, one who, his head told him, was named Ku Fei.

"You did very well. For one in surprise, those traps barely got you!"

+----+

Oii. So, here we are, the second chapter completed. Good grief. I need to lie back down again..I still don't think I'm ready yet..but I'm at school, so I can't. Oh well.


	5. Chapter III: What don't you know?

In all honesty, I think I need to simply take the time to re-write my work entirely sometimes. It just seems a mess, or at best, a weak display of what I was aiming for. I'm rusty is the problem, or is it simple inability on my part? Ehh, no matter. I'll get it down. Now, for Chapter three to come...

+---+

As mentioned before, I do not own anything having to do with Negima.

+---+

Chapter Three: Soo...just what _don't_ you know?

+---+

Negi took a deep breath and shifted his mail carrier bag higher up on his thin shoulders. His luggage roller lay at his feet. His left hand was still poised to knock on the door, but his will had yet to gather the necessary power to actuate the action. He had received quite a multitude of mixed messages from his class during the free period he had given them, and, in the English period following it, he had discovered the very thing the Dean had told him to be heartbreakingly true...

With this class...he had his work cut out for him, and it was all daggers as far as the eye could see....

Negi sighed as his arm lowered once again to his side and his eyes strayed towards his bag. It was still early anyway, he'd go in later...He sat down near the door, wondering why the heck it took so much of his will power to knock on the dorm room door of two of his students, the room he was going to be sharing with them from now on...

While he pondered that mystery, another part of his mind replayed some events of the day...

It turned out that Sakurazaki's question had been one of the sensible ones. She was simply inquiring about where he had received his education and if he had any history teaching. She had been trying to access his qualification..perhaps attempting to find the grounds to respect the teacher, something that might be difficult starting off because the sensei was so much younger. Negi had explained to her he was Oxford educated, and had taught in a community college before being transferred here. He did not get much farther than showing her his ID card from the college as proof though, for he had to duck under his desk to avoid being bowled over by a flying student. That said student was Chao Linshen, who after being tossed, had landed on her feet behind Negi's desk and sprung at her current sparring partner, one Ku Fei. When Negi had said this was a free period, he was sure he had specifically said students could leave the room as long as they did not go far....so why were these two fighting here?! Negi had excused himself from Sakurazaki and went to try and break up the fight..or at least direct them outside the class room...

His voice was useless however, and as he drew closer, Linshen was again, sent flying. Negi had to jump off to the side so that she could land. He did not see Ku Fei however, who had managed to close the distance. Apparently, Chao liked to use distance as a ploy against Ku to buy time..something Ku Fei was well aware of. Negi found himself in the middle of the fight and ducked right under a spin kick meant for Chao. Low on the ground, he had to put strength in his left foot to spring sideways to get out of the exchange, but he almost got caught by Chao's right palm strike. He managed to avoid it however, but he made one mistake...

He momentarily forgot he was in a suit and that this was not a fight he was participating in.

Forgetting those two points, he turned and grabbed the arm in front of him, which was Chao's right, and pulled it using his weight as added force and frankly threw her past Ku and nearly into his desk. He was about to send an elbow into Ku's middle, but he managed to stop himself just in time and opted the chase affter the student he had just thrown. It was useless however, for she had already got up and was staring at him...not strangely so much as thoughtfully. Negi forced his lips into a thin line.

"Listen. If you wish to spar...don't do it in my classroom please. Take advantage of the permission I gave you to go somewhere less...susceptible to damage, will you?"

Negi looked around. They all were...staring at him, the two who had been sparing especially… Accessing him, ranking him...

Negi braced himself for the tide, which was about to break, but alas, no one got a chance to fire anything off at their new teacher. The bell had rung yet again..what, where the periods five minutes long today or something? Nevertheless, the onion was saved by the bell. He walked to his desk, picked up the yard stick and fixed a piece of chalk to the holder.

"Okay, please people, take your seats. Now it's time to actually learn something...."

I would of course, explain to you the following lesson that ensued, but I won't for the simple fact that nothing interesting happened in the lesson. Nada. It was, oddly enough, a completely sane and sensible English session, which in itself is an insanity, but it's true. After that class however, when the bell rung yet again, this time signaling the long needed release from one classroom, is when the chaos would pick up again. Only for Negi though, for he was assaulted by Ku, who seemed bent on punishing her sensei for interrupting her sparring match. After being put down on an instant challenge, she viciously held on until Negi agreed to meet her after classes in the martial arts club building. Negi then had to contend with the fact that, based on the demo test he had given today, he would have to host an afterschool _marathon_ with _over_ half the class, Ku Fei included in that bunch. Not only that, but his schedule was full of classes until a late lunch period today....

Speaking of classes, the next one walked in, and the first few students were not shy to show their surprise and delight at the sight of their new, half-cup sized sensei.

Whoever said the Japanese were calm, quiet people? They needed to check out Mahora for Christ's sake!

Well, at least these classes knew when to lay off and sit down when told. They also, thankfully, had some knowledge of where they were in a text book and what they had covered already. Negi quickly realized that his class was probably the worst this school had to offer..which did not help his mood much..but at least gave him an accurate gauge. During the period right before Negi's late lunch, he actually enjoyed having a small scale debate take place between his students. He had split them into groups to argue a specific point and it had gone far off track...but in a good way. Both groups had probed deeper into the language than Negi had first set them to probe and were analyzing and giving opinions of the language while trying to slander the other's teams opinions and views in terms of usage and history. Barely anyone, including Negi, heard the bell, almost always a sign of an engrossing class. He was certain that, as the class left, most of what had been skeptical and fawning or adoring looks had turned into solid respect..of course, the declared winners of the debate were still discussing points they had brought up, which was not a bad thing...but kinda odd for the age group and the personalities of the class..but Negi had that effect on his students. When they all finally left, he almost looked dejectedly at the door. _That _was a class. Soon as he thought that though....

"Sensei's in here! Why is he in here?"

_Oh boy...here __they__ come again..._

"Sensei, don't take her seriously.. normally Takahata-sensei takes his lunch now, so she's kinda confused...and _nosy_ I might add."

Negi looked up at the speaker. Makie, the pink haired one, had been the individual who had wondered why he was still here, Yuna, the girl in front of him now, was the one who had called her nosy and told him that bit of information. Negi gave a weak smile.

"Ahh. I was planning on taking my lunch this period, but my class left late. We lost track of time. Do you stay here for lunch or do you go elsewhere? I was debating if I should eat here or go outside."

Someone from the mass of people entering in the back answered him.

"We eat in the classroom than go out a bit normally...."

He sighed..well, they seemed calmer now..loss of energy from classes? Ehh..he might as well eat with them, and then see them out. He might find a good spot just to store himself from now on that way.

'I'll follow your lunch procedure for today then. Hope none of you mind.."

Of course, no one heard him, by now they were ether already engrossed in conversation or eating. Negi took out his bento in cloth and then mentally cursed his luck. The spoon had come loose form the knot and was probably now somewhere in the sea of paper and books of his bag. He reached under the desk, disappearing from sight as he did so, to hunt for his bag. Someone looked up while he was down there.

"Hey..where did sensei go?"

"Who cares? Maybe he went to the bathroom."

"Without anyone noticing?

"He's a little kid, remember when he first walked in? Everybody had to lean over their desks to even see he had walked in."

"I didn't see the door open though.."

'Maybe you missed it baka, why are you so concerned?"

"I told you he's a zombie!"

By this time, Negi was particularly frustrated that he could not find his spoon, and he was choosing to ignore the shenanigans of his students. After all, you can only think of someone as a zombie so many times before it's not funny anymore...and indeed, someone pointed that out for Negi.

"Would you put that to bed already!?"

"He walked through tthe door!"

"Zombies can't do that! Ghosts do!"

"Ghost zombie!"

"Oh great..just great Ako, you gave Makie more amo."

"Sorry..."

"Ghost zombie kid teacher on the loose!"

"Somebody shoot me now.."

"With a forty five or twenty five caliber? I have both on me..You'd also have to chose the gun.."

"I...I didn't mean that literally Mana..you scare me sometimes..."

"Glad to be of service.."

"Nobody's going to shoot anybody unless they want a bullet from one of MY guns blowing their fingers off ..and, as far as I am concerned, I am neither ghost nor a zombie Makie-san...I am a teacher. A pissed and perhaps a bit to tired and hungry one."

Everybody looked up, and, low and behold, there was the tater tot teacher, holding a spoon that was stained a dull brown from discoloration of some sort.

"I can't even search for my spoon in peace? Come on people. How many times have any of you lost your spoon when it got loose from its knot on the bento?"

*Stare*

"Oh forget I even said anything..."

+---+

After classes. English drill, One teacher against twenty students of class A.

Can someone say torture? Negi felt like, after this, he might not even be able to say it. It was five o clock by now...and there were still fifteen people here...Negi found himself repeating the same rules over and over..he tired using different methods of teaching..tried mnemonics...visuals..flash cards...hands on usage..heck, as seven o clock fast approached, he even tried a jeopardy style approach. Yet, six came and went, and there still were five people on board. Then Asuna left after finally scrapping an eight. Then another, and another.

Ku Fei and Makie, still going on "strong".

Negi was at a loss...what was he doing wrong? He tried again, using some improvised approaches. They climbed a bit, but still stayed stubbornly below the six mark. Seven o clock finally came and...

"Makie-san..Ku Fei-san..both of you have gotten...seven."

"Ehh!?!"

"Well, you can leave now..Ku Fei san...I'll be right there at the club...just let me pack.."

"No can spar today..aru."

"What? Didn't you challenge me?"

"Ehh, yes, but is to late now to bring fighting, club closed. Tomorrow, when both rested again maybe, aru?"

"....Sure."

Makie had already left, so Ku turned by herself to the door..but she stopped.

"I may not like that you stopped fight, but you had reason to, I understand that. I find you are a good teacher after all. Maybe I fight for fun tomorrow. Test you.."

With that, she left, leaving Negi looking at the door.

_Why is it always the ones who seem the most dense that have wise or nice observations up their sleeves to say?_

+---+

Negi opened his eyes to a pitch dark hallway. Fish sticks. He had fallen asleep! What time was it!? He searched his being for his watch, gave up and let his star wand slide down to his hand from his sleeve. The time in miniscule, red numbers appeared on his hand. He sighed. Only 9:24..he wasn't asleep for long...but nine was lights out and there were no windows in the hallway, so that was why it was so dark. He looked over to the far side of him and saw a light coming through the crack of the door. His new room. Sighing, he got up and picked up his bag. He scanned his memory...

Yep..he had already taken his bath..and he had used the bathhouse's soap, so an annoying flowery smell was following him around...

_Mental note: Buy soap tomorrow...and shampoo for that matter._

Walking up to it, Negi knocked firmly on the door. Better now than simply stay outside all night.

The door opened to reveal Konoka looking around, of course, at eye level.

"Who is it Konoka?"

"I don't see anyone...."

Negi sighed, and the noise made Konoka divert her attention downwards.

"Oh! Sorry. Hi sensei...whatcha doin here?"

"Hello Konoe-san. I believe your grandfather assigned me to stay here?"

"Ohh yeah..come in then..."

"Konoka, who is it?"

"Our new sensei. He's supposed to stay with us remember?"

"Oh..right."

Negi came in with all of his baggage either clinking or bouncing slightly with his movements. As soon as Konoka moved out of his way to close the door behind him, he was met with a pajama clad and red haired individual his mind linked to the name Asuna Kagurazaka.

"Good evening Kagurazaka-san."

'Yeah yeah, hello to you too. You're on the couch for now until someone comes in here and rigs up a place for you..got that?"

"I expected nothing different."

Negi walked over to the couch and let his mail carrier fall from his shoulder to his hand, and then set it down next to the couch. Next, he hauled off the book bag and let it drop next to the mail carrier, and he placed his suitcase on top of it. Finally, he dragged his rolling luggage bag over to sit next to the rest of them, creating quite an impressive show of what one little boy can carry...he rolled back his shoulders a bit.

"It's only when you take the stuff off do you realize how heavy it all is..."

Asuna rolled her eyes. All the bags were probably only a quarter full anyway, or full of fluff. She reached down to pick the backpack up and demonstrate to him how weak she thought he was...

Only the bag wouldn't move. One hand was not going to do it. Strain as she might, she had to try two, while Negi looked around the dorm and paid her zero mind. It was only when she collapsed next to the bag, having finally managed to pick it up but failed to get it on.

"What are you doing?"

"How much does ths flipping thing _weigh_?_"_

"I honestly don't know. It was never weighed at bag check, I had a high clearance getting here.."

"You bypassed bag check?! What the hell... for all we know, this could be a flipping **bomb**!"

She instantaneously went what Negi could only refer to as "Non-comp" from a book he had once read. She attacked his bag and pulled open it's straps.

"Asuna..it's rude to do that to other people's luggage..."

She was stopped though when the girl yelled out and her hand flashed into her mouth... He other hand pulled out a package that had a shiny, sharp edge sticking out, covered by some kind of plastic.

"What? Those are throwing stars..so I have some stealth martial arts training..it's not a crime..."

She pulled the finger out of her mouth and examined it. The star had pricked her, but had not broken skin. The plastic had protected her. She dropped the package and took out a wrapped up object looking like a small "L" She looked at it suspiciously.

"Is this a.._gun_?"

"Did you think I was joking when I made the comment during lunch about using my own gun if somone tried shooting? Yes it is..I don't think it's against the law to be a marksman."

"A ninja marksman?"

Asuna looked him up and down. A tiny shrimp. Brownish red hair, brownish red eyes, tiny littler professor glasses, a black t-shirt that said something in English.. (Riviera) and some green sweat pants. It was only then that she realized he had changed his clothes.

"Did you even bathe..oh please tell me your not one of those kids who hate baths...I'lll drag you straight to the bathhouse myself..."

Negi looked at her as if she had suddenly told him she was a unicorn in disguise.

"What the heck? Oh course I took a bath, why do you think I changed my clothes?"

"Oh really? Then let me smell you."

"...You know how many barriers of privacy that breaks? Fine."

He stepped closer to her and bent his head to hover in front of her skeptical eyes.

"Knock yourself out."

"Why the heck do you smell like Fresia?'

"Simply because my own shampoo bottle conveniently burst and my soap got soaked and smashed into an unrecognizable mess of scum on my roller bag's lining. I had to use the bathhouse's supply. Not a fun experience..that small is annoying when on my own head..."

He stood up and walked back to the couch, which he decided to now occupy by sitting down. He looked at the girl stretched out on the floor who was holding his backpack hostage from him.

"Happy now?"

"Oh no I'm not. I still have questions...and I'm not done doing bag check on yah."

_Conducting would be a more proper word, but I'll keep my mouth shut for now..._

Asuna riffled through the bag and the small chamber pot Negi used for potion making fell off it's latch on the bag where it had dangled. Asuna grabbed it and looked at it oddly.

"This is one heck of a wierd shaped food bowl."

Negi took the advantage of an excuse and ran with it.

"If you travel as much as I'm used to, you need something that won't spill easily..especially on a moving subway train where it can suddenly go from around 75 kilometers and hour to zero."

"Whatever." She tossed the "bowl" near his throwing stars and kunai.

"What is this now? My, is this a gift for a special someone? So girly."

She held an unwrapped Heartbreaker and made Negi's own heart sink looking at it. He grabbed it from her and twisted the heart quickly. When she lunged for it to take it back, he whipped out the blade so it rested quite firmly on her neck, not where it could cut the skin, but where it could make it's presence known. She froze, arm still outstretched...

"I'm a swordsman too. I don't care what your opinion is of my blade, I have been through a lot with it..."

He sheathed it simply and left Asuna still frozen for a bit. That blade had been so close to her neck...

"Tea's ready!"

Asuna's head whipped around to see Konoka.

"Where have you been all this time?! Did you see what he just did to me?!"

"See what _who_ did _what_ to you Asuna? I was in the kitchen.."

If she could face fault, she would have right then and there, Asuna would. As it was, she just...shook her head and muttered under her breath "Never mind."

+---+

There are many things considered as appropriate dinner table subjects, but Negi was pretty sure this twisted version of twenty questions was not one of them...

Asuna sat opposite Negi, staring at him as if she were trying to confirm if he was real or not. She had already finished her plate at a lightning speed, and Negi regretted acting the gentleman by taking his food at a slower pace to taste it. No, it was not the food, the food was delicious, a compliment to the chef, who was watching Asuna watch Negi, but it was Asuna herself who made Negi regret not speedily gulping down his meal and vanishing from the table.

"You don't wet beds right?"

"What are you..nuts? No, I do not wet beds, and I'm glad I do not."

"Sleepwalk?"

"Heck no. Used to have an acquaintance of mine who always did that. would wind up anywhere she would. Once it was in someone elses bed...disaster when she woke up.."

"Scared of monsters?"

"What am I, a kid? Okay, scratch that, technically, I am a kid, but no, I am not a believer of the famous "monsters" thank you very much."

"Why the heck do you carry so many weapons, what are you, a mini army?"

"Oh harr harr. No. I told you already. I am a martial arts student."

"Slash marksman slash swordsman slash teacher slash whatever else huh?"

"Perhaps you could put it that way."

"So, why did you come here again?"

"To teach English Kagurazaka-san."

"Why do you always call us by our last names huh?"

"A sign of respect and decency of the Japanese language, calling one by their surname if you do not know them well. I only just became your teacher this morning. I have no right to call you by your first name."

"One last question."

"Hit me, I'm wide open."

"What the heck don't you know or have an answer for?"

Negi finally gave a small smile.

"A million and one things of grand importance to the world. I don't know what any one person was or is destined for on this Earth, or even if there is such a thing as destiny. I don't know when people will die, I don't know if there is an end to time, I don't know if even any of use truly exist, or are simple puppets someone is pulling on a string in a made up world..."

((Hey...no.))

Negi finally managed to finish his meal and picked up his plate and glass.

"Miss Komoe, I thank you for an excellent meal. Do you mind if I take those plates you have while I am standing here, or would you rather wash your own?"

"Huh? Oh..uhh..sure, you can take them..I guess...no one's ever offered to do the dishes for me before..."

She handed him Asuna's and her plate together, since she had picked Asuna's from her in preparation to wash it. She handed the glasses to him to, which he proficiently balanced the three of them on one plate, along with the utensils, and walked away without so much as a shiver from the ware.

"Hey..I wasn't done yet.."

"But Asuna, you did tell him: "One last quesiton."

"That was just an expression I was using..."

"You can't just throw around phrases like that Asuna..it's improper. You said one last question, so Sensei took one last question and then left the table."

+---+

Wow, this sofa was a whole lot softer than he had first thought it was...but it was..too soft. He was flipping sinking into it. Blankets and sleeping bags did nothing to prevent the sinking either, telling him with thing was really made for someone bigger than him..and no amount of cushioning he could provide would cover that difference in weight and size. It was either get up off of the couch, or drown in it. Negi chose to get up off it and unto the floor. At least it was softer than outside grass or the rocks. He was kinda used to rocks, so the floor was no problem...he fell asleep just about instantly...the only problem was what would inevitably happen upon waking...

.....

It was late. Konoka was surprised she had let herself sleep this long. She glanced off to her side and saw Asuna was sitting on her bed, looking as if she were trying to find the energy to stand up, lift herself off the bed. So far, she was failing miserably, but, when Konoka got off, she found the energy to follow. Maybe food was the motivator...Honestly, sometimes..she was absolutely sure she was supposed to be worth more than being Asuna's chef. She walked past the bedroom door and into the living room, the couch was empty. She dismissed it as a normal fact of life, although something bugged the back of her mind..wasn't something supposed to be.._on _that couch? She walked past the couch...

and tripped over the bags placed by its side when she made a habitual sharp turn towards the kitchen. Asuna fell right on top of her, zombie that she was in the mornings.

"Ahh, Asuna..get off me..please..."

"...."

_Oh god, please don't tell me she fell asleep on top of me..._

"Asuna! come on...ahh! No..wake up and get off!"

Probably one of the worst things that could happen was her "guardian" having a sharp sense for trouble and a key to the dorm. Setsuna Sakurazaki walked in...and had to freeze at the sight in front of her.

"Ahh! I'm sorry Ojo-sama..I will leave!.."

Setsuna, displaying a surprising amount of the nervous blood ((Almost to the point of being like the jackrabbit of Alice in wonderland..)) when around Konoka instead of the usual calm, barely heard her and high..tailed it out of there... ((So very corny.))

"Ahh..no, Set-chan..it's not what you think..god dammit Asuna! Why'd you fall asleep on top of me!..Ahh! Stop moving!"

"Oh my.....Am I interrupting anything....?"

Konoka looked up. There was the new teacher, holding a skillet in one hand and a towel in the other. He had a single eyebrow raised, but that was all the surprise he showed. He was acting as if he saw this kind of thing every day..which did not give her a good opinion of England...

"Uhh..no sensei..she..fell asleep on top of me when I tripped and...oww!...She..."

Negi shook his head and held up the toweled hand.

"I see. Let me put this skillet down.."

He went back into the kitchen, which prompted Konoka to wonder..

_Why was Sensei carrying a skillet...?_

+---+

Well...this was....surprising...

Sensei was, indeed, an individual of many skills. Konoka had discovered that, obviously, the reason Negi had been carrying a skillet was because he had been cooking. After managing to get Asuna off her, which took him a surprisingly short amount of time and effort, he went back to the skillet, which he had put on the fire, to take it off and put it to cool. He then had went to the door, discovering, to his slight surprise, that Setsuna was out there. He decided to frankly drag her inside, for she was acting strangely, reluctant to come in, but hovering by the door like a moth would a grid over a light bulb. Negi had also managed the near impossible feat of waking Asuna up in mere seconds and got all three girls at the table sitting down. Setseuna was still acting out of her character, averting her eyes from Konoka and Asuna both, focusing right on the teacher, who was dishing out an odd looking dish of..spaghetti?! For breakfast?! Well...the starchy concoction had been dipped in eggs and had been fried that way, and was served with tomatoes and some collards sprinkled along the top. He had pita bread on the side of each plate as a suggestion. There was some aromatic tea she could not identify in the cups next to the plates.. What kinda concoction was this...?

"Before you even ask, no this is not typical English cuisine..think of it more as a combination of practical Italian, maybe a bit of laziness mixed in inspired the dish, I don't remember the particular details..."

Negi himsefl however, did not take his own advice. He left his share in the skillet and, replacing the towel near the oven, went to get a rag to clean the counters with. Asuna stared at him washing it in the sink.

"The heck..is he nuts?"

Setsuna still did not dare look at anyone, so she focused on the plate. Might as well try huh? There was a fork and a spoon to the side that caught her eye. The teacher really had set the table hadn't he? Well..I couldn't be poisonous, could it? She picked up the fork and twirled the concoction to place it in the bread. She then carefully rose it to her mouth...

and realized both Asuna and Konoka were staring at her. She blinked. Her face, back to normal, well, at least somewhat, plainly conveyed a simple message:

"What? I'm hungry."

"Well wow, don't let us stop you..that's brave."

"Yay, Setchan's gonna try.."

+---+

Well, I'll leave it at this for now..See you next time..wait a second..I broke a record!!! I'm _early_ this time!

*Someone dies*

Oh...don't look at me, that happens to about fifty people every single second. Not my fault...but truthfully...Armageddon around the corner or something..? Why am I early...?


	6. Chapter IV: Attacked from every angle!

I want to continue a trend. AsianGamer9876, I only just saw your review, and I thank you for your words! Now, I will try and give all of thee this chapter as quickly as I can, but with as much as I can put into it. Let us see what I can scrap...

Once again, I do not own Negima...

Chapter Four: Surrounded at every turn, one can attack in any direction!

+---+

"I'm still surprised Setsuna...how did you managed to gather the guts to _eat_ that mess?"

Setsuna raised her eyebrows at the one whole was talking. Before she could bring to bear a retort though, Konoka had leapt to her defense with a proper jibe.

"Oh? Why'd you ask for seconds then after eating yours?"

"Hey, I only tried after her."

"So in other words, you wait until it's safe and then mock the one who showed you it was safe?"

Setsuna shook her head. She had a feeling her Ojo was trying to apologize to her for the incident she had seen this morning by throwing as much dirt as possible on Asuna today, even if the dirt wasn't original or had any real taste to it. Still, she appreciated the effort...

The three of them walked down the street towards the martial arts club. It was a Saturday, for, by some freak of nature, the new teacher had come on Friday. Of course, half the class was somewhere along the same street that the three were walking on, it had somehow been conveyed to them all that the battle between Ku Fei and the new teacher had been moved to today...in fact...

It was a zoo by the time they actually got to the club. They were even selling..._tickets_. Basically put, Ku Fei barely _ever_ challenged anyone. It was the other way around, and of course, the challenging party always got the tar beaten out of them in about a two seconds...the fact that Ku Fei had challenged Negi had sparked the interest of her fans and others. Just what had the mysterious teacher done to make such a power figure challenge him? What kind of person was he? The rumors flying around would make anyone who had actually seen Negi laugh, and were typical. A huge, hulking figure who could shatter walls with a single flick of the wrist and crush bones with his teeth, someone who ran as fast as a jaguar and had the balance that superseded any cats. A true mastodon of a man....

Oh how wrong they were...or were they?

Negi sat in a prep room of the club, powdering his hands for grip and to absorb sweat. He had on a loose grey long sleeved shirt and matching sweats, held up with a simple cloth belt, ideal training attire. He had a black head/sweat band on that held up some of his hair. Even though he was young, he had never cut it, so it was quite long, although, no one really knew that because of the complex knotting he applied to it. All they saw was the simple rubber band that kept the ends together in back. He heard to commotion outside and caught snatches of conversation. It was a small club, but he had a feeling there was going to be quite a crowd...Negi was never really much of a performer...he fought, that was it. There was little crowd pleasing and waving in his style...oh well. He looked at the time and looked to see if he had everything together. He did. It was almost time...He took his bag and left the room, heading for the outside area where the two had agreed on. It was when he got there did he realize just..._how many_ people he'd be fighting in front of...

The place was packed...full. All of the classes he had had so far, plus a few he knew he would have to meet sooner of later, some teachers, including Takamitchi and some people from the other sites...even some citizens from the city area. Not many had spotted him yet, or if they had, chose to pay him no mind, looking for the rumored mountain of an opponent Ku Fei had to fight. There was an official standing in the ring, and Negi approached him, the man did not see him however, Negi was too short. That can really piss one off. Being so vertically challenged had true downfalls. Ku Fei appeared from another door and those present "made some noise" for their hero so to speak. Many began looking for her opponent in earnest, but Ku Fei had already seen Negi and the official. When she reached there, the guy smiled and looked her up and down. I would take the time to explain her outfit, but you know it already. The white and gold martial arts outfit she wore in the Tournament my friends.

"Humph, I guess your opponent is a no show ehh?"

Ku smiled.

"Ahh, he is there next to you ref, don't you see him? Look there."

She pointed at Negi and the man followed the finger.

"Ehh?! This shrimpy thing?"

"Looks be deceiving many times ref."

"But he's a kid!"

"He's my opponent."

By now, some of the audience had realized what the students Negi had seen already knew, that the kid in the ring was the faceless "Negi Springfield." Needless to say, not many of them were happy about that. There was even some booing going on...but that stopped once the ref waved his flag.

"Fine. Then..."

He walked to the edge of the stage. A decisive wave of the flag signaled the start.

"Begin."

As soon as that directive was given, Ku Fei had to force down her right elbow to block a shot to the gut by Negi's own right elbow. Negi shot his left hand through the "v" of the arm however, and hit her in the gut with a palm strike, knocking her back al little.

_Uhn.. good! He's fast!..ehh? Where is ahh!_

She sidestepped a leg sweep and then grabbed the arm that had shot up for another try ad the midsection. She heaved him off the floor and into the air and tried to kick him in the gut as well, but he grabbed he foot and used it as leverage to force himself away, pushing her almost off balance. She recovered quickly though, just in time to catch his foot for her knees and knock it away. Doing so meant she had to bend down however, so when she did it, it exposed her face to the calculated return spin kick it missed only because of her quickness. She tried aiming a leg sweep, but he was so short it was easy for him to anticipate and dodge it.

_That is the thing. He a shrimp, so the big have a hard time hitting him!_

She had to even the playing field a bit here. Right now, he was using his smaller size and equal or greater quickness to an advantage. She needed to turn the fight into one depending upon power and size...She rushed him and, when he sidestepped and tripped her, she grabbed him and threw him up in the air. He weighed less than a good sized bag of rice, not to mention easier to handle, so it was easy. Once he was in the air, she kept him that way with a chop he had grabbed unto to use as leverage again, only this time she had a kick come up and knock his kidney area while the chop was being played...in the air, he could do nothing and grimmaced a bit. He fell to the ground but she was right there to kick him upwards like a football, only straight upwards. That took a lot of force though, and her foot was not happy. This time when Negi landed, he fell on his face, and received a hard elbow right to the back to hold him in place. Ku Fei had him...

Or did she?

Negi reached and barely managing to grab her by the ankles, pulled them from under her and forcing her off his back. He let go of her feet and performed a quick spin-around before forcing his own elbow into her gut. He did this because he needed the extra momentum weight to add to his strength. It almost missed because of that extra time, but almost doesn't count. She managed to grab his head with her legs and flip him off though. Flexibility was a real blessing. She got up quickly, but not quickly enough to dodge a leg sweep that knocked her back off her feet and almost unto her head. Negi once again brought up a fist during the leg sweep, only this time it did slam home into the gut, but he received a nasty slam in the back from both of his opponent's elbows for it. This also trapped Negi underneath her, or it would have, had it not been for Negi frankly forcing her off him. Flexibility may be a grand blessing but so was the ability to condition oneself...and Negi had done a lot of strength conditioning in his few years of life.

It may be hard to believe, but the crowd had been, for the most part, silent ever since the battle had started. The disappointment of discovering Negi was a scrawny looking kid had melted away and those watching were either to engrossed or too respectful of the fighters concentration to make a sound. There was only the occasional; "Ohh..." or "Ouch..." to signify the living status of the stands...but, I'm diverting attention from the fight...hi ho!

Negi ducked under a kick headed for his head and jumped up behind her to give a chop of his own in passing to her back. She spun around but was to slow to stop it and received it in the lower rib area, the "fake ribs". He touched down on the ground and bent to avoid another sweeping kick. He smiled. His height meant that she could only effectively use her feet to try and hit him, her hands were almost too high...in fact, they were too high to hit him. He could too easily dodge them by bending down a bit. However, he did have to find a way to end this before she tried pushing her power advantage again...his kidney area was paining him. He jumped away from her and twisted to see her already almost here. He side stepped and jumped behind her again to attempt another jump up and elbow to the back. She managed to twist this time though and grab his elbow to toss him, but he was prepared....he hooked his legs to one of hers at the lest second, so when she threw him, she over balanced and he slammed his back into her knee, causing it to buckle. He jumped off just as she fell and the sent another elbow into her back, and jumped away frog like to avoid her legs again. He sent a chop to those when they came up to send them down while he sent another elbow viciously into her back. He tried pinning the feet, but that did not work, he was tossed off. She came at him and he had to sidestep again. He did so three times in succession before jumping backwards a distance and waiting for her to come. He had her...she was coming and only focusing on him...when she came he fiented sidestepping to make he cheange direction, then grabbed her feet. Since she was still changing direction, she was out of balance and momentum still pushed her forward, something Negi used as extra strength. He used himself as a ground and forced the momentum to go through him, throwing her up and out of the ring...but that over balanced him, and when she hit the ground outside, he had recieved the after shock pushing him up...and out... falling from the ring and landing on his back out side. The flag flew up, both of them, which signaled the roaring to start...it took a minute for Negi to take in the message being conveyed.

Tie. The match had ended in...A flipping tie.

That sucks.....don't it?

Well, the crowd didn't think so, half of them were trying to get at Ku, who, when thrown, had flown far enough to land in the stands. The other half were either cheering her on or looking oddly at Negi lying there on the floor. He got up slowly and dusted himself off while that approximate forth of the crowd watched him oddly. He jumped back into the ring and turned to face them...what should he do..? Well, there really was only one logical thing he could do...He walked out of the ring and jumped into the stands, heading for Ku Fei to see if his student was alright. Then the cheering for him started, although it was, of course, not as extensive as Ku Fei's. The match had been, in the end, better than expected. They had expected a huge mass to come out and show off, then be beaten like all the rest by Ku in two seconds flat by some incredible technical miracle. They did not expect her to have most of her arsenal be cut off because her opponent was to small, or to see her fend off attacks that came as equally fast as her own could. The first exchange had been brilliantly played by Negi, but Ku Fei had brought some of her own fire, from keeping him airborne to slamming him into the floor as if he were a new style of tile to be laid on by force. The match had been near even, perhaps with the favor in Negi's corner, and had lasted at least five minutes...a record for Ku Fei ever since becoming famous.

When Negi finally reached Ku Fei, he found she was surrounded by angry classmates.

"Why'd you do that for, aren't you our teacher!?"

"What kind of guy beats up a girl like that, aren't you ashamed?"

"English gentlemen my foot, I should give you a beat down right now, little shrimp!"

"Wait, you make head spin with such insult to my opponent mn!"

Those who were speaking looked up to see Ku Fei up on her feet and feeling quite fine thank you.

"Sensei in a fight is opponent, same with student. Sensei had right to fight, if he no fight, then where is the fight? I challenge, I get what I ask. No problems. I like the battle...although; I will wait until Sensei gets taller before I challenging again aru!"

Negi smiled at that.

"Of course, I'd be happy to when I'm taller. You'll be able to punch, and I'll be able to kick!"

That, finally, diverted the tension and brought a measure of...well, not peace...peace is impossible here...but ill will towards the sensei was diluted at least...Takahata could be seen approaching in the stands, and Ngei excused himself to meet him...

+---+

"You didn't fight seriously there...I've seen you fight before."

"Ku Fei-san is taller than I am. I was fighting seriously Takamitchi. I can't use magic in public, and chi is dangerously close, so I can't use that either."

"Fair enough, but what about your techniques?"

"They take too long, that battle was fast paced."

"You could have pulled one off."

"Not without putting myself at an unnecessary risk...."

+---+

"I would love to accept Sakurazaki-san, but I don't like too much conflict in one day...can we do that tomorrow?"

Setsuna had walked back with the three of them to their dorm room to wait for Konoka, who had to go to yet another omai, and was carrying Setsuna with her. Negi and her had begun to speak about the fight and had gotten to the topic of weapons before both realized they were trained in the ways of the blade. Setsuna, having seen Negi fight martially, was interested to see how well he worked with a blade, but Negi was not all too eager to cross swords right after a battle with fists...

The group walked unto Cherry Blossom as the conversation continued, turning back to opinions on weaponry. Setsuna was maintaining her loyalty to the modern adaption to the katana, which brought more stability and length, but Negi was sticking with the old roots, claiming the old design had better balance and versatility, as well as being easier to carry if more brittle. The brittleness had an advantage he was pushing now, the fact that it could much more easily slide between a pair of ribs...

Negi turned in mid sentence to stare at a tree. Was it his imagination, or had he heard it rustle a bit unnaturally? He heard it again and looked closer...

"Uhh...sensei...what you looking at..?"

Negi saw a bushy tailed brown animal scratching its paws against the tree branch it was on. A squirrel. A flipping squirrel. It can't have made that much noise...had to be something else in that tree...

"Ohh...it's a squirrel, cute."

"Uhh...sensei? Why are you staring at the squirrel like that?"

Negi turned around and looked at Asuna, who had asked him the question and was staring at _him_ oddly.

"Oh, nothing, I just thought it was making an unnatural amount of noise...I thought something else might be in the tree...I suppose not...I must just be tired...Sakurazaki-san, consider yourself the winner this time, but I maintain my position. I prefer the old style of the blade. As for your challenge...I might be okay tomorrow afternoon, perhaps by three? You must excuse me...I just remembered I have to go and cover for a gym teachers track team meet..."

Of course, before anyone could reply to this, Negi had taken off like a bullet from a gun, leaving the three girls by themselves to wonder, for the umpteenth time most likely... what the heck kinda weird teacher they had wound up with...

+---+

"I don't think he saw you Mistress..."

"Who cares if he saw me or not, did you get that friggin' sample?"

"Yes Master. The sample is consistent with the one you gave me; it shares at least 50% of the genetic makeup."

"So he's his son..."

"Most likely Mistress, although he could be another family member with similar genes due to..."

"I don't need to hear the specifics Chachamaru. All I need to know is if this pipsqueak is family or not."

"The chance of him being a relative is 99% with a .9 to the the five hundred and seventy eight billion seven hundred and sixty forth million eight hundred and ninety first thousand four hundred and fifty second decimal place value.."

"Chachamaru.."

"Yes Master?"

"Remind me to get Hakase to check your head. I need to get her to remove that annoying habit of yours to cite exact figures."

"Yes Master..."

"I need a way to get close enough...I need power though...blood..."

"Master?"

"What?"

"May I suggest something?"

The blonde haired chibi vampire turned her head to look back at the robot. Could she suggest something? What the hell? Since when did robot puppets suggest things to their master? When was the last time she took this thing to the mechanic? Last year or something? She observed her through loose strands of hair covering her view.

"What?"

"You have yet to attend class..."

"What about?"

"Would it not be easier to observe and monitor the target while scouting victims by attending school?"

Evangeline, the puppet master, and dark evangel, the over century old being with a famous knack for malice, blinked. Baka. Baka, baka, baka. She was letting a friggin' _robot_ out play her in strategy. A simple, obvious and brilliant maneuver that was over looked. Go to class. Que the sweat drop down the back of the noggin please.

"...Fine. Sacrifices must be made, don't they?"

+----+

Sick? No, Setsuna was not sick. Nervous? Maybe, but that was not why...she simply woke up to today and realized she could not face her teacher in battle today. It was just not...the day. Something in the air...or maybe it was something having to do with _that_.All she knew was that, try as she might, she could not see how she could move her will to fight today...and the worst part was, she had challenged him, now she had to go and say no...Maybe she should just fight anyway? But no, here he came...it was just a little before three, and here he came...carrying...a golden staff with a heart attached...what? Wait, wait...wait...that looks like a mages staff...but Sensei can't be a mage...he's a martial artist, a swordsman. To be a mage would put him along the lines of....well, Evangeline-san, or herself to some degree...it would mean that she really could not fight him today...for it would be improper....

Negi reached her and saluted with the staff.

'Are you ready to cross blades Sakurazaki-san? You look troubled..."

_Perceptive boy. _

'Well, actually, no, I'm not ready...I don't know what's gotten into me...but today feels..."

"Off? I know."

_He does?_

"Today, if you don't want to fight, it would be fine. It's supposed to rain today, heavily, but it hasn't yet, and the hot air is trapped beneath the clouds...humidity mixed with wrong air pressure and given a windless atmosphere to play with. Normally one who is sensitive to weather changes can tell it's an odd day...Today is off..."

_What?...That's not what I meant__...__but it's a perfect excuse to take..._

"Y-yes...I think I'll just leave it for tomorrow...perhaps at around six?"

"Six is fine. I shall be by the stairs leading to the central fountain in the plaza..."

He watched her bow and nod quickly before hurrying off. Negi knew every single thing he had just said was complete and utter...well, bull. Which meant something else was on the girl's mind...He had seen her distress from all the way at the turn of the pathway, about fifty feet, and had decided she was in no shape to spar with blades..So he manufactured an excuse that was complete nonsense and yet had a small measure of something that could be taken as fact by the unwary, and offered it up. She had taken the bait, and proved Negi's point, and revealed quite a bit of herself in the process...He'd meet her tomorrow...hopefully, she'd be ready...

+---+

They should really make admissions requirements for life. You know, those signs next to an amusement ride that say you have to be yay high and weigh about this much to ride? Yeah, those thingies. Like making a sign for being a teacher at Mahora, when your home room class is A. You most likely would have to be one of the following things:

Either elderly, female, or unattractive, which would held, but not be needed.

Be at least thirty two years of age

Have a heart made of steel and a will of diamond.

You must have a sanity cemented in titanium.

Patient to a fault, and must understand the implications of density, not in matter, but in the human mind.

Failure to have any one of these requirements means you are ineligible to ride the: Mahora Class A teaching experience. We are sorry for the inconvenience...

If such a sign exists, Negi failed to see it, and somehow managed to get by the ticket taker without a hitch. He was now enjoying the...should we say benefits or banes?... of the ride.

First period was with class 3- J which contained many Ku Fei fans and a bunch of distracted minds. Fair enough, Negi could deal with dull resentment and whip minds gone awry into shape, Class 3 - J was not full of dunces. Negi managed to get his agenda done and have a nice discussion, in English, with his students on their favorite pastimes. A couple of other classes and then...

The bell tolls for Negi's soul. His homeroom class was here.

In particular, Negi was prepared for a confrontation. He had sat down and mentally taken attendance already, and had given the class directives to open their books to page 274 when...

The door creaked open, and in walked two people, whom Negi recognized from his roster, but whom he had yet to lay eyes on until now...

No matter how you looked at it, these two were odd. The first impression Negi got was from the tall green haired one. Something about her seemed...off to him. As if she were not even of the same species. She had some odd ear attachments of heavy metal that stuck out straight upwards...like antennae. That, coupled with the blank, emotionless stare, gave Negi and overall impression of someone who was...technological, not biological. It was the shorter one though, that drew his attention the most.

She had long blonde hair that reached nearly to her ankles, and, despite the grand masses sheeting from her head, it was straight and well taken care of. She appeared to be younger than everybody else closer to Negi's age than the others...but gave off an aura that personified her as far older. Her face, unlike the others was full of character. Sharp green eyes that reminded Negi of an imp or a demon were placed upon a face that seemed used to portraying a sinister smile...one of those said smiled being currently directed at Negi.

"Oh my. Looks like someone forgot to lock the play house door...I think it's past your naptime..."

Negi raised an eyebrow at the jibe, and his own eyes, a contrasting red flashed at those who snickered, cooling the heat. Red met green, and I don't think this will be a happy Christmas if you know what I mean. Ayaka stood up to address Eva, trying to earn some points with the new teacher.

"Evangeline-san, it is very rude to be late, and do not insult our new teacher that wa-"

"Ahh go boil your head Yurikirio, can't you see the maternity unit lost one? Of course, I don't expect a falcon eyed, cradle snatching girl like yourself to care."

Negi might try, but his looks would not simply stop Evangeline from speaking whatever effect they might have on the rest of the class... however, his eyes were having a pleasurable time burning a hole in the back of her head. Not to say Eva did not feel the attempt, but being someone with fire eyes herself; she could take the heat, and decided to return fire by turning around to stare at him.

"What are you looking at runt?"

Negi rose the other eyebrow to join the first, which had not left its position hovering below his hair line. They were threatening to disappear behind that borderline as he watched her.

"I am looking at a student who is both late and out of her seat. Not to mention being exceedingly rude. Miss McDowell, I suggest you sit down before I start handing out after school catch up sessions, preferably ones over three hours long."

A comeback? Maybe. Now, while Eva would _love_ to spend the extra time observing and playing with this individual's mind, she was not particularly inclined to waste her valuable after school time on such a thing. She took her seat near the back. She waited until he turned around to jump on his chair to reach the board did she rub the back of her head.

Kid's gotta big sting for one his age. Nagi never really had a sting unless he fought like hell and was losing. Wonder who gave him the boost?

She turned her attention back to the diminutive teacher. At least he did not speak in a monotone, his voice grabbed the attention, a trait few teachers had unfortunately. Evangeline, bored as she was, compared his technique to other teachers. He used examples and used the tone of the entertainer…

+---+

Well...wait...I'm early again...what's going on..? Oh who cares, long as I get it out, right? Still…it's a mystery I want solved! Maybe I'm working on a better schedule now?


	7. Chapter V: Cut an onion, tears come!

I'm early again. Joy. Still weird though. Maybe after this, the third time, I'll be back to normal?

I realize I am probably moving through events like a snail for some of you, but I believe it's important for me to do so at the moment. I tend to get all of the big events out in a rush and then...well, and then I don't know what to do with myself. Also, before any or you say anything, no I did not forget Library Island...I just like to switch around events. Originally, when I was introduced to this as a Manga, I read as I was given, which was book number 1, 3 then book number 2...and in my opinion, even though I read the Manga properly in order online later..((As a side note, it may be ironic to know that after reading past the Chao saga, I received for my birthday my first actual Manga book and number 11 in the series...part of the Chao sagas...))I still think the story makes more...sense....if I put Eva's introduction before Library Island...I'd also like to make a note...

The only reason Ku Fei and Negi tied was because of the large disadvantage Ku Fei had against Negi, If they had been on even footing the match would have been quite more...involved, and I do think Negi would have eventually lost, the way he is now...one also has to take into account no one used and chi/ki or magic based moves. If both were allowed to use chi, Negi would most likely have had a far harder time...there was no shundo usage here. So don't think Negi over powered _just_ yet...

Any who...here we are, so let's get moving. I hope you all understand that I do not own Negima...

+---+

Chapter 5: Even Spring Onions can make you cry.

+----+

"Sensei, why...ehh...oh forget it."

The speaker, a student, wiggled her tongue around a bit before reverting to Japanese. English could be a real tongue twister, especially when their Sensei was holding a kind of immersion session, a real test of knowledge...

"Why does the English language have so many substitutes for one thing, and why do so many different words sound exactly the same?!?"

Negi smiled at that, and answered her in Japanese, as the period was truly over anyway.

"Ahh, English is a funny language. Cite, Site and Sight. Lye and Lie and Lie. Night and Knight, Indeed, many words sound exactly the same, but it is the _context_ of where the word is that will tell you which meaning it has. If someone were to read the line "You are my knight in shining armor, surely they do not mean the word N-I-G-H-T, for that is the one for the dark time of day, the later hours. They are using the one with the "K" in front, for a gallant individual who has obtained recognition and thus received their title. Now, class, I expect that homework turned in by Friday,...today is Monday, so I'm giving you plenty of time, that's a heads up for your three over there, no excuses, in particular for you, Miss Lee. Now, I hope you practice at least a little bit tonight. You don't need to pour over any books, hold a simple conversation in English if you will, discuss a topic. You might be surprised how far you can go...Miss Xu, Lee, Sei and Tachibanuri, stay back, I need to discuss with you all about an afternoon session I hold after school...Miss Mai, you are forgetting your Algebra homework under your chair, not to mention your handbag..."

"Sensei!"

Negi turned around, trying to put on a happy face. Might as well try to preserve the strength ehh? Once he had completed the 180, he encountered a giddy face of whom could only be identified as Makie. While his class was filled with interesting people and it was, as he was quickly finding out, never a dull period with them in the room, he wished they would be able to hold an intelligent session for learn just long enough to get them through the exams...the fact that his students had personality only made him dread the time he had them more, for it actually pained him to see such people obviously fail at grasping the language he was trying so hard to frankly stuff into their heads. Yet, he had only been teaching them a day, today would make two. He still had hope...right?

"Yes, Makie-san?"

"I finished my homework Sensei! Check it please!"

_Ehh? She finished it? That's a first...according to Takamitchi; she __**never**__ finishes her homework...maybe I can actually hope?_

Negi took the page as the rest of the class slowly filed in and placed their pages on the basket he had provided, Makie had come a little early to show him her work, so she got the privilege of an early review. It was also a sign that she really wanted him to look it over, so he had taken the message accordingly...His eyes zoomed over the page as he made a quick assessment, and when he was finished he was quite surprised. It took him but thirty seconds.

_Little mistake there, but surprisingly small, just a confusion of tenses...This one's okay...this one too! Okay, so she forgot a period on this one, an unfortunately common and embarrassing mistake of a texting college student, but she forgot it due to forgetting the rule not being an avid thumb happy talker, the rest of the sentence if fine...ahh, this one should have a semi colon sign instead of just a comma, but that is an obscure rule I went over briefly, It still can work, I'll just explain that later...Not bad...not bad...ahh, that's the name of an established park, should be capital...pretty good overall though..If I tally it mentally...Over all, it's a 6.6...oh wait, she did the extra credit too! Hmm...this is correct...that one's wrong though...wrong verb tense and there shouldn't be a comma there...this one's a run on...this one's good...this last one is fine... over all, I said I'd give an extra .2 for each of the correct extras for a total of 1 whole if they got all five..she had three...7.2._

'Not bad Makie-san, not bad at all, you've been practicing I see...these little notes on the side to help you remember the rules are nice, if they help you I'm all for you to continue doing it. Seven point two out of ten. "

"Ehh!? Seven? I never get seven...is Sensei bending the rules for me?"

Negi pulled a falsely offended face.

"What?! I'm appalled! I'd never! Check it yourself, you earned the seven plus, you only made a couple mistake that brought you down...here, here and here. You see? The verb is past tense here, not future, and you forgot a period here...this is a semicolon, not a comma, but I only explained those briefly, so I wasn't too hard on you there. You did the extra credit too, which helped your grade quite a bit..."

A couple last stragglers walked in and Negi gave back Makie her paper, and stood on his chair.

"Someone shut the door please, if anyone's late, they'll have to knock-"

"Oh, Sensei, how nice, about to lock me out of the door? Here I thought we were starting to form a nice and solid teacher pupil relationship..."

Negi did not even need to turn around; he had heard enough of her voice the previous session to attach it to the face.

"Ahh, McDowell-san, a second late in hell is a lifetime early in death. This, as you were so kind to state this morning, is Hell. Shut the door will you, and would you be so kind as to tell me if you have your homework from Friday?"

He did not need to turn around to know the answer was no, even if she answered or not.

"Remind me to give you a slip for after school sessions Miss McDowell, you have earned the prize. We are going to have crumpets today, so you're extra lucky."

He heard a couple of suppressed snickers and a huff, followed by the subtle sound of hair against cloth and heel on floor.

"Please open your books to page 289 this time. This is your second session today, and the day is nearly over, so you should know the drill by now."

+---+

"Miss McDowell, I really feel hate to see such a brilliant individual such as yourself wasting yours and my time by sitting here. 9 points on the first try. I had a feeling that Japanese was not your first language. You only messed up here."

"So I screwed a conjunction, who cares? I'm outta here."

She turned around in a classic cold shoulder motion, but Negi stopped her with his voice.

"Miss McDowell"

_I swear, he has all the annoying traits of an old and fat seasoned professor, but none of the bulk. Why does everything have to come mini now? Mini phones, Mini music players, Mini computers, mini professors. When did he go on the market?_

"What?"

"You are not the only one with problems you know."

"What?!"

"You may leave."

Eva stared at him. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "You are not the only one with problems..." She knew that already...what was he implying...what the heck did he know about _her_? Dammit, she was tabbing _him_ not the other way around...but nah, it just must be some friggin empty statement designed to shake her...She continued to gawk at him though...Negi looked up and raised an eyebrow at her when he had affirmed she was officially staring at him.

"What's the matter? You were itching to leave not even a minute ago, now you stare at me like a jeweler would a mythical gem they have just discovered exists. The only time I want to see shock like that is during an earthquake miss McDowell... Now please, you may take your leave, I have an after school session to run..."

"Oh, so now you think your funny?'

"Miss McDowell, spell that "you're""

"What the hell? Y-O-U-R, why?'

"Incorrect. The correct tense you should have used in that statement "Oh so now you think you're funny?" is spelled Y-O-U with an apostrophe, followed by R-E. Y-O-U-R-E. Good day Miss McDowell."

Good day my foot. Even though Negi turned his attention away from her and started another drill with his remaining students, she continued to stand there and stare knives at him. The only problem was that the knives were having no effect on the pocket-sized teacher...Yet, she still stared...

Eventually she'll have to give up...

Hopefully...

_I am going to drain the boy of every last drop he had in the puny little form he calls a body._

+---+

Leaves swirled around two figures standing opposite each other, perfectly still. A soft wind, the same one that carried the leaves, played with their hair and the hems of their clothes. There were two other figures sitting on the ledge created by the nearby fountain the two standing had between them. One, the shorter one, raised a golden staff and spoke.

"Sakurazaki-san, my blade is here...."

With a quick twist of the heart and practiced tug, the golden tube came free, and Negi, stuffing the tube into his belt, now held a winged rapier. The thing was about as longer, or perhaps longer, than he was tall, but, being a rapier, was light and perfect for a sword of one his size. Even though the blade was thin, one could see it was made with a good material, and was well taken care of; it was sturdy enough to clash with the opposite katana. What most did not know was that Negi held a second blade, shorter and stouter than his rapier, a short sword. It was normally hidden within his clothes, but he had taken it out, it now rested at his side in its sheath for all to see, and Setsuna gave it a quick glance before smiling.

"You never told me you handle two blades."

"I only do so when I need too. Are you ready today Sakurazaki?"

She narrowed her eyes. Yesterday had been...odd. Something had simply just...told her that she could not fight, no questions asked. It had been odd and even disturbing, but it was gone now...there were no foreboding feelings of crossing blades today... it was odd though, she had only just met this teacher and already, she wanted to spar him. That was an oddity she had no explanation for except that this teacher was quite a personality...Setsuna looked over at Konoka, who was fancying herself as Referee...she was still wearing her outfit from the omai however....

This was going to be distracting....

"Are you ready....set?"

"Konoka...this isn't a car race...you don't say ready set go..."

"Aww come on Asuna-san, where's your sense of creativity?"

_I don't think saying Ready Set Go as being particularly creative... _

"Go!"

Despite the awkward starting signals, the two took the signal immediately and closed the gap in nearly a blink of an eye to clash blades, causing sparks to fly. Unknown to the four people however, there were to extra spectators in the trees.

"Master...why are we spying on sensei in a sword fight? The chances of him incorporating swordplay as a manner of defense against us effectively are less than 0.9827502749571%..."

"I want to map this boy's skill out if you don't mind...and how many times have I told you to can the percentages?"

"Approximately seventy eight thousand nine hundred and-"

"Shut it! I'm trying to watch."

((I just realized I'm rusty with battle senses....Oh well.))

Setsuna brought her blade down to bear upon Negi's right shoulder, but found it blocked when Negi slashed his blade towards her neck, causing the two to meet and spark again. She slid hers down and tried to twist it upwards to get at the crook of his left armpit, but he twisted his blade and performed an unorthodox moved, swinging his blade like almost like a pendulum in his left and knocking hers out of range from him. He then grabbed it and snapped it up and out, aiming for her chin, but she twisted sideways away from that and tried a slash to the right kidney area. He spun so it came towards his left, where his blade was, and once again, the two knocked each other, in passing though, because Negi used the momentum from his spin to force himself out of her range. He spun to face her just as she had closed the gap and had a slash aimed towards his torso. He brought his blade out to stop that, making the two blades meet near, but not touching, his right kidney.

((I should do better than that..))

The two detached blades and stared at each other. Setsuna with her katana in her right, Negi with his rapier in his left. Negi gave a half smile. He raised his blade and swung it toward her left shoulder, but of course, this deliberate move was blocked. It was funny...if it were not for the fact of Setsuna being as short as she was, or Negi's blade as long, this battle might have had the same factors as the one against Ku Fei. Blades helped much...

+---+

"I'm tired of watching this...it's boring now...all they do is bang those thing pieces of metal against one another to create sparks. No blood, no matter what the other one does. The kid slides his blade up hers; she twists hers away and knocks his off course. She tries to feint a slash and bore through the resulting block, he dodges the feint and blocks the bore. It's like reading some fairy tale where both opponents are friends of equal strength and they wear each other out...I want some...ahh!"

The fight had Eva's attention now....Setsuna had slashed at Negi, and when he had blocked, she had sent a firm palm strike straight into his gut, and then, when he had been knocked back, slashed his upper right arm, near the triceps. Negi grimaced.

'First blood is mine Sensei!"

He closed an eye and raised his blade.

"Ha! So you want got tired of simply using your blade and resorted to really trying to fight now ehh? Fine, then I'll do that too! Watch yourself..."

Negi rushed her and swung his blade towards her torso with his left hand, while he did this, he simultaneously shot out his right elbow. When she blocked his slash and grabbed his elbow, he shot out his right foot and hooked hers, tripping her up. He then slashed downwards to try and get her knees, but she pulled them up and parried on the ground before jumping back up and away from him. He didn't let her rest though; he had rushed her again, swinging for her right with his left arm while reaching out to grab a strike she was sending his way with her own left. He managed to grab it and twisted the hand, making her let out a quick yell and providing enough distraction to let his own slash land. on her blade arm, unlike her, he had aimed for the lower arm below the elbow giving her a long slash from there to near the wrist (On the back, not the front, he didn't slash those veins..)

"Now we're even, pick up your pace Sakurazaki..."

Oh, she picked up the pace alright...and she never let him do that trick again.

+---+

((About an hour later...))

"Goddam..Aren't they tired yet?!"

"Set-chan's gonna win!"

"Ohh...i'm not so sure about that Konoka...ouch!"

"Set-chan! Sensei's mean!"

"Hey...that was perfectly legal...you do that to me in videogames..."

"That's a videogame, this is real-life!"

"Difference please? Same move, same result. Setsuna's up anyway...oh wait...spoke to soon...The kid's slammed her into the ground...that reminds me...where are the blades?!"

That was true. The blades had been all but forgotten. The fight had gotten to a point where the fierceness made the combatants forsake their blades and quite nearly wrestle on the floor for a bit. Still, they were not forgotten, as Setsuna had grabbed hers and tried to use it to bore Negi off her. It worked...minimally. Once on her feet again she had to contend with the fact she had given Negi time to pull out his short sword and rush her. His rapier was...well, who knew, she couldn't see it, and she was too busy parrying this demon. He was coming at her like a madman now, slashing in any possible frontal direction. His blows were making her blade _vibrate_...

_How strong is he anyway!?_

Her experience lent her leverage though, as he struck, she forced him away and back, making him slide and giving her an opportunity to return fire. She slashed at his shoulder, but in mid flight twisted her blade so it would fly directly upwards and down upon his noggin. He had fallen for it by trying to block the shoulder, but he realized the fault of his actions just in time to avoid getting sliced like a nice, crisp apple down the middle. Setsuna had expected this and tried to trip him up, but received a small cut on her knee and a scolding for trying.

"You should know better by now Sakurazaki!"

"So, he's enduring. Good. That will make taking him down ever so much more fun. He can have all the endurance he wants, all he'll be doing is running...or struggling...I can just feel him squirm...."

".....Master..."

"....Take out the blood, completely dry...maybe I'll spare the body...or no, I might like having fun making it a punching bag...I'd have to remove the innards though..I could just cut off the head and make a marter, but that would be pointless..."

".....Master...."

"Then again, I could just let him be my little minion...it would be fun, a little kiddie to do my bidding...not to mention a skilled one like that, completely under my control to bend at my will..."

"....Master...."

"Ohh, I wonder if Nagi is still alive out there...wouldn't this be a shock, me coming to him with his child as my slave...that might finally kill that ever-present annoying smirk on his face."

".....Master...."

"Hmm, but knowing him, he might not even recognize me...or remember he has a son, such a dolt he is..."

"....Master...."

"I think he is perhaps the only human being who carries around a book with his spells listed in them, but only knows about six of them by himself...I mean, he dropped out of flipping magic school, elementary! How much of a dunce can you be?"

".....Master...."

Ahh, the ever enduring patience of a robot. Chachamaru could probably sit there all day doing that...What is she trying to tell her beloved master? Ahh, but we have a fight to continue watching...don't we?

Speaking of which...

"Yay, Set-chan won..."

"It's not over yet."

"No? Set-chan has him in a full body lock, the only thing she didn't do is get her blade at his neck yet..."

"Something he's fighting like hell to prevent I see."

"Set-chan wins. I'm ref, so what I say goes!"

"When did anyone ever agree on that? Besides, he's loose...wait...HOW'D HE GET LOOSE?"

Negi wasn't fighting however. True he had broken the hold, and true Setsuna was still on the floor and he was standing, but he wasn't pressing the attack, and neither was she....she was laughing her head off at the show Konoka and Asuna were putting up, and Negi...well, he was just shaking his head at his opponent and just heaving.

"What are you...a delinquent?! Sitting there laughing your head off!"

"What's so funny...?"

'Setsuna's lost her mind, that's what. I've never seen her laugh like that. Sensei must have knocked a few screws loose on her."

Negi went down on one knee, propped up with his short sword. He was still silently heaving.

"Never had I expected to receive such a show from you Sensei, never! It was incredible!"

He looked up at her. His eyes looked glassy and dark, as if he were zombified.

"You...went easy on me. Don't lie...you won this one...but don't you ever insult me like that again Sakurazaki-san. Don't ever go easy on me."

Setsuna stopped laughing long enough to stare into those eyes. They really looked dead, but they had a kind of sinister calm to them. He seemed angry...no...disappointed...no...something else. That look he was giving her shut her down completely...Negi used his sword to push himself up off the ground and then, taking his staff out, leaned on that while he sheathed his weapon and walked away....this was also the time when, after calling her for the twelfth time, Eva finally answered her mechanical partner with the typical, if strained to reduce volume, "Whaat?!?"

"They are finished sparing Master. I am assuming Sakurazaki-san won the match, yet currently both combatants are on the floor and Sakurazaki's body language is starting to adapt something similar to fear."

"Fear? In the inscrutable body guard? Move over."

+----+

An attack on one of his students. How...disturbing.

Negi had visited the nurse's office to check up on the student in question, which turned out to be the ever bouncy and bubbly Makie-san.

Not so bouncy now, ehh?

Negi watched the window as he sat, looking at the other visitors Makie had. She was asleep, and according to the nurse, was completely fine except for a large amount of blood loss. The anemia made her sleepy, and while she slept, an I.V was being used to replenish her nutrients. She was perfectly healthy otherwise, so her body would produce more blood to replace the lost quantity quickly...she'd be out by tonight the latest...whenever she woke up...

What interested Negi though was the blood loss part. Where had she lost the blood? There were no injuries except a tiny double impression on the neck, a bite. It invited the imagination it did. In fact, it had captivated Negi's own mind, which had spun a tale of Evangeline A.K McDowell revealing her true malicious attitude, giving the excuse that, of course, she was a vampire. His mind envisioned a confrontation, a beat down, himself getting beat down of course, and the draining of his own vitality, down to the last drop and then that too. Evangeline nursed no soft spots for him as far as he knew...he pulled himself from that vision. Silly speculation and imaginative overdrive...he needed sleep...especially after yesterday's drain on his stores of energy. Setsuna had beaten him soundly after a long after school English 101... Then he went home and was confronted by hordes of students who had questions...about homework, about this topic or that...one student from Class 3-K had actually come with Math homework by mistake...but he helped her with that anyway...big mistake, as, from the looks some of the students gave each other, he now would most likely be serving the mathematically challenged with free in-dorm tutoring. By the time he had finished, the dinner made was finished too some of it from guests he had been helping... so Negi, beating off the apologies of Konoka and the offers of making something for him, he fixed himself something before heading for the bathhouse. He didn't have fun there either...he had gotten a little _too_ relaxed in the place and nearly drowned himself in a pool of water. Then, he nearly got run over by some late night sauna goers and had to deal with their shrieks from discovering a tiny person of the opposite gender in the area. Oh the joys of life were endless. By the time he got to bed, it was nearly time to get up anyway, so, he forsook the warm and comfy couch for the hard floor and piles of homework in need of being checked for Wednesday afternoon...even though it was early Tuesday morning...

Now Negi found a student who had inexplicably lost a large quantity of blood and collapsed, a tired brain wrung from a day of classes, and a speculation of Evangeline that was only getting stronger...so strong in fact he felt he should forsake the laws of common sense and go and talk to her..he knew her address from the roster...but no. Normal people until proven otherwise. That was an unfortunate law he had to follow. He'd have to keep his magic and knowledge under lock and key for now..

+---+

After a long pause, I realize..I don't want to put any more in this chapter...So I will obey my feelings and close it. Next one coming soon...wait.....nevermind.


	8. Chapter VI: Hit me!

Okay, now we go on for the sixth chapter. I hope I can get some good work done for here...this one might have a bit of odd humor in it...I get the feeling it might...so be warned. Also, we are fast approaching yet another battle for Negi, this one where we might finally see Negi use his magic! I warn you though, as you saw in the prologue..Negi's magic arsenal is..slightly different then what you all are used too...ohh..this will be interesting!! I htink...no, maybe not...somethign else comes to mind...

Of course, I do not own Negima, If I did, I would be rich, which I am not. One reason I realize I am able to update so quickly now..I don't have a proper computer at home to play and MMO's or even run FireFox properly, so I utilize the school free time to write. I don't own Super Smash Brothers Melee either..not even a copy of the game! Sad.

+---+

Chapter Six: Dealer, Hit me! No, not physically!

+---+

(I don't mean to bore you, but for some reason I want to play a card game...)

"Hit me."

"Six." That makes fourteen."

"Again. Please."

"Seven..ohhh..lucky. Twenty One, Sensei."

"Obviously I'm standing."

"I'm out."

"Hit me."

"Twenty three. Out."

"Hit me!"

"Yuna, you already have twenty two, you're out.."

"I do?! Oh yeah..I do."

"I'm standing, and challenging. Twenty one."

"Ohh, a jack and an ace, nice Set-chan...ahh! Dealers out. I got twenty six.."

"Wow, that' the first time I've seen a dealer bust their hand.."

"You play this game often Sensei?"

"Often enough..thank you...ahh..Hmm...an ace and a ten...luck seems to be with me. I can only stand."

"Set-chan?"

"Hit."

"Five. Ohh..again! Six, five and a Queen."

"Ha, Sakurazaki-san seems to be quite a card shark here...even if it is your first time. Another round I suppose..ahh, yes, Miss Xu, you finished?"

"Yes sensei, could you check it?"

"Sensei, hit or stand?"

"Ahh...I'll stand this time. Twenty. Yes..this is the wrong punctuation mark here, this is what we call a statement or command sentence. It ends in a period, not a question mark..I could though, but it would be slightly awkward..."

"Set-chan's got Twenty-one!"

"Well, what are the chances, three in a row Sakurazaki-san , congratulations...ahh, yes..this one should be capitalized here and here..this is someone's name, right?"

Typical evening in the dorm room of Asuna, Konoka and Negi. Well, at least it was typical with Negi around. While previously it had been a quiet existence of only Konoka and Asuna, occasionally punctuated by vistits from a few friends, Negi changed that the very Friday he had come, punctuating the simple existence by attracting hordes of students from other classes into the dorm for their late night problems solving. The dorm had practically become Negi's office, where students could come, have a seat and get help with their homework...literally all of it. The students had discovered Negi was a practical gold mine of information that transcended English and reached into all the other topics, and he was a willing, easily available, (He's right in the dorm after all...) and friendly teacher..not to mention he was something almost every student could call cute and want to cuddle..(Although they would have to try over his dead body.)

Although, students had quickly learned sense. It was only Tuesday, yet all visitors know they had to take care of their manners and keep their "bloody hands to themselves" Negi was friendly and willing only when it came to teaching. Anything else...well, to put it simply, you'd have a more pleasurable time hugging a large, thorny rose bush in the below zero weather with no clothes on. Negi was a strange individual, and odd things ticked him off..like going easy on him in battle. Negi's eyes were still not as warm as they once were when glancing in Setsuna's direction. One odd thing students had discovered about him is that he became a bit upset if you walked in the dorm with your shoes still on. Shoes off at the door, period. They also found it odd that he would wipe the sink and the fixtures on it dry after using it..what was the point of that?! Wasn't it going to get wet again anyway? When asked, he would only respond thus: "Wet sink fixtures and door knobs equals easily sick people."

Besides this though, Negi could be fun. Like teaching students who where just here to visit or had finished their homework Blackjack, or beating the tar out of anyone who dared challenge him to Super Smash Brothers Melee...with Pikachu for Christ's sake! (Although he admits, he favorite character to play is Kirby..he causes carnage if he plays Kirby.) Negi also has been known to display an uncanny skill with creating Origami, although he prefers to draw..and unlike most children his age, no, there are no stick figures or elongated, floating people near a house that is far to small for them and a sun that is dangerously close to roasting them alive. Negi has, by now, graced the refrigerator with an ongoing project that has required quite a few magnets. He has covered the surface of the fridge door with paper and has been continually filling all the paper up with one colossal drawing of wildlife, dragons and fairies,a typical scene a dwarf in a tale of some kind might see if they peek through their door in the early morning...heck he even had a dwarf's head sticking out out near the bottom from his doorway, as if, indeed, he were the one feasting his eyes upon this site...but enough about that. We are not here to hear about Negi's artistry...

"Okay, okay, everyone..it's ten minutes to lights out..I think we can wrap up now...No miss Xu, I'm sorry, but You can't sleep over here...there would be nowhere for you to sleep. Miss Kasumi...you are leaving you're leaving your history homework..no matter if I teach you more than he has ever done, you still need to turn it in to them...not me. Ayi, papi! Miss Yuu! I believe this laptop is yours! Miss Mio almost tripped over it...this is expensive equipment, no? Yes!! ...Miss Noriko, I shall hand in your homework when I give the rest of the class theirs tomorrow, okay? Oii! That's a table you are about to walk into! Don't text and drive, nor walk in a unfamiliar environment Miss..Suzume! Ahh ha, thought I would have forgotten your name ehh? I may have hundreds of them to memorize, and you may stay silent in class, but don't think I don't know who you are! Ey...hey! Yes, you! Madam Honoka, don't try to sneak away and leave me with your Homework while you are at it! I want you to look this over. The rest of you out...Oh don't you even dare try to hide in the bathroom..Miss Yuu..I swear, the things you all come up with just to stick around...scat!"

Negi may be the cause of the nightly visitations, but he could certainly get rid of it in a hurry. He frankly pushed people out of the room, without laying a finger on any of them..

That was just Negi's teacher mode talking. After they all left he dropped it like a hot potato and assumed a look one might label depressed. He cast his eyes about and picked up a book he had brought over from England...one of the books that had broken loose at the airport; " Advanced dc/ac Circuit Analysis : Building, Relaying and Constructing on the processor level."

"I'll be on the couch if any one still needs me for something...I'm starting to regret not bringing along a flipping breadboard on this trip...Bored out of my bloody mind. Maybe I'll go buy one..."

Pondering this, he left the two remaining girls and went to the couch to sit. Konoka blinked.

"You'll never get used to his brashness huh Konoka? You're used to kids being little cutesy things right?"

"No..not really...It's just...he seems to..nice, even happy, while he's teaching...but take that away and all you have is an mildly rude emo with an affinity for stereotypical english phrases."

"...explain that again in Japanese please?"

"You need to expand your vocabulary Asuna-san..that was Japanese.."

"I mean in lay-mans terms, as Sensei would call them."

"Sensei is bipolar, and his switch is teaching."

"Ohh...wait...what?"

"You are hopeless...."

Negi's voice floated from the living area on the couch.

"Oh, so you expect me to be all "Pip pip cheerio Smashing day is it not?!" all the time? Go get a rock from Mars and teach it to speak Enlgish, you'll have better luck, and I know, before you even say it, that you did not want a comment from the peanut gallery. To bad I'm just rotten like that huh? I'm a walnut."

Asuna pulled a weird face at that one.

"Ehh?!?"

"...Oh never mind."

+---+

"Just a few more...if I can just get my hands on the blood of a virgin, a clean minded virgin, I'll be perfect..but the damn Media keeps getting in my way! To many shows about consumation goddammit...! Ohh..what do we have here?"

"Student number 27, Miyazaki Nodoka. Has an innate fear of the male population. Masater, clean minded virgin target number one."

"Hmph, sometimes, I think I'm starting to do the impossible, rubbing off on a robot. That almost sounded perfectly sinister Chachamaru."

"Are you prepared to strike?"

"Hell yes. Hell to the fff--*bleep* yes."

((Hey, hey! I'm trying to keep it clean...even if it is teen...ahh who cares I just don't like cursing..))

Evangeline jumpped lightly out of the tree she had been sitting in and smacked down upon a light post, a quiet, still sillouhete against the moon, which was just rounding past three quarters...

+---+

"I hate to say it, but bloody flipping hell. It's only when you leave the place do you realize how stuffy it is in there. Good faith, how much shampoo, conditioner, spray, deodarant, perfume and whatever else do those two need to keep decent in theri eyes? Not only that, but does it all have to have such an overpowering scent? Come on, you can't have that many scents battling each other, who's gonna win the fight? Nasal overload."

Negi took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air. He was walking along Cherry blossum street, and he was surprised to see another individual walking along in front of him. Someone else appreciate the late night air? It didn't seem so..this person was rushing along, holding tight to whatever it was they were carrying...Negi saw a shadow detatch from the trees and land on a lightpost...it stared down at the person rushing past, and Negi felt an odd forboding...he cursed the fact he'd left heartbreaker in the dorm...but he had brought his star wand...

+---+

"...Mabye it's not scary...ahh!"

Nodoka, having disobeyed one of the first rules of preventing accidents and neglecting to look where she was going, tripped and sent all the supplies she had been carrying flying in different directions.

God...why do I have to be such a klutz? All over some stupid...stupid..vam..vam...what is that?!

"Student number 27, Miyazaki Nodoka...do..ahh crap..."

Evangeline jumped lightly off the light post and smacked down unto the pavement. The girl had collapsed.

"Hmph. Weak hearted fool, she fainted. Oh well, makes my job easier..if more boring.."

"Ohh..so you want excitement? You should have told me sooner McDowell san..I would have well provided the fun.."

Eva turned, widening her eyes before jumping out of the way of a well placed ice spell, which froze the ground where she had been standing and made a nice display of jagged crystals instead of a frozen statue of Evangeline.

"Evangeline A.K McDowell-san, Student number twenty-sxi on my roster, the owner of both an attitude in need of serious adjustment and apparently, the inablility to distinguish between a classmate and prey. If you have a grudge, the best method is talking you know..no need to go attacking Miyazaki-san, she's a quiet girl, what's she done to you, ehh?"

Oh god, she knew that voice anywhere. Turnging around, her emrald eyes met rubies winking from the bushes. A shining star wand reflected the light from the streets errily. She couldn't help but laugh.

"Ohhh ho ho ho...lookie, it shines! What are you going to do, pull a rabbit out of your hat? Ahh, but you don't even have a hat! Shame Sensei, shame!"

Negi let her gloat fly over his head though, he simply narrowed his eyes and returned fire.

"How about I make you into a rabbit for my stew?"

That shut her up for about a second.

"Oh, so you have jokes?"

"No joke Evangeline. Now, I'm not very superstitious...but I've heard some tales.."

He walked out of the bushes, his wand still pointed at her. She didn't even move a muscle, even as he approached.

"You know, wierd tales. About a vampire attacking students..draining them nearly dry and leaving them to be found. That begets something..."

He continued to approach, yet still, she didn't flinch, rather, she was slowly reaching behind her back....as she does this, she neglects to realize that Negi's star wand is slightly glowing, not reflecting the street lights...

"That begets empathy...you didn't want to kill them, yet you drained only just enough to control them, for a small amount of time...for someone who pretends not to care, you sure put a lot of control into draining them, and into leaving them out in the open to be found quickly."

He stopped approaching about two yards from her. Her hand closed in upon a couple bottles of liquid ice...however, Negi gets her first. In a silent blast, Negi casts a spell that Eva had been expecting to recieve a warning with voice...

Flans Exclamito!

Oh how the mighty can fall. Eva was disarmed without even an inkling of what the heck happened..until she glanced at the wand and saw it still glowing.

Shit.

"Unincanted spells are very uselfull miss vampire...but I'm sure you already know that. Perhpas you just did not expect one my age to be able to cast them, or even, cast magic itself? True, many my age have not even grasped the concept of magic...but I'm not many my age. You either will abandon this nonsense or fight me here, without the benefits of tricks I assume you are capable of."

Eva still had her hands behind her back, and they were still clutching ten bottles of liquid ice, protected by the blast by pure chance. Her hands caressed them to get the feel for her only current lifeline.

_Ten rounds. Not what I expected to have to play with. He disarmed me before even seeing what I had to offer, meaning he's either over cautious or trigger happy. Neither of which is something I particularly want to deal with right now, considering his father, I'd say trgger happy, but seeing him in class, I'd say over cautious..a puzzle..why not play a trump card? _

"Okay, okay, so you managed to catch me off guard, big deal, your father would be proud and all that junk. Or would he? The thousand master fought people head on as they say..he didn't use little tricks like disarment..."

Of all the thiongs Eva expected, the least was a blank face that said: "What the hell?"

Negi blinked and stopped, looking at her carefully before he actually said what his face displayed.

"What the hell? Who?"

If it were possible, que the facefault now. Eva's face looked like she had just run headlong into a brick wall..or a street light pole.

"Your father."

"Who? I know of no person whom I can pin down that titel upon, thank you very much..except the lord in religion."

"You have got to be joking.."

"I'm sory, but I am no clown..and the last time I checked I am not an extra in a deck of cards..I don't know my father, so whatever you were trying to accomplish just no obviously won't work..."

_He doesn't know his father..he doesn't know his father...what the hell..he does not know his father...his friggin baka of a father who happens to be world famous and he has never even heard of him...oh happy day..  
_

She did not feel like playing anymore, so she spun around and sent a liquid ice bottle flying at him as fast as she could, which was quite speedy, thank you. Negi only just managed to stop it short with some wind and was just in time to see her kick off the ground and head for the skies.

"Flipping vampires always fly the coop when things get ugly.'

Negi observed his surroundings, taking in the buildings and the streets. He grabbed the bottle he had stopped, which had been floating in midair for him, and ran to the nearest building to kick off it. He then continued kicking off, doing a series of wall kicks along the sides of adjacent buildings until he was on the roof and able to run along the higher plains. He gave chase that way, jumping between the gaps with abandon, if anyone saw him, they might think him a reckless daredevil, but Negi knew what he was doing...

Eva glanced down to see Negi running along side her from below. She twisted in the air to avoid a random spear of fire he sent her way via incantation. She then had to cut off, going to towards the left quickly, for the fire spear came back down before actually....exploding, and nearly knocking her out of the air.

_So, he has resources, huh? Running along roofs..interesting..but what happens when you run out of roofs to run along ehh Sensei? Not only that..but exploding spears?! What level is he, at his age? Unincanted spell work and tracking, exploding spears, not arrows, along with pretty decent ice spells....hmph, and all I have right now are nine...ice bottles?! _

Eva once again almost lost her position in the air as a wind copy came at her, only when she dodged it, making it pass under her, it actually acted in response and threw a bottle of liquid ice..her bottle of liquid ice...at her. It exploded on contact and nearly brought her all the way down. She recovered quickly though...but not quickly enough.

Once Eva was low enough, Negi jumped up, not for another rooftop, but for Eva herself, and he succeeded, grabbing unto her legs and causing her her yelp out.

"What the hell?! Get off me you leech!"

+----+

Hate to split it up, but I am fresh out of feeling for this chapter...I'll have to continue on another one. I wanted this one to have something more in it though...something better....I'll just have to place it in the next one...grrr....this is a bit short...oh wow...I'm calling this short..I used to type 1,000 words, now I am calling something that must be over 3,000 short. Hmph...I have been typing at a 5,000 to 4,000 word average lately it seems. Maybe the next chapter will make up for it...ehh. Till next time my friends...


	9. Chapter VII: It's raining chibi's!

Hello. Already, at Eight installments, Young Negi: An Applied Approach trumps the original Young Negi in word count, even though that one has seventeen chapters. A sign of improved style? Or am I just rambling on more now? Well, looking back, I think I'm a bit better, or at least have more time to be better in my work...I at least make less typos and put more detail! I type faster now too...but who cares!? We have a story to read, don't we? Well, you have to read it, I have to write it...You don't want to hear about my problems, so lets just get it going! The ninth installment, and the seventh chapter.

+---+

If I have said it once, I have said it again and again...I will once more say it, and perhaps continue saying it till the end of this stories time. I do not, in anyway, own Negima, thank you.

+---+

Chapter 7: It's raining onions and chibis out there...

Priviously on Negima! (Sorry, bad pun.)

...Eva glanced down to see Negi running alongside her from below. She twisted in the air to avoid a random spear of fire he sent her way via incantation. She then had to cut off, going to towards the left quickly, for the fire spear came back down before actually....exploding, and nearly knocking her out of the air.

_So, he has resources, huh? Running along roofs..interesting..but what happens when you run out of roofs to run along ehh Sensei? Not only that..but exploding spears?! What level is he, at his age? Unincanted spell work and tracking, exploding spears, not arrows, along with pretty decent ice spells....hmph, and all I have right now are nine...ice bottles?! _

Eva once again almost lost her position in the air as a wind copy came at her, only when she dodged it, making it pass under her, it actually acted in response and threw a bottle of liquid ice..her bottle of liquid ice...at her. It exploded on contact and nearly brought her all the way down. She recovered quickly though...but not quickly enough.

Once Eva was low enough, Negi jumped up, not for another rooftop, but for Eva herself, and he succeeded, grabbing unto her legs and causing her her yelp out.

"What the hell?! Get off me you leech!"

+---+

Now, we continue...

+---+

"Get off!"

"No."

"You perverted onion, stop staring up there!"

'May you please relay me what's perverted about looking at a stoplight?"

"Let go of me!"

"...Riiiight, I let go of you and go splat on the ground in a nice little red puddle of bones and blood, which would be convenient for you, wouldn't it?"

"I'll blast you off."

"You can't, or you would have done it already."

"Then I'll use my ice."

"Freezing us both in midair to plunge to an untimely death? My, I never knew you were suicidal McDowell san, may I recommend Prozac?"

"Don't you dare try to be funny..."

"I already told you, I am no clown."

Eva kept going lower even though she was straining with all her might to get higher. Like it or not, her power was simply not enough to keep two people up in the air, even if Negi weighed just about the same a large rice bag would. So, instead of continuing to strain, she tried to use it to her advantage and aimed for poles and power lines..not for herself of course, but for Negi...of course, Negi was not shy when it came to personal safety, he just climbed up further, which caused Eva a great amount of..discomfort.

"Hey..hey! Would you quit it you..you.."

"You what? Do you dare insult yourself by calling me a gerontophile?"

"A...what?!"

Negi did not answer, but the two of them were close enough to a roof for him to reach up and send both his feet right into her midsection, winding her and making her drop..right on top of the roof, Negi being the loftiest. He got off a bit slowly, although, whether the reason be due to injury or because he wanted to prolong the suffering of the one underneath him, one will never be able to tell..take your pick. As he left from his position, he spoke.

"A genrontophile, for future reference McDowell san, is a person who is...as you may put it, "turned on" by an older person in the same way a pedophile would a younger."

"....You...are willing to call yourself that...?"

Negi turned around to look at Eva's still downed form. Her face was, oddly, bright red. Internally, a buried demon in Negi's soul wickedly smiled and rubbed its hands together.

"Ahh, call me a genronto and I will be forced to call you a pedo, what's with the cherry colored face batty?"

Eva, allowing her face to return to normal, barked at him with the famous scorned abandon a woman of her caliber could summon, although, she needed to work on her material a bit.

"Batty? BATTY? What kind of lame excuse for an insult is that Onion Head?"

"Onion head is either greater than or equal to Batty in lameness."

As Negi claimed this, he walked to the edge of the roof they were on. It was one of the faculty areas, the dorms were further off. He turned back to look at her.

"Looks like we both need to work on our material ehh? Tell you what, I'll leave you like this for now and go, maybe next time you'll think, huh?"

Just as he said this, Negi jumped off to the side to avoid about three ice bottles tossed his way. He sent an arrow of ice at it to freeze it in midair and thus diffuse it's worth before it did something down below. He extended his hand at her, and the magic that gathered in it came with such a speed his hair was pushed back, he was pissed.

_**"Incendia laqueus!"**_

_What the hell?_

Eva sent the rest of her ice hurling at Negi to counter a spell that, she was surprised to find, was either new to her or forgotten. It wound up being pointless though, the resulting spell actually made her own ice work against her. Before Eva's bottles had even travelled a foot in the air, a cage of fire surrounded her on all sides, and the bottles smacked against it, making a wall of ice that only served as a big icicle for hell to melt. The hell?

Well, this was interesting, there was a literal cage of fire around her. It seemed as if thousands of arrows had intertwined themselves into a crazy spherical cage of fire to twist and turn around her eerily, the arrow points still sticking out at both points like spikes. Then there was the brat, who was looking sorry....

"Shoot, I shouldn't lose my temper to a poor old vampire like you who obviously is all potion and talk. Sorry, sorry, should I let the poor girl out of her cage? You know there is a book by that title, girl in a cage...would you like to hear about it?'

Literally, the spell meant "Fire trap" in Latin, but this was a friggin cage, not a trap...

"Hell no."

Goddamn..how long did it take for Chachamaru to figure out she needed her anyway? The tin-head was supposed to get a signal as soon as she had been disarmed...!

"Okay then, perhaps I should just leave you here then, till next time?"

"Get me outta this friggin thing!"

"Ohh, you can get yourself out..I'm pretty sure you're skilled enough for that...I expect you in class tomorrow after all...heh."

Negi turned back to the edge of the roof.

"Now, how the heck do I get off this thing? It's a bit too far for my liking to try and jump it to the next roof..I don't feel like climbing down either...what a pain..."

He looked back at Eva just in time to see something flash off to the side of him. What the heck? What was today? Ambush the onion day? Negi again jumped off to the side just in time to avoid getting booted in the face by..a flying robot?! He managed to duck the resulting roundhouse the being went into after missing with the planned blow to the face. Negi came back up in time to block a punch that sent him sliding. Only then did he identify his opponent. His surprise was enough that he lost concentration upon his cage of fire, which slowly dissipated.

"Karikuri-san?"

Two on one. A robot and a pissed off vampire. Not a good combination...jumping from one roof to another suddenly seemed a whole lot more appetizing an option. Negi took one look and gave it his best leap.

_Hypocrite...and he calls me suicidal?!_

"Chachamaru."

"Yes Master."

Poor kid. It was gravity against a high tech over mach speed capable mechanical. Negi was scooped up like a gardener does an unwelcome snail upon their rose buds. The squashing was next, right?

"Oh poor _child_...you were doing _soo_ well."

Negi let his limbs dangle as Chachamaru carried him back to the roof top, where Eva was waiting, her eyes laughing silently. His own eyes betrayed nothing, they almost seemed...glassy. Yet, his mind was racing. This woman would drain him dry, making him a minion of hers, he himself becoming a blood sucking fiend to drain the life out of those around him, and forever being a slave to life's pains...death, the one true bliss he had been looking forward to along the lines, would be snatched from him.

"Ahhh, shut your pie."

"Ohh? The whelp still has some lip!"

"I've got teeth too, and a boot, want to feel it go up the place the sun never shines?"

"Ohh, so he really kicks when he's caught! Bark on doggy, whine!"

Chachamaru landed softly upon the roof of the place, and Eva approached slowly. Negi still had his mind racing, formulating spell after spell in his head...a plan was forming, it was truely risky...but it was all he had..He decided to keep the momentum going and play a distraction card. He answered Eva's taunts.

"Ohh, classic. Bark bark, whine whine, and the whole shebang. Fuuuuuny. Why don't you go back to Insults 101, your material is older than a bronze age figurine."

Closer came both the progression of the plan and Eva's feet. It was gaining substance, and Negi only hoped he had the gas for it...

"You know, I think I'll enjoy having a minion like you, you'll make and excellent punching bag."

Negi only rolled his eyes, allowing her to see. He blew a strand of stray hair from his eyes..contact. Red met green again.

"Well thank god, at least you'll have a real man at home now, did I mention that blow up date dolls are over-rated?"

It was insane, here was Negi, shooting off his mouth while he was held in a bear hug fashion by Chachamaru as Evangeline approached him to suck his life away...until he made a key comment that made Eva take a step back.

"Ohh, and what about your friend here, doesn't she need a charge? I think she's about to go sleep mode, what about you?'

"What?"

"Master...there is..a sudden drop of 35% in power generation efficiency in my systems.."

"What the hell are you saying all of a sudden?!"

"She's saying you've lost."

A blast is not a beautiful thing at close range, even one from a firework has no particular beauty to it. This blast however, was beautiful to Negi, because it consisted of charged lightning magic, and, thinking back, as Negi ran and took a second chance with a flying leap, it was far too easy, what he had done. Perhaps the creator of his student Chachamaru Karikuri had not taken into account the fact someone might try to shut her down by magically breaking some connections. Negi, being an expert in electronics himself, knew that a biped mechanical's design would prevent simple cutting of wires as a shut down process, but it would still decrease the power flow. She would have a backup. the whole process of mentally reaching in and bending some leads was only a distraction to unleash his pent up magic. However, Negi had bigger problems to deal with than a misfit vampire and her robot pal on backup power...and that was the fact that Negi had not _quite_ put enough effort into his jump to reach the other roof. He was falling....

+---+

"How the heck can you do that to people, huh?! What are you, Evel Knievel?! How the heck did you end up falling from the rooftop huh?!?"

"It's a long story Kagurazaka-san, now would you let me pass? I need to go and take a shower if you don't mind."

"I've got plenty of time to hear it."

"Crap, I told you, It's a long story, it would be difficult to explain."

"Then make it simple kid teacher, cause I'm not moving until you tell me what gave you the right to scare the living daylights out of about fifty people who saw you fall from their windows and then see you catch a window sill and climb up into it. Of all the dorm rooms to pick, you chose to climb into the one next door and make bookstore faint at the sight of you too! Own up."

"I was training and miscalculated a leap, big deal."

"_Miscalculated_ a leap?! Don't give me bull, you fell about four stories! Not only that, but you came from the faculty building over there."

"Like I said, I miscalculated a leap. I was..roof jumping. It's good practice for me you know?"

"_**ROOF**_ JUMPING?!"

"Oh callate la boca would you?"

"What?"

"It means please be quiet basically. Now, unless you want me to stink up a room, let me through so I can bathe please."

Reluctantly, Asuna let him through. After all, what the hell could she do? Ground him?

"I thought you said you don't like kids."

"I don't Konoka, but I don't know what to call _him_. I can't call him a kid, he's our teacher, but that stunt he just pulled...hell, how'd he even make it over here from over there?!"

"He did say it was training, I see Set-chan try all kinds of crazy stunts all the time. It's fun to watch..maybe these are his own stunts?"

"He almost got himself killed with that one."

"Maybe he does it every day, but messed up this time, he _does_ go out every night after all, who knows what he does? Like I said, Sensei is to completely different people. You never know what you're gonna get with him, unless you need a teacher that is."

Something clicked, and, her mind made up, Asuna walked to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm following him."

"Whhhy? I thought you were into Takahata-sensei..."

That comment earned Konoka a quick couch cushion in the face. By the time the thing had slid off and she had picked it up for a retaliation, Asuna had gone.

+---+

The bathhouse. A place of regrouping, relaxation and relief. It was a place where one would, as the saying goes, go in dirty and come out clean, simple as that. At this time, late in the night, the place was deserted, so Negi had a free reign. After taking a quick and cold shower in a private stall, Negi had chosen to take not a soak, but a steam. He situated himself in the sauna that, from the looks of it, was rarely used, and Negi saw why from the notices. The thermostat was broken, and the temperature control was shot. To besides, the place did not offer much in the ways of presentation. It was, in a word, perfect. For Negi of course. This is how Asuna found him, from the steam rising from the enclosed place. She snuck up to the hut and paused as she heard Negi's voice.

"Ahh, I'm severely glad this is one of those that, because it's broken, continues to increase in temperature. There are those that have drafts that serve no purpose in trying to melt away stress."

Negi narrowed his eyes in all the steam. He took it upon himself to feel the flow of water beneath him in the pipes and light a fire underneath it to increase the heat...the temperature would slowly climb upward after about a minute...he sat back again.

"Hmmph. McDowell-san will provide a big problem. I had heard talk of a vampire, but to have it confirmed..and to have it be one of my own students no less...I can't say I'm surprised, but disappointed? Of course..."

Asuna moved closer. What was he trying to say? He believed in vampires and thought McDowell-san was one? Was he insane? His next sentence stilled her heart and made her breath catch though.

"That trick I pulled with lightning magic won't work twice though...I can't bank on being so luck either. I managed to jump off the roof to run away from them, but I miscalculated my jump and almost became a pancake on the ground. Not only that, but now most of my class, and soon the school, will look at me as some kind of extremist daredevil. Roof jumping my arse...couldn't I have thought of something better to cover with? Heck I could have even told her I was high. No, that would have been worse..Or would it have? It's not unusual for a teacher to smoke, and most already think of me as a depressed emo pessimist trapped in a kid's body. Drug abuse could have been a good cover. Ahh, the past is past. I'll need to confront McDowell san again, but I need to be prepared..I'll have to walk around with Heartbreaker and my other magic supplies. She has skill, and most likely, if I'm her target, the attacks have been to gain strength..god I hate when people use others to get what they want. It makes me look bad, I come here because of my trail, and she takes advantage. Bloody hell."

Again, Asuna moved closer, so close that she was almost right up against the sauna area. the heat coming from the place was incredible, and it only seemed to be increasing..how the heck is he dealing with all that in there?!

"I need to practice magic again..I've been letting myself slip. I used to practice every day..I don't have that kind of time anymore..but I can make it. I always go out to train at night, I can use that time to practice magic too. I can simulate battle sequences instead of simply fighting of chanting. Both at once, like I used to...I can't worry about people seeing it, I have to focus on training..I still haven't found a private enough place though...I have to get a better one than behind the high school dorms..someone can easily see me there, it's a miracle they haven't yet..."

Negi continued talking, but Asuna's mind had begun to wander. How could it not? It was obvious that either her teacher was a raving lunatic who kept it well under wraps, until now, or he had a very active imagination he only let loose when he thought he was alone. Either way, this was a pointless exercise in espionage that was going nowhere fast. Her eyes strayed to the clothes he had lain out neatly for him to take when he came out, and a glint of bright yellow caught her eye. A bit of shifting Negi's garments out of the way revealed something that compounded her confusion and further dampened her faith in the diminutive sensei's sanity. It was a wand.

It wasn't one of those kiddie wands you bought in the store for Halloween or something though, at least it was not a normal standard of costume prop. This thing was a serious stage piece. It had a real wood handle, the bark still intact to give it grip, you could even see where the branch had been cut and smoothed over with resin or polish... Affixed upon the thinner end of the stick was a shining, yellow star, which, upon inspection, appeared to made of either glass or some kind of actual crystal, it was, at least, not a cheap plastic...it felt both warm and cool to the touch, and was surprisingly heavy. Maybe it was all the talk of magic, but it had an ominous, secretive feel to it, as if it held inside it a slight power. Asuna set it down carefully, almost as if she was afraid of it..it _**was**_ a bit unsettling after all...Negi's voice invaded her ears again, punctuating and annihilating any process of thought.

"Hmph, though this is probably the only peace I can get, I'd better finish up and get back to the dorm, before someone thinks I've done something else and comes after me..I'll have to keep low while I watch for that vampire friend of mine...hmph..take away the "r" from friend and what do you have? Haha...I really _**am **_insane...Now..where the heck did I drop my glasses?"

_Crap. Time to beat it._

However, what Asuna did not expect, or indeed, remember, is that Negi is a crafty and quite intelligent little boy. When she turned around, she encountered very skeptical looking young face watching her from a synthetic rock.

"Hmph. The glasses trick always gets them, doesn't it? They think I'm still in the shower, but when they hear that, it's time to beat it is the code. Too bad you forgot I'm extremely paranoid Kagurazaka-san....mind telling me what you are doing sifting through my belongings like a skilled coinsurer would a wine cellar?"

_Crap again!_

Negi jumped lightly off the rock, taking care to hold on to his towel, (For, after all, modesty was still a virtue...)and walked over to where she was standing. He grabbed his wand and his clothes from next to her.

"Come to check up on crazy little dare devil sensei Springfield? Or are you here to spy..?"

Negi swung his wand to it hovered right over where Asun'a heart would be. She took a step back..after all, even if magic wasn't real..she _knew_ he was a pretty mean customer in combat and that thing **was** pointy...

"I already have to deal with two of my students being something I did not expect, one a vampire and one a robot, both working on union to deal their deeds and attempt to capture my blood, for what reason I don't know...something about whom they believe my father is..you...You have been rumored to be close to Takamitchi, and now you come after me...who are you? What the hell do you want?!"

While the little teacher was a pretty attention drawing sight, being as stressed as he was, it was the star wand that caught Asuna's attention. It had sparked and was now starting to glow....wiat a second..this wasn't right..magic is fake...maybe it's battery powered? But that spark looked so real..and she didn't see where he could stuff a battery in that thing...

"S-sensei...calm down..."

"Don't you **dare** tell me to calm down! Who are you working for? Huh?! I need a straight answer here!"

Eyes fixed upon the wand, which was glowing brighter and starting to spark in earnest, Asuna found her normally fiery spirit had been stopped dead.

"I..I don't work for anyone..."

"Oh reeeeally...Like I would believe that. I am mad, raving mad, I tell you..and this scorpion can sting!"

The wand was no longer glowing, but shining, and it's sparks were in earnest, making quite a show. What once was a kiddish looking instrument of playtime now look quite deadly indeed...Asuna was getting mad now, but what could she do? Against that? Nothing. Another step backwards and a quick look around to find a means for defense. Nothing presented itself..nothing except Negi himself, who, in one fluid motion, tossed his own wand from his hand to fly and splatter in the pool..(It had, by the time it hit the pool, discharged it's magic, you don't need to worry about electrocution.) Negi then did something Asuna considered uncharacteristic, and collapsed on the ground on his knees, looking at the place he threw the wand. The cloth he had been holding feel off to the side. (No, not his towel you dolts, the clothes.)

"God damn, I hate this test. They always say that it's the smart or strong ones they send away on things like this. I think they made a friggin mistake with me.."

He looked up at Asuna.

"Look. I don't know who sent you here, or why, but go tell your boss your target is a weak arse paranoid fool, because that's what I am..."

"I already told you I don't work for anyone like that.."

"Whatever. You want the whole story from me? That why you're here? Capture and interrogate? I didn't steal HeartBreaker, it _**chose**_ me! Otherwise I could not use it's abilities! I don't care what kind of manipulative genius you people think I am, I can't undermine the ancient roots of Gramyre. I can't undo what the original creator of HeartBreaker intended. I admit, I snuck into the forbidden libraries and learned some forbidden spells, but that's the only thing I stole, knowledge."

Asuna rolled her eyes, back to normal and out of danger, her response was to bend down and knock him on his side with a slap to the face. Hey, he was the one who had pointed that thing at her...she was entitled to some revenge after all.

"I don't have a single idea what the hell you're talking about. Nor do I care, yah new-type. I want to know why the hell you pointed that sparking thing at me when all I did was come over here to check up on you?"

_Newtype? What was this, Gundam?!_

Negi looked up at her from the floor. He did not get up from his sideways position, but spoke half to the tiles and half to her.

"Spy on me more like, if that's true...sigh. Whatever, if you aren't a spy, it's too late now. I hate erasing memories, so I might as well not try. Whenever I erase memories, I do it too well...at least, that's what my teacher says. I can input fake ones too perfectly..almost to the point in which the real memory is impossible to re-attain...sigh...I am a paranoid mage. I'm always looking over my shoulder. After being attacked today, what the hell do you expect? For me to see you spying on me and going through my things and hand you Swedish chocolate?! Neeeooooo....of course not! I did the only logical thing a mage trying to protect himself and secrets would..I placed you in an unfavorable situation and tried to pry information from you. Yet, the fact you are a roommate and student disarms me."

Negi picked himself off the floor and went to retrieve his fallen clothes. He put refolded them in his hands after dusting them off and then looked at Asuna with odd, secret leaden eyes.

"Kagurazaka-san, I'll give you two choices, and they come in the form of an offer. I will be near the fountain in Mahora city at 5:00 AM..I know you are awake at those times. If you come there, I'll tell you what you want to know about this crazy teacher of yours..if you don't come...So be it. I'll give you the option of a false and perfectly convenient memory to cover this...unfortunate real one. Choice is yours.."

Negi turned his back on her and walked away, but, after a few steps, he stopped and muttered as an afterthought, loud enough for Asuna to hear, she didn't really understand it but, from the little Latin she had been taught in school, it sounded like : "My wand" She was obviously right, because a moment later, with a quiet splash, the star wand sailed out of the pool of water and into Negi's outstretched hand.

"Be there or be square Kagurazaki-san."

+---+

"Be square my foot..."

She was early. Really early, and the cold morning air whipped her hair in a frenzy..not to mention it bit her nose as if it wanted a souvenir from it. Japan was not a cold place, but this morning was unusually so, and the sun wasn't up yet. Asuna checked her watch, brushing hair out of her eyes.

4:35 AM

'You're early. Even more so than me...I was expecting to be waiting here for you, since I am familiar with how much effort it takes to get you out of bed on Konoe-san's part.."

Asuna looked up, and lo and behold, there the squirt was. Unlike her, who had dressed as if it were around seventy five to eighty five degrees (and severely regretting it) Negi had dressed quite a bit warmer. He also wore a long robe that made him look like one of those orthodox monks in videos..or a mage in a video game...

Mage...

Back to the present....

"You sure are day dreaming about something odd. Hello! Earth to Biblon fantasy over there! I asked you what you wanted to know, so spill it."

"Ehh?! Ohh..wait..Biblon?! Where the heck did you get that?"

"You think I don't do my homework? I studied quite a few things about this place before I got to Japan..coming from Wales, I need all the help I can get."

"Ohh..but that's about..magic..."

"Fariy tale magic that has nothing to do with me. My...magic...is something completely different."

"So...you admit this..magic...stuff..."

"I, in particular, use Latin in my magic, although some use Greek, and others delve further to use Norse. These three languages are tied together by a bond historians call the Gramyre Law. Only in these languages is magic a factor, at least, according to accounts. This is the basis of magic..have I lost you yet?"

".....Kinda.."

"Just know I speak Latin to use my magic then..or think it, for it is possible to perform a spell without speaking, if the mage is skilled enough and has good focus."

"So...what can you do?"

Negi rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Always with that, people were. What is your rank? What can you do...?!

"...You sound like a little kid in a pet store there...what does it _**do**_? Well...I can _**do**_ a lot of things. I really am only limited to three things, my knowledge of Latin, the rules governing magic and the energy I have available within or around me...It would be kind of hard to compile a list for you.."

"Can you...I don't know...read minds or something?"

"...To an extent, yes, I can, although I prefer not to..it's an invasion of privacy that can be dangerous..you never know what's in a person's mind..although, the term "read minds" is quite in accurate and displays a lack of understanding...the mind really can't be displayed as a book, unless you are only looking at one piece of it. The mind is a multi layered presence, with several actions going on all at once, and to depict that all in a book would be utterly impossible, not to mention it changes constantly and- "

"Whoa, whoa professor, you lost me. Slow down. I get it. What else can you do?"

Negi shook his head.

"Besides "Mind Reading"? Keep in mind that that skill is not magic, it's just a skill one is born with, or one that can be obtained through hard training...I can also see the future a bit..although not on command-"

"Future sight?!"

"That's a Pokémon move, not a Negi move... Like I said, it's fleeting. It comes and goes when it wants. That too, is a skill...besides that...I really don't know..I have suspicions of abilities I have that there are no records of but..."

"Wait..what?"

Negi looked up at Asuna.

"I would hope that you know by now that what I am telling you is expected, in trust to be kept secret between yourself and no other person. I would hope you understand that the implications of this information getting out could very well be extremely dire, and that it will not end well for myself or this academy should you spill even a single word of what I tell you. With that in mind..."

Negi walked up to the border of the fountain and sat on it. He looked up at the lightening sky. The sun would come soon...he took a deep breath of the cold air and held it for awhile, so that when it came out, it came out as thick steam warm from his insides..

"I have many clues as to the suspicion that I am no normal mage. Besides the way I was treated at my school where I learned magic, I was born with the two abilities most only attain through long years of hard work and struggle, Mind Reading and Future Sight as you call them. These abilities are known to appear in many individuals at birth, but both at once suggests one of a high birth, perhaps even royal in descent...yet, I have never known my parents, so I, of course, cannot confirm these suspicions that have been arisen from study. It is one of the reasons I regularly snuck into the forbidden libraries at my academy...I was not only researching spells, but history, records. The fact that I have an extremely high amount of magical power is another point to suggest oddity. The amount of magic I have at my disposal is nearly triple that of an average teacher at my academy, and I have not even fully come into my power yet..most mages only begin to show signs of magic power at the age I am now, yet I have already cultivated a huge amount and am trained in using it...besides that.. HeartBreaker..chose me."

He reached into his robes and pulled out the winged staff she recognized from before, it was the thing that had a rapier in it...

"This is a dangerous weapon. It can act as both a wand and a blade, and, when I am fighting an actual battle, it's effect activates. Any spell I cast from it, or any blow I land with it, has the added effect of making the victim of that landed blow relive a painful or sorrowful memory in their life. It is...an extremely effective technique. It takes all your most painful memories and makes you relive them again, dozens of times worse. HeartBreaker was supposed to be a dormant weapon lost forever, if anyone found it, and was unworthy, it would be nothing but a blade to them, and they would soon lose it inexplicably. It was supposed to wait until it found an appropriate master...supposed to show itself to that person...as it did to me.."

Negi sighed again and got up from the fountain.

"Listen, you have work and I have work, and it's getting later by the minute, the sun is up now, and getting brighter every second. I'll talk to you about this more later..but for now, you just have to trust me and not say a word...This is a delicate thing you now have in your brain..."

Before she could say a word, or even make a move, Negi walked off, or, it might be more fitting to say he ran off. She stared at his quickly retrating back, the sun shining in her face and begining to get in her eyes...

+---+

Ahh, I'll end it here, even though I don't really want too...I want to continue now that I have a groove back..I lost where I was going momentarily....ehh, now I'm back, so no problem! I haven't asked you all this before, but I would appreciate if you all review and tell me what you think, your input will be taken into consideration, I can promise you that! Till next time....


	10. Chapter VIII: Pay attention will you?

Ayi yai yai....the last chapter just seems so rushed...until about halfway that is, then I picked up a little, but only a little! It was toward the end I was gathering slack, but by then it's a bit too late, no? Then I end it like a fool...ahh, well. What can I do? Nothing except continue, so I shall...let's go.

+---+

Did I mention I don't own Negima last time? *Goes and checks* Yes..I did...well, the same still holds true now... I don't own Negima. Please scroll down to the bottom of this chapter to see other things I don't own.

+---+

_**Chapter 8**_: Pay attention will you?

+---+

"I still don't get all this stuff."

Negi sighed and put down his marker on the rack of the small dry erase board that hung in the living room. He sat down next underneath the board and looked at Asuna. Above him, the cryptic lines of the basis of spell work advertised their worth to whomever would dare to feat their eyes upon it. Konoka was out on another omai. Her grandfathers persistence was Negi's grace to try and educate this person in front of him to their satisfaction...and right now, that was what was stressing Negi.

Books on introductory magic were strewn on the floor in front of them both, Negi had finally received his shipment of left over luggage, and his treasured objects were stored away in an odd little box that could fit all of Atlantis inside of it if it needed to, and more. Negi claimed he had found it on a trip...that was beside the point though. While Negi found that he loved to teach, Asuna was a difficult student to teach the principals of magic too...it all seemed to slip away the very next day, as if her mind rejected the information as a lactose-intolerant would a gallon of milk. She was worse in magic than she was in math, which was, decidedly, her worst _usual_ subject...It made Negi all the more curious, especially considering the events that took place yesterday....

+---+

"Okay, raise the wand like this..no, a bit more straight, okay...good. Adjust your fingers a bit...up some more...curl you thumb so it overlaps you ring finger, or your index, which ever you prefer...righty huh? Okay, so you should swing it like this...no, here, let me lead you..."

Negi placed his hand on her elbow, which was the most convenient mixture of accessible height and guidance effectiveness he had, and guided her hand in a slow and perfect arc.

"How the heck am I supposed to do that perfect every time I want to cast a spell?"

"With practice, but you won't be needing to worry about casting any spells..."

"Why not?"

"Okay...let me show you. You remember what I told you about focus and spell chanting format?"

Asuna made a face and twirled the star wand in her fingers as one would a pencil.

"...Kinda.."

Negi sighed.

"Okay, focus on a target first...try me, I can absorb any discharge of magic, unlike our surroundings.."

Asuna turned to look at him and indeed, she focused on him, after all, they were in their dorm. She didn't want to make anything...blow up or something...Negi had shown her earlier what magic looked like from him, It had been night time, but he had made it seem day by lighting up the heavens with a whole assortment of spears, spheres and flying copies of himself, along with little swords and pure forms of different elements. It was a fireworks display she was sure she would not soon forget, and it all came from such a small package...according to him, as a mage grew older, their amount of magic they had would naturally increase until they hit their prime. Then, it was up to practice to continue the growth, but normally, around forty five for both genders, the amount would naturally begin to decline. Most began to gain power when they were around ten, along with the ending of skeletal 'growth" according to him. Negi was a special case. Children were taught before they reached ten to control their magic, so than when the received the gift, there were no accidents. Accidents happened when magic appeared in a family that had no mages in it, a rouge mage....

"Start with Practe Bigi Nar. Then you can follow me."

"Sure sure, keep your pants on...Practa...ehh..Precte...ehh! Practe Bigi Nar.."

"Sagitta Magica, Unas Fulgurans..then add the element you would like in Latin...."

"..uhhh."

"Don't stall with sounds like that, you can screw up the spell. You've practiced this already.."

"Sagitta Magica..Unas...Fulgurans..."

_Hmph, I don't expect anything to come out anyway, she doesn't have magic after all, and this is the first actual time she's doing this, few can do this on the first try...It's kind of cruel to make her try this now that I think about it.._

"Ingus!"

It was to both the extreme surprise of Negi and Asuna to see an arrow of fir condense and fly right at Negi. Negi hadn't put up any barriers, and his surprise and the close quarters prevented him from making one that would get up in time, so his natural barrier had to take it, and it absorbed it perfectly, but that is besides the point..

"I did it?!"

".....Yeah..you did it, and against all logic..you're not supposed to be able to do it..."

+---+

After that, Negi had gone into a long and exhaustive tirade about Magical society and how it was formatted, proper etiquette and main points of it's working. He bored her with reams of information on magical techniques. It seemed it had been a bad move on Asuna's part, succeeding in casting a spell, Negi had gone into hyper mode with teaching. He was kind of hard to understand, for he was speaking about two thousand miles a minute in Japanese, but she somehow got it all in her head what he was saying, Negi just had that kind of effect when it came to relaying information…of course, when she woke up the next morning...she couldn't remember a lick of it.

"Oh come on Kagurazaka..I taught you this yesterday, The release goes like this: "Practe Bigi Nar."

"I know..I know..and the funny thing is, I remember saying it and all, but I just…can't pronounce it now...What's this thing?"

Negi slammed his left hand to his forehead with enough force to probably shatter another person's skull. His hand slowly slid down his face to emphasize his frustration.

'The...sea...of....Gramyre. The first thing I told you about and the thing I keep coming back to, it's the basis of all magic."

"Sorry..but...why is it the base again?"

"Oh god..."

+---+

"Good...strong! Perhaps too strong for one your size, aru! I'd love to train you, but you don't seem to need me, help yourself you do! Own style you already have claimed!"

Negi was at the martial arts dojo again, only this time, it was not to fight Ku Fei, it was to simply spar with anyone who wanted a go. It was his way of releasing his pent up energy and frustration, healthy exercise…although his opponents didn't think so..

"Oww......ow..ow....ow.....ow...OW!" Wait...why does my neck hurt..you didn't even hit me there..aww..not fair, you got me everywhere!"

"Not fair? Get faster. Then I'll show you not fair."

The man clutched his back and moaned. He shuffled away to nurse his wounds, but not before making one final comment.

"...Ow..."

Negi looked around at the many students in the dojo. Most of them had had their share from Negi already today. He had come here a literal bomb of energy and beat the tar out of anyone who tried to bar his way from getting onto the stage, then proceeded to beat the tar out of anyone who dared try and challenge him on the stage. Now, those who had not fought him yet were silently watching him from his place on the mat. Those who had...well, they were in another room, either moaning or trying to heal the hurt they had received. Hey, what don't kill yah only makes yah stronger.

"Anyone else?"

'No one wants to fight sensei, they fear you like they fear me...! That is why they are still students, overcome fears they must!"

"Why doesn't chairman Fei fight him?"

"Only when Onion Head (Negi-bozu, literally, means onion head in Japanese, not onion brat or onion kid...) gets taller, aru, now, back to training with you before I kick you all to the birds!"

+---+

Finally, night time again. When the darkness ruled the skies, Negi's spirits soared high. That is, until he had realized Evangeline, one of his own students, was actively hunting him for his blood, believing him to be the son of a man who had trapped her here, in this campus, binding her powers to delete her as a threat to the world...at least, that is what Negi's researched had yielded.

Negi may be a teacher for nearly all of his twenty four hour days now, but he still managed to squeeze some time for himself here and there. When everybody went to sleep for example, he would take out his laptop. The "Thousand Master" turned out to be a historical figure in history, one that Negi had almost disregarded in his studies and knew quite little about. Now however, he was redeeming his negligence. It was, after all, not a bad guess when it came to thinking this man to be his father it seemed. Holos of his figure showed a face Negi could easily imagine on his own body in a few years. The similarities in appearance frankly shocked him. He even had the signature ginger head, although Negi's eyes where a bit more wide than his, he had cat or fox eyes, Negi more had those of a wolf or lion. Same basic shape, but wider and a bit more circular. Nagi Springfield was his name, which struck yet another blow of familiarity.

_How the hell could I have missed this in history?! _

Was Negi's main thought, but he knew the answer even before the thought the question. Truth be told, Negi knew all of this already, he did not miss anything in class…but he had simply disregarded it all. Negi simply had not cared enough to think any deeper than was needed to learn the information. He did not bother trying to make connections, he did not, had not, cared to find out who his parents were really, his only main concern was strengthening himself so he could become a good magister magi and go after that force that had destroyed the home village he barely remembered, and had robbed him of a family. He had once visited the ruins of that town (Against the wishes of his headmaster) and seen the destruction of the place…it was there he had found HeartBreaker...A fitting place really, amid the long gone rubble and rotten wood of his own one time home. His own painful memories gave birth to his most powerful weapon.

Now though, here it was. According to historical records, the man had disappeared in the magical world a couple of years ago, presumed dead. That would figure, he left his relatives to fend for themselves in this world while he, knowing he had enemies, disappeared on some hare-brained mercenary work. From what he read of his glorified deeds, it fit the man to a "T" This man was an idiot. Raw power and not much else, he worked with his team and followed the path of a good little leader solider knight. That lit a fire under Negi's behind. Of course, none of this was said by the articles Negi absorbed, but Negi was very good at reading between the lines and seeing messages even the author did not mean to put there. These people celebrated an idiotic, happy go lucky fool who was all power and no common sense.

The same potential for incredible power seared in Negi's veins right now. Who was his mother? According to what Negi could surmise, this man was quite a ladies' man, it could be literally anyone in the magical world. The man was even in the company of people who, after some digging, were admittedly called perverts. Well, a man's friends tell you a whole lot about the man himself as they say. It seemed all the physical Negi had gotten from his father, the looks, the magical strength and physical capability/potential...but his mother had to have been a complete opposite of him for Negi to have gotten his mental capacities...this man was not known to be a mind reader or a diviner. Negi's mother had to be someone who had a calm, cool and intelligent aura, someone who could handle this man's impertinence and his idiocy and still love him anyway...or at least tolerate him for a night. Negi quickly dove into research of people in the magical world, stretching thin the boundaries of the knowledge he could obtain via the magical net...in the end, he really had no definitive answers, thought he had suspicions, but these where fleeting. The one main person he was looking at had bombed on him too, Apparently, Nagi had been the "knight" of one of the twilight princesses, someone whom had taken the kingdom from her un-rulely father and raised it high, and then, in a single blow, had crushed it all to save her people, and was charged with treason...a world full of the hate from the remains of war had unfairly showered their spite on her and executed her, before Negi could have possibly been born, throwing her out of the picture...she drew him though. History slandered her, but he saw through that to an intelligent, loving person who would sacrifice even her own life for her people...and be able to deal with Nagi's foolishness, there were small reports of a suspicion, before she had been charged with treason, that she and Nagi were planning a knot tie...

Besides her, Negi had other suspicions, but none of them drew him like that one impossible case...it was just the way things seemed to work in his head. They say a child had an innate feeling to identify their parents, even if they have never set eyes upon them. Negi, at least right now, thought his must be missing a few screws.

This is what led him to stand here in the middle of the night, far from the main city of Mahora. It was rumored that Evangeline had a resort she called home near here somewhere, but that was not why he was here. True, he had a gun in his hand, yet the weapon's aim was not Evangeline, at least, not for tonight. No, it's aim today was target practice...

_Damn. How could I miss that one?!_

Negi picked up the golf ball sized target from the ground and inspected it. Not a speck of glow in the dark paint graced its surface. A clean miss. Yet, the tree that had been behind it glowed where the blank, paint loaded cartridge had struck and burst. Twenty such targets he had thrown in the air, and Negi was not happy to find he had only hit eighteen.

Wait..what?

Accuracy was key with a projectile weapon. Negi needed 100% and not anything less. Eighteen out of twenty was 90%. The other ten percent meant he caught another person in misfire. That was the way he looked at it. If he missed, someone else would suffer.

I.e: No missing allowed.

He gathered the other spheres to him with a tracing spell that he had preset with markers on the targets. Once all twenty were accounted for and caught back in his hands, he wiped them clean and reloaded his gun.

_Again... This time I can't miss._

Negi threw up the targets with one hand making them fly in all different directions as he quickly raised his gun and let loose a volley of bullets raining like horizontal hail upon his targets. A rustle of shrubbery made him turn around and shoot without thinking...something he cursed himself for as soon as it happened. The targets fell, Twelve out of twenty.

"Hmph, a trigger happy. Wonder who it is."

Negi recognized the voice, vaguely, for it did not sound much in class, but he connected it correctly to the figure that stepped out of the foliage, holding up a glowing green hand.

"...Not a bad reaction though, and a pretty good silencer you have on that thing...for such a short...wait a second.."

Eyes narrowed, eyes, Negi realized, that matched the night perfectly and allowed her to blend in with the dark flawlessly..... A perfect trait for a marksperson..

"Do I know you..?"

Negi looked down at his targets and quickly confirmed a pitiful count of twelve out of twenty. No excuses, that was his count, regardless of distractions. Eight misfires. Eight potential lives lost.

"You should know your own teacher, Miss Tatsumiya, but then again, one only really sees what they expect to see unless they look."

"Springfeild-sensei?"

"Please, I am having...trouble with that name at the moment. Feel free to call me an onion, that is, after all, my name. Don't try and cook my though, I obviously won't taste very decadent."

Mana, being quite far from the bubbly, dense and overtly affectionate norm of her class, only offered silence as an answer to Negi's statement. Not that Negi needed or wanted a different type of answer anyway...He bent to pick up the spheres that were glowing, all the while muttering under his breath something about pitiful performance ratings...Mana picked up a non-glowing target that was near her feet and offered it to him matter of factly. Negi accepted it without comment. When Negi had collected all twenty again and put them in a cloth sack at his side, he reloaded his gun again before taking them out. (The sack was, after all, only a mechanism used to hold the targets because he could not hold all twenty in his hands and load his gun at the same time, which would be a feat against all logic and the size of his hands.) Mana stepped back before Negi had the chance to ask her to. She was after all, familiar with the way of marksmanship. Negi changed his signal to an affirmative nod and, turning back, he took a deep inward breath before he threw up the targets yet again...his arm seemed to have a mind of it's own as it shot up and began firing off shots, for his head did not move an inch. He was taking in as much as possible without moving his field of vision. Three, five, seven targets shot, and they had yet to even begin to fall.

_I won't let a single one go. Not this time! A vampire is superhuman, their speed is legendary. Even a 95% accuracy rate for a human is reduced to perhaps 35% in their presence! I need all the backup I can get!_

Fifteen, eighteen and they were half way to the ground.

_No, I can't even let them get away!_

Ninteen...pause...pause.....the twentieth was shot up by a bullet and then caught. Twenty. Twenty one bullets used, twenty out of twenty targets hit. Negi sighed, and slumped his shoulders.

"I'm guessing you're not satisfied with the results."

"Twenty one ink filled blanks out of twenty five total, yet there are only twenty targets. I used an extra. That calculates as a miss for me."

"Perfectly understandable reasoning. But, wouldn't it be unfair to say it like that? You used the extra to knock the last one into range."

"If I need to do that, I might as well just sign away my life in battle. A real target won't wait for me to knock it back into my range."

"...."

"You know I am right."

"...Of course...but I never expected a child to say something like that."

Negi cast his eyes into the dark foliage to search for the shadowy form of his student. That task was nigh impossible, almost as impossible as it was for one who knew Negi to think of him as just a child.

"If you knew me, you would not say that, Miss Tatsumiya, I am...serious."

Negi re-gathered his targets while Mana just watched, she did not bend to help him this time. Nevertheless, he completed the task quickly, every target was glowing brightly in the night after all. Negi stood up after they all were in the sac and let his eyes lock on the place Negi assumed Mana's face was.

"I suppose I am in your stomping grounds. I apologize…I shall leave."

Once again, before the recipient of the comment could replay, Negi turned around and walked off, as he was famous for doing. Mana simply let what she had been about to say die before it had a chance to even arrive at her tongue, and stared at the retreating back. One hand rubbed the other one in an unconscious attempt to rid it of the glow in the dark liquid that had splattered on it from Negi's shot. A soft wind made invisible trees sway and whistle....

+----+

((The following is probably quite painful to read, I suggest, if you don't wish for a headache or unnecessary stress, to skip this section up until I break the story again with a plus and dash formation. You have been warned.))

"Ayi....Springfield Sensei, why is English so hard?"

"It's a stupid language, that's why."

"Ehh?!"

'I'm serious. It is one of the most difficult languages to learn, it has so many contradictions that the average person will speak or write approximately thirty five percent of all they produce in that language incorrectly. I didn't do this for my other classes, but this is homeroom, soo....I'll give you some extra examples because you asked.."

Negi, who had been standing in front of the desk,(and using it as a wall to lean on I might add..) walked to the back of it and grabbed his chair to hoist himself up on top of it. He produced a piece of chalk and wrote on the board:

Why do noses run and feet smell? Where are the eggs in a eggplant? Why is a fat chance and a slim chance the same chance? Tell me, why is a bandage wound around a wound? Farms used to produce produce? Why is it that you can have a row about which way to row? A dove, when shot at, can dive into the bushes, but what then? We say; "The dove dove into the bushes." If there is no time like the present, I believe now would be a good time to present you with your birthday present. Why must we subject our brains to all this nonsense? English is by far, a tedious subject. Why, I would rather have a number of injections to make my jaw number than it already is, trying to explain why the wind was to strong to wind my sail, or how one can teach a sow to sow seeds in a field. Cites that can be sighted on a visual map can also be cited on the web, no? Drive on a parkway, but park in your driveway, don't desert your desert in the desert, it may melt, and that's no fun. Help us please, English is nigh impossible to learn.

After this, he drew a line and wrote next to it this poem, saying as he did so:

"It was once said, that, after reading this, a Frenchman claimed he would rather perform six months of hard labor than read six lines of it. I f an individual can read this poem aloud and read it completely correct from beginning to end, they will be speaking the language better than approximately 90% of all the masses who speak it..."

Amid all the wide open mouths and struggling minds, which were trying to digest the first paragraph Negi had placed on the board, a long, flowing and infinitely more confusing one, perhaps, was given life on the board;

Dearest creature in creation, study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse, sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and argue. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery,  
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food,  
Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamour and enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, and then singer, ginger, linger, real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very, nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, knob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, we say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven,  
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, principle, disciple, label.  
Petal, panel, and canal, wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,  
Senator, spectator, mayor.

Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye, eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging, ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits,  
Writing groats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough -- Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?  
Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!

Finally, Negi wrote two simple sentences, that, at first glance, seemed to look the same, but alas, look closely and you shall see the importance of punctuation, and English's wavering fidelity.

A woman; without her man, is nothing. A woman; without her, man is nothing.

Negi finally turned away from the board, barely pausing to admire the wall of text he had managed to place upon the board. He gave but a few seconds glance around the classroom to see eyeballs moving along the board in reading action. Some eyes were simply staring at Negi, having given up.

"Pay attention, pay attention, pay attention! English is a complicated language who's insanity has ensnared countless individuals. Don't be one of them. Practice what I preach to you, and you shall be fine...but don't you ever make the mistake in thinking that, as teachers teach and preachers preach, so shall teachers have taught, but preachers do not praught, and always remember, alarms go off by turning on..."

A bell signified the end of the period, and Negi only shook his head at the speed at which students were attempting to leave the room. Scaring um off, wasn't he?

"Oii! I don't want a traffic jam in the hallway caused by you all! "

Negi's voice wasn't heard though, for once. After all, it was now the second period, and people cared little about the final words of a professor after a class that had shaken their confidence so badly. Negi glanced down at his desk and spied a piece of pink paper. Now, in Wales, and the many other places Negi had visited, pink spelled the ultimate trouble. Negi picked up the paper with a face that was half elated and half annoyed...the nonexistent third half was afraid, if you want to be cheeky.

_Gym teacher's out. No sub. Cover for your class's gym time. This will be considered overtime for you. 1.5 time._

"Oh how nice. One and a half time pay and all I need to do is stand around running a gym class for my homeroom. My insanely hyper homeroom class… whose multitudes of personalities clash and roily more than a sea in high wind…Oh what fun _that'll _be. "

Negi crumpled the paper and tossed it toward the trash across the room. It sank in without even coming near any of them rims. Nothing but net on a three pointer, Negi?

Another class filed in, and some were already casting a nervous eye at the incredible amount of text on the board. Negi cleared his throat and spoke aloud to those coming in.

"Before you even ask, no you do not have to copy what's on the board today…I was just putting an example up for the last class…pay it no mind…"

+----+

'Hey…give that back…"

"Why should I? It rolled to me after all…"

"That was a mistake, could we just please have our ball back?"

"What if I want to play with it a while..?"

A typical lunch time recess, only this one was marred by a turf war. Yep, the high schoolers were trying to toss their weight around, and looked where they had ended up. In the middle school grounds with a ball Makie, Yuna and Madoka had been playing around with. Who would be the one brave enough to try and take it from them? Well, Ayaka was coming up from one side, but so was Asuna from another…this didn't look good…

"This area is reserved to middle schoolers only."

"Oh, how cute, a baby."

"Well, she would call us babies, being the old woman that she is."

"Who said that?!?"

"I did, what are you, hard of hearing too?"

The girl addressed as hard of hearing turned around, away from the four angry faces in front of her to the pissed one behind her, said pissed face had two burning orange-red eyes and long red hair.

No my friends, it is not Negi.

"What the hell are you doing here fossil? Is the dinosaur exhibit being repainted?"

Is it just me, or has spending time with Negi slightly improved Asuna's insulting abilities? Who cares? Another voice floated along to the group of six, just as two other highschoolers came up to the conflict to make eight.

"Why you little..you should talk! Did the maternity unit lose one?"

"That comeback is so dated. Why not say something more creative? Ladies, break it up please."

Four out of eight heads turned to the voice, and one of those was Ayaka's who spared the owner of the voice any need for introduction.

"Negi-sensei!"

"_Springfeild-Sensei_...incho."

Needless to say, the three highschool girls were speechless for a few seconds. Sensei? Did they just say..sensei? That little thing? He was a teddy bear!

"That..."

"Is...."

"Your Sensei?!"

_Oh boy..here we go again...should I run? These girls are bigger than my class even...aww shit....there's the rest of them, maybe you should run Negi...oh wait, it's too late, baka._

It was true, Negi had somehow switched on his ultimate bane of existence, the fact that he was to damn cute for his own good. Que the glomping , only this time, it's highschoolers who grab him and fondle, which leads to Ayaka getting very upset, after all, that was _her_ Sensei...amnd such behavior is unacceptable..right?

Of course, keep telling yourself that excuse Ayaka, it's perfectly logical and well befitting of a class president, but we know you want to fondle him too. Yes we do.

"Get your grubby hands off Negi-Sensei!"

"Incho...it's Springfield-sensei, isn't it?"

"Negi-bozo, fight um off why don't yah? You like being grappled like that?!"

"Not particularly Kagurazaka-san, but stand down, I can't fight these people off, they are students of this academy..ladies could you please unhand me..?"

Yeah right, like they would unhand you like that, stupid Negi. What happened to your disarming, burning acid tongue? A cat couldn't possibly have gotten it, that cat would have died instantly...

+---+

I hate to end this here, but I must, time is against me and I want to put this up today, for if I don't I shall be late in giving this in, never mind I am two days early today. This time, I must be early to avoid being late. For now, so long...if you have the time, I would appreciate a review....

(I also do not own the poems and lists Negi uses to display why English is so difficult to learn, I simply took it and edited it slightly to fit my needs....although, try as I might, I cannot find who **has** created these...although I have suspicions… the last two are unedited, if you see anything inside them that looks odd, don't blame me…)


	11. Chapter IX: It's time to Duel, bad pun

Now I will continue the madness. I plan on finally moving forward here, so watch out, this snail might suddenly grow rockets, and then where would you be, in the dust that's where! Remember the last chapter's title? Pay attention! Let's go!

Now, I am truly sorry, but I must tell you, this chapter was the hardest to type...I left most of my notes in here for you all to see. I started this on the 13th, and I got up to: "Share it? You have your own field; we don't come asking to share yours!" Before I had to stop for the day. The 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th were spent on the few lines before I tell you all that it is the nineteenth. That is a simple statement telling you how difficult it was to type this chapter.

Hey, I'm not letting you go yet! What happened with the 20th up to the 22nd, ehh?

Well....I don't like giving excuses. Yet....I was registering for classes on the 20th, and it didn't go down to well. I had to balance time for school with time for work, and still wind up with full time credit status, or lose FA. The weekends? My home internet is down, and I'm finishing the chapter, oii. I still have to go and talk with the college about overriding a few things so I can go to classes I need to go to on Monday...oii.

+---+

How many times must I tell yee? I do not own Negima silly!

+---+

_**Chapter Nine: **_ I'll duel you for him!

+----+

"I guess that was a lucky break for Sensei...but where did that weird wind come from anyway? Divine intervention?"

"Maybe, it only blew on them anyway, lucky they have longer skirts. I want to know why Sensei didn't try to beat the crap out of them though...you remember when he fought Ku Fei-san?"

"Oh that? Someone said that was a fluke."

"Not Ku-san."

"Why would she admit a fluke fight?"

'Have YOU ever seen Ku-san lie about a fight?"

"Noo...but..."

"Okay then..."

Asuna shook her head as she changed from her usual uniform to the gym uniform Mahora students wore. If only they knew where that freaky wind had come from...well, let's not even think about that. According to Negi, things got pretty bad when a mage was exposed, yet he had resorted to magic instead of kicking all those groper's asses. He claimed it was because they were students, and he did not, would not; harm them unless it was a formal fight in which they became the opponent. She thought that was just plain gentleman's bull, but she held her peace...after all; the squirt was a dangerous individual outside of class. In teacher mode, he couldn't harm a friggin fly if it was his student. Once he stepped outside of that classroom though...he became...oh hell, she didn't know the terminator or something like that. If he wanted you dead, most likely, you would be dead. It was just that simple. Besides, why would a mage in training expose her only teacher? Exposing him would expose her, and she did not want to end up as...what was the common punishment again? An ermine or something like that? What the heck was an ermine anyway?

"Asuna! What's taking you so long? Half the class is already going up the stairs..."

"Ehh!?!"

+----+

The class, noisy as they where, alerted Negi to their arrival long before the door that opened unto the roof flew open. Negi had used that time to mentally get himself back into teaching mode and to tie down his sanity with a titanium net. This was his class at Gym time, right after lunch when they were most energetic, the outdoor gym was surrounded by gates on every side, they were on the roof after all...can someone say hell in a cell?

The door banging open cut Negi's misery; after all, it's always before the event that the suspense gets yah. During, it's do or die. No time for wasting. Negi sucked in some fresh air and held it.

"Where's the gym teach?"

"I think he's out..."

"So where is the sub?"

"Sigh...here. Lineup will you?"

"Huh? What's Springfield-sensei doing here?"

"I'm your sub, now would you all line up so that I can-"

"Ahh! It's Springfield-sensei and his class...what are you kiddies doing here?"

Do I need to tell you all what the class saw when they turned their heads? Do I need to tell you how much Negi's soul struggled to escape from his body at that moment? Need I say it failed? Must I relay to you the following conversation? Yes? Fine. But mind you, I'll be as bored as a plank by the time I'm done with this...

Negi's soul, not his heart, sunk. He recognized that voice. His head turned along with the unified being that was his class to see three of the high school girls who had been...assaulting...Negi earlier. What's more is that they were here on their gym period, on the field designated for the middle schoolers...

Can someone please tell me that this spells trouble?

"What are you doing here?! This is our court..."

"Well, who says we can't share it hmm?"

"Share it? You have your own field; we don't come asking to share yours!"

"Well why don't you share something else, like your teacher?"

_Oh my good god, does she know how wrong that sounds?_

Was Negi's only thought as the argument continued.

"What the hell do you mean by that?!"

"Well, we won't come bothering you on your field if you hand over your sensei, that's what I mean..."

"Why the heck would we agree to that idiotic reasoning?"

"Who you calling an idiot!?"

"Well hows about this? We'll duel for him."

"Since when did this turn into Yu-gi-oh?!"

"Who the flip said anything about Yu-gi-oh? A fight or a match is also called a duel, invalid."

"Fine. We'll play for him..."

_What the hell? I'm a trophy again!?_

+-----+

You must understand me when I say that this has, so far, been the hardest chapter to type for this story...something just...does not want me to type in the volleyball match...so..I think I'll obey it, but I won't leave you all without detail...just to let you know....so you don't harp on me about sketchiness here. If you must know, right now, at this point, it's November 19th. That is how hard it was to type this chapter.

+----+

Dodge ball was the game, and, against Negi's better judgment, he was on the team. Negi shook his auburn head. Idiots. Idiots, idiots, idiots. This was dodge ball....and about twenty five students plus himself were on one team. How the hell was anyone going to be able to dodge _anything_? Well, not like he cared much. This was a chance to get out of teaching class a....although it did mean he would have to transfer to the high school division...where the girls were older, bigger and meaner apparently...but what could posibly be worse than this class he had?

A class like this one, only having graduated to high school. That's what.

Shit, shit, shit and more shit. Now that he had that image in his head, he couldn't shake it...It was impossible though, these girls, once they were made, the mold for every single one of them broke. There was just no way another set of them could have been created this insane. The world would explode before they even reached the age of one...

"Our serve first."

"Just hit the damn thing..."

Ten people against twenty six seemed good odds...in a fight. Not a friggin dodge ball game....The first throw was not even a throw...it was a simple toss...They knew that the middle school dunces that were class A were at such a disadvantage even a simple thing like that would get out...

Five people out.

Ten to twenty one.

Next toss knocked out six.

Ten to fifteen.

"Hey, how're they doing that?!"

"Idiots! Incho you dolt, more people is a disadvantage, no one can move!!"

"I didn't hear you complaining when we were choosing members!!"

Now they catch on. How nice. A day late and ten yen short. Too bad, ehh? Negi ducked under a toss of the ball, pulling one of his students out of the way from getting hit, but still, that throw knocked out three. Then the three high schoolers did something that made Negi's insides wail. They revealed themselves as champions in dodge ball...**dodge ball** for heaven's sake! What did they do, eat all the competition at the tournament?! Dodge ball was for kids! Four out. Then Asuna caught the ball and sent it back at them with all her abundant might. The girl caught it easily in the palm of her hand...and she was doing so well, Asuna had managed to almost singlhandedly knock out seven teammates on the other side...

"Your form frankly sucks."

Two out, then....an attack with the sun behind her back....Asuna out...and then a second hit for good measure...hey that's illegal!!!

The team lost hope, and Negi finally snapped out of his trance. That last illegal move hit it home; He did _**not**_ want to transfer to the high schoolers. Oh hell....

Five to three...finally, space! Shit! Ball! Ayaka out due to some cheesily named; "Triangle Attack."' Then Nodoka...wait, how'd she last so dang long?! Shit...Yuna ran to avoid the ball, but bumped into Ako. Both out by the ball.

Wait...dang it!

Negi vs. the Black Lilly's.

One Vs Three...

"Negi-sensei's as good as theirs..."

"Our serve...sorry little sensei, but I'm just going to have to hit you there and then you're free from that pack of little babies..."

_I wonder who really is the baby here, me, my class, or these three high schooler fools..._

The ball careened down at Negi's head, and Negi, glancing up, his only thought being:

_Ahh, so that's how it is._

Negi, using speed that he had yet to use in this game, shot out from the path of the ball and watched it bounce out. Negi's ball. Negi aimed and threw it, but of course, the three dodged it easily and tried to set him up with the same trick they got Ayaka with on their throw. Key differences with Negi though, one he was smaller, two he was faster, and three, and it obviously missed him.

_I just realized how much I don't want to be the boy toy of those three girls._

Another throw by Negi, almost a spike downwards that one of the girls barely dodged. Then the lead set up the attack they had used on Asuna, almost...hastily. Perhaps they had realized Negi was not about to go down without a fight...Negi didn't need to see her past the sun though, he had a whole field to himself....he could use a basic generalization and still dodge the ball, which he did. Negi then succeeded in knocking one of the side girls out.

"Huh? Is Sensei actually...."

"Surviving?!"

Another out, as Negi got the ball back. One on one now....dodge ball became more like volleyball now, as the two went back and forth, dodging, tossing, and the other girl actually tried to spike it at him, but Negi was too quick for that. No spikes from Negi though...too short. One shot almost got him, brushing past his hair.

"Hmm... little Sensei, this is a nice little display of skill here, but you don't need to fight so hard..."

_Oh really...._

Negi had the ball, and he jumped up, the highest had had so far, and rearing back his free hand sent a spike that nearly toughed the net, but still went over and hit his opponent straight in the face.

_**"OUT!"**_

Looks like Negi's staying with class A. Queue the glomps.

+------+

Now, I can write normally....

+---+

Negi sat with his laptop open, leaning against a futon and allowing the dying sunlight from a window to play on his face and stab at his eyes. They had finally come in and made a place for Negi to stay, building a platform over a closet, a ladder resting along the side to grant access. A futon and a couple shelves before the ceiling cut him off, but at least it was high enough for the six-year-old to stand in. It would stay that way until perhaps when he reached eleven or so, then he'd have to bend and the place would become too small. Negi had already set it up for himself here, as the rest of his luggage had come. Four bread boards, connected together, sat on one of the shelves, turning that shelf into a proper workbench, Capacitors and resistors neatly arranged next to transistors and inductors, with a selection that would keep any engineer, from the budding to the expert, happy for quite awhile. Wires of all sizes littered the area, but were still kept in their basic color code together. Underneath this shelf, USB cords, open surge protectors, a floppy disc drive and a whole other assortment of supplies sat in a clear bin. Books were piled on top of it in the space between the bin and the shelf's bottom.

On another shelf, prominently displayed, was Negi's throwing knifes and stars, kept in prime condition next to a steel box that anyone, seeing what was next to it which happened to be rounds, would know held his gun. HeartBreaker hung off the side from a hook. Above this, his small chamber pot hung off another hook, and an assortment of charms, ingredients and the like hung from other little hooks. Books were piled under this shelf too, but, while the other shelf had books on engineering and programming, this one held books whose covers were held shut by charms of Negi's. These were books of magic.

A shelf right opposite Negi's futon held a drawing pad and a notebook full of writings and calculations. Negi was both an artist and a freelancer writer, so his notebooks always had something interesting in them...More books under here contained drawings and art supplies, or the occasional classic novel. A man of many talents. Besides this, the rest of Negi's things were either in his magical little box or neatly assorted on remaining shelf space. Negi looked down at his computer again and clicked resume on a practice drill he was doing.

X^2= -1 x=?

Negi rolled his eyes to the sky. This was useless. His computer spouted questions that it itself could not answer as a last resort. X squared is equal to -1, so x is equal to the square root of negative one, an imaginary number. If he answered this question, the computer would put forth a famous "Domain Error" on him.

"Whatcha doin' sensei?"

Negi looked up from his screen to see Konoka half on and half off the ladder, her arms resting on his "floor" so to speak. Negi raised an eyebrow at her and answered:

"I'm trying to pound out the secret of life from this computer, and it's not giving me the answer. Care to tell me if you know it yourself?"

Konoka made a face. Every time she tried to start a conversation with him, Sensei came and tried to bite her head off. His acidity burned her no matter what...unless she asked him for help on some kind of homework that is. Then he became all nice and cuddly.

"Sensei, can I just once hold a conversation that doesn't have anything to do with school, without getting burned by you?"

Negi's eyebrow fell to join his other one and he closed his laptop. His arms came and crossed themselves over his chest.

"Try me then."

Konoka blinked. Now, most might look at Konoka and think her naive, maybe even a bit dense. But there _was_ a brain behind those ever-ready puppy eyes of hers. She just bode her time with it, and normally kept things to herself. This boy though, she got the feeling he needed some therapist to come in and break him down, make him cry, to heal him. She could do that, when she wanted to, all she needed was to find his soft spot. This was the perfect time too, with Asuna staying after school for a Math drill. Operation open Negi was primed and ready for take off...

"Springfield-sensei..."

"Please. If you want to be conversational, drop the Springfield will yah? It's top-heavy."

"Ooooookay then...Negi-sensei?"

Negi did not give any indication he heard her except a simple nod. There was something...odd...about her face. It was as if it had taken on a mission, and it made Negi put up his guard. He knew this girl to be devilish when she wanted to be. She was a cherub with a wood nymph's heart...

"Negi-sensei, what did you do in Wales?"

"I was a teacher there too."

"Really? That's really....cool. When'd you finish school?"

"I never did. I taught at the very college I went too. I graduated, but I never _finished_ school. Even now I'm in school, aren't I?"

"....So when did you _graduate_?"

"...Officially or unofficially?"

"...What do you mean by that?"

"I went for a double major, twice. All at once. I have four degrees, but I graduated one time. Yet I finished course work and was unofficially already in the field with something they call a "probationary degree" for quite a few months before officially graduating..."

"_Four_ majors?!"

"Computer tech/electrician, Linguistics/Teaching, General Medical and Sociological/Psychological. One reason I am both your English teacher and a Math tutor for so many of your friends who come over nearly every day. Computer techs need to have quite an extensive knowledge in Trigonometry, Calculus and above."

"So you're a regular boy genius huh? What do your parent's think of that?"

Negi's red eyes looked up at her to lock on her own face in full. They had been flitting about the room, but now they focuses on Konoka with such a severity it almost made her shiver.

"I wouldn't know. I never knew them. I'm an orphan."

That did maker shiver a little. Not only what he said, but how he said it. His face had been deadpan, and his voice was almost...serrated. Those eyes almost seemed to take on an aura of subzero cool, and they were laser aimed at her own eyes.

"So you're like Asuna..."

"Oh? I was unaware that she was an orphan. If the topic ever comes up, I'll remember to steer clear of the mention of parents."

"...What about your friends?"

"What friends?"

"...Don't you have any-?"

"No. I had colleagues, students and acquaintances. I have no friends. Only one man has ever called me his friend. Even he can't really say that though."

"Who?"

"Your very own Takahata-sensei. I've known him before coming here."

Maybe it was all the time she spent with Asuna, but the mention of the gentlemanly Sensei sent up Konoka's invisible antennae.

"Really?"

"Yes. He knew my foster sister."

"Oh, so you did have parents!"

"No. My foster sister was my cousin. My mother...no one knows what happened to her. My father was never even seen with her when she came to my village with me...My cousin's mother took me in, but...not long after, both of them, and my foster sister, died."

"Ohh...why? What happened?"

Negi's subzero stare instantly turned blazing hot, almost to the point of roasting Konoka alive. His face took on a darker hue. Ohh, Konoka had found Negi's soft spot alright. Too bad Negi's soft spots were protected by his internal defense; roasting anyone who came near to them alive in their shells.

"You don't want to know...I guarantee you that."

+----+

"How is the operation proceeding Chachamaru?"

The addressed robot looked up from a laptop computer screen, the numbers and information being relayed reflecting upon her artificial eyes. Those same eyes produced a double layer effect, themselves showing relayed information as the mechanical mind behind them made a quick estimate. Deadpan face met a one full of character and devilish menace.

"Smoothly. The blackout is set for tonight, at nine PM sharp. It will endure until midnight. Target will be patrolling the grounds and will be at the frontal gates by approximately nine o' five."

"Perfect...oh, and I see that brainiac girl finally got rid over your overtly accurate measurements."

"Once you complained about my accuracy for about the three hundredth time, Hakase took the liberty of reducing my decimal place statements to around the hundredths place, and installed many words into my systems as to which I can give..."ball park figures" with...."

"Excellent. Oh, just to make sure...what was that thing again? Oh, right, that idiotic term...tell me, what is Pi equal to?"

"3.14...." 

* * *

"Nothing else?"

"You requested I stop at the second decimal place master, does the answer I gave you displease you?"

"Oh no.... not at all, continue your work, enough talking."

"....Yes master."

+---+

"I don't like where this...conversation...is going Miss Konoe."

"I only asked a simple question Sensei."

"If you are attempting to find my soft spot, or trying to break me down, I suggest you cease and desist. I am a licensed Psychologist in my own right."

"What would give you that idea sensei?"

"Your method is one of an individual who has natural skill, but no actual taught technique. Your questions probe and dance oddly, flicking from one point to another, your thought of testing areas, but if you were truly able in what you are trying to do, you would not need to do this...To answer your question once again, I had no friends. I graduated at the top of my classes, after coming years earlier than anyone else had in the history of my school, and I graduated early, with four majors. I had no friends besides my books miss Konoe, but I had an abundance of enemies."

The dorm room door opened, and in walked a very tired looking Asuna. With a plop, her book bag landed on the ground near the door and she herself took a couple steps before allowing herself to collapse on the couch. Her only comment to the other occupants of the dorm was muffled through cushions, but could be discerned as:

"Algebra...kills."

Negi looked across the room from his vantage point and, seeing the clock, got up from where he was sitting and cast around for his suit and towel, along with his toiletry objects.

"No, Calculus II kills the unwary individual. Now, if you will excuse me Miss Konoe, I have patrol duty today, and I want to get my shower over with before lights out, thank you very much."

Abandoning the ladder that Konoka was standing on, Negi took his things and jumped down from his standing point to the ground, landing softly on his feet as a cat might. He landed lightly, and whether that be because he was so small and light, or the fact that he used his towel as an almost substitute parachute to slow his fall a bit when he jumped, Negi simply walked out the room, escaping from interrogation and leaving Konoka with a very tired Asuna to look after.

+---+

Looks like I'm finally moving, huh? I wanted to put Eva's fight in this chapter too, but once again, my chapter has come out longer than expected...and taken more time than estimated...ehh. If you all are wondering what happened to Negi's burning tongue, it's in his mouth, stuck to the roof of his teeth. It has to replenish its store of acid from his mucus glands that are nearest to his brain. Best acid comes from there you know. You can expect Negi to be his full, burning mouthed, sarcastic and dominating self by next chapter, in time to unleash hell on Eva. How will these too caustic individuals collide? Is there enough lye in the cupboard to dilute them? Is there enough Ammonia in the world to dilute these two when they clash? Better get your gear on...as they say were I am, as simple and rude as it seems..."Some f%ki&g sh3!s about to go daaowun!" Fits perfectly.

See you. Stay alive, like the Bee Jees.


	12. Chapter X: Dude, onions don't fly!

Now I'm mad. *Bears teeth* I believe I just might have accidentally erased my chapter 10, and now I have to re-write it. Bears teeth again. Annoying. Ehh, maybe it will be better or the same, but I had some good stuff there!!! grr! I'll have to check on my hard drive when I get home, and on this flash. Sometimes my flash saves things I deleted....oddly. I would be extremely relieved if it pulled that little glitch this time too. Okay. Let's get moving....

I hear and obey by the way, my poll has one vote, and it says I need to make my chapter's longer..I'll try for yah! Lets see what I can get, huh? Oii! Before I forget, you all know how I usually say I don't own Negima right? Yep, I'm proud to say now that I _**still**_ don't own it!

+---+

_**Chapter 10:**__** Dude...onions can't fly**_....V2.

+---+

Negi scoffed. Leave it to students to try and sneak out on his shift. He always encountered a large influx of them trying on the days he was patrolling, but then again, he patrolled on the days a student might most likely want to go out. Days near holidays, Fridays and other odd days that had a high percentage chance of a student coming around. Negi had just finished telling off some students he recognized from 4B, and sent them back up to their dorms with tracer spells on them (Without their knowledge of course.)

Negi was now coming along to the front of the school building, heading towards the dorms that his own class and a couple others inhabited. This would make his first round...

The street light next to him popped off, and so did all the others within his view. The stars, hiding behind all the light, suddenly sprang into view more vividly then Negi had ever seen them in Japan yet. Crap. Black out. Not that Negi did not appreciate the view. It was a welcome change. He gave himself a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the new darkness. He then continued walking until he stopped short, about two feet away, a puzzled look on his face...

There was...magic here...and it was growing stronger every second. It was as if, until now, it had been oppressed for years, and, now free from it's bonds, was exploding outwards with a force that was astounding. Negi's mouth screwed up into a puzzled frown when he heard a scream echo from the dorms. He wasted no time in speeding towards the guilty building, the one he had seen earlier, his own dorm room home building. His face continued to get darker in expression as he grew closer, and the magic continued to grow stronger. Heck was this? The final boss? Negi checked himself. He had his staff, and, reaching down as he ran, he felt his gun, and, in addition to a full barrel, he was packing enough for four more rounds. His stars and knives he had left in the dorm, his short sword too, but his daggers...they were in his boot soles, and his boots just happened to be the footwear of choice he had taken today. How lucky.

+----+

No, I am at home now. It's not here, it was deleted...awww...oh well, this one is shaping up to be better than the first in the beginning though..more detail, but the next part...I'll try to keep it as near to the original as possible...it was a nice one....

+---+

Crap, why did she have to decide now was a good time to take a walk? Why the hell were grocery stores across the bridge open this late anyway?!

Grumbling, Asuna glanced down at the list Konoka had handed her, one hand on her bike's handle to keep it going straight...The girl had been peeved about something, and had, in a huff, sent Asuna with a grocery list to the nearest open supermarket when she had asked what they were going to do about dinner. She swore, sometimes it seemed like the girl was a devil in disguise. She was beginning to dread the times when she came home and Konoka was the only one there. Konoka had not changed any, but Asuna found that Negi, even though he did not cook _quite_ as well, was easier to get a meal out of then Konoka was. Hell, he normally just cooked without even being asked too. The dude seemed to _enjoy _it...just don't ask him to _eat_ it right after. For some reason, he didn't eat after cooking...he went and wiped the kitchen, invariably. She could never understand those people. You stand by a sweltering hot stove, with raw ingredients, watch water boil and toss stuff into it, and then about an hour or so later, after tossing more stuff in there, you have a soup, and they think that's...fun? Then go right and clean afterwards, and leave the food you cooked to get cold? Hell, she hardly understood one lick of what Negi did when he hooked up those new toys of his, his "breadboards" or whatever he called them with different wires going all over the place to watch squiggly lines run across a meter with numbers, or make his laptop do something wired, but it sure as heck looked more interesting than watching water boil...

The closest damn store was over the bridge and into the other part of Mahora City. She was going to have to take her bike all the way across, and then come all the way back with bags. She was pretty sure Konoka had all this stuff anyway, but just wanted her out of the house. She had been talking to Negi and apparently had gotten pissed about something the kid had said. The tiny sensei had looked weird too, almost as if he had become a blank faced terminator mini. His eyes looked like lasers. Had they argued about something? What though? Looking up, Asuna sighed.

_Crap, I missed the street, I have to double back now. _

_+---+_

"Master, the target approaches."

"Good, let him come. I owe him this...Pedophile my ass. I'll show him."

"The target has bypassed one of the temporary minions due to the fact he took a short cut."

"He's a friggin boy genius, of course he would take a short cut. Probably knows this building like the back of his baby hands."

"Yes master."

+---+

Negi paused at the doorway of the bathhouse. The power was coming from here. Like everywhere else, the open doors gaped, beckoning Negi to come in and be swallowed in the pitch black hole. Negi took a step in and saw nothing but darkness. Vague shapes teased his eyes at the edge of his vision, but nothing came to the front, there was too little light. Negi was tempted to strike up some light magic, but he dared not...the oppressive aura was strongest here...

"Master, he is here."

"I can see that you collection of bolts. Show time then isn't it? I've waited fifteen years for this..."

_Click._

The lights, of course. The this was a trap. Okay then...Negi's eyes surveyed the scene in front of him. Vague and shadowy shapes had sprung forth into colorful, sharp and familiar ones. A synthetic rock here, a couple palm trees there....and then there was that weird gazebo like structure. There. A collection of people sat on top of it, all of whom Negi recognized, although it took a bit of imagination to recognize one of them. Negi gave a small half smirk. He should have known.

"Ahhh, McDowell-san. Keep this up and you're bound to get into trouble. Seducing a minor is illegal... For the last time, I'm not interested in you..."

Negi looked her up and down. Indeed, her current gear could be described as proactively elegant, a borderline acceptable fancy party dress, who's elegancy was gnarred and pushed to the limit by the design of the dress, which showed off a great deal of this...illusionary Evangeline. Eva felt a vein throb in her temple. Of all the things for a child to say...but she kept her calm. She was in control here...She saw Negi's eyes flicker towards her other companions. She gestured towards them with a lazy wave.

"Ahh, I see you've noticed my new toys. I caught these girls sneaking around after hours. You should be thanking me Sensei, I am only giving them the proper punishment they deserve..."

Negi raised an eyebrow at that. His smirk was gone, but it was replaced by a severe line that made his entire visage nearly scream; "Oh reheheheealllly..."

"Miss McDowell, I really do think you would benefit from the prescription drug Zoloft. May I recommend it? Not only that, but your "toys" are out past their bedtime. Didn't your mother teach you to play nice? It's time to clean up now Evangeline, come on, clean up time is a great way to show team work, I'll help you.."

Negi's staff came forward, and he began to spin it slowly, almost as if he were just fidgeting with it. Eva's eyes alighted upon it. She recognized that little artifact...

"Ahh, so the boy has a valentine to give me! How nice...but do you even know how to _use_ that overgrown pixie's toy?"

Negi gave no answer, but the staff began to spin with more conviction. Magic began to pool in his free hand, which was extended out towards Evangeline. His staff glowed a vibrant red around the heart, before, in one quick flash, the whole object was covered in a soft, red glow. Negi grabbed the grip and twisted off the tube that held the rapier, letting it's brilliant blade be bare to the bathhouses light's. It reflected the gazebo and Eva's face as it was held still and at the ready. No more spinning for it. A tick formed in one of Eva's eyes.

_So he does no how to use it. This will be...far more interesting than I first thought. Who would have guessed that __**he**__ would be destined to hold that thing? Or did he rig it? That would still require an extreme amount of skill, and would still place him far higher than I expected... _

Eva looked over at her little army of classmates turned minions. She snapped her fingers and pointed at Negi.

"Girls, bring me the little gift he's brought me. I'd like to appreciate it close up. Feel free to play with him however you like, but strip him bare, just in case..."

Negi, despite himself, took a step back when she said that, and he watched his students jump as one from the gazebo to land with a splash in the water.

"Forceful aren't we? Raping me won't help you Evangeline. Therapy will. Come on, talk to me, I'm your resident Dr Phil."

Negi's eyes stayed on the water, which had, for the moment, become peaceful, but he knew that was about to change...Eva's answer came, short, simple and all but sweet as the water erupted to show that, no, his zombified students had not conveniently drowned for him...

"Hell no."

_Oh well, can't blame a fella for trying, can't you?_

Negi recognized the first girl that came at him as one from his own class, Akira. She had been the fastest in the water, and now was speeding towards him, wet maids attrite and all.

_If there really is a lord up there, he must be laughing his celestial head off right about now..._

Aiming a kick to the girls midsection, he swung his blade out, it's length glowing blue as it sailed over her head. The kick had connected, her momentum making her double over as her body continued forward, but her middle could not due to obstruction. However, Negi was not seeking to behead her, he was fulfilling a different aim, and his eyes reflected a red glow as the blade flashed red at key points above the girls head. She collapsed next to him, knocked out not from his kick, but the fact he had just cut her strings tying her to Eva's will. Negi ducked under a flying glomp, and sent the girl packing with a well placed elbow to the temple as she passed. He swung his blade over her head too, he didn't need to deal with the arms after all, just sever the ones connecting the girls brain to Eva, and the rest would dissolve...

_Some kind of humor you have lord... Always giving me impossible situations to deal with._

Negi's blade came out again, and this time encountered another's sheath. This one wasn't from his homeroom class...and she was wielding a kendo stick...how fun. Too bad she couldn't use it, Negi had a real blade in his hands. Her's would be like a tree branch in a wood chipper...so she was using her sheath. She detached her weapon from his and swung at his head, only to have it blocked when Negi swung up his own blade vertically. He sent his free elbow into her stomach, knocking her back.

"Hmph, too slow girl, and no other discipline other than your small skill with that blade, train more."

She recovered quickly as another girl flew at Negi in an attempt to pounce him. Negi swung his foot up and backwards, connecting solidly with the girls knees and making her go down kneeling. He swung around, his blade flying over her head. As she fell, the spin continued, coming forward so Negi's blade clashed with the recovered girl's sheath. Attacking his back, ehh?

"Shoo fly, don't bother me."

Negi slid his blade up, along the sheath's length. The girl saw the ploy and detached however...too bad the classic ploy was, in itself, a ploy. Negi was not trying to slide his blade up along hers to slam his elbow into her face, as the classic text book counter might be, but instead he did it to make her detach, so he could slash his blade through the opening, spinning it so he could grab the blade as he came rushing in. His blade hilt connected solidly with her chin as his elbow slammed into her lower ribs, moving upward so he could knock the wind out of her lungs. She stumbled back, and Negi, flipping his blade over again so his hand grabbed the hilt, sent her into dreamland with a slash to her strings. Negi examined his surroundings to check if he had all of them. A girl snuck up behind him, but received a face full of Heartbreaker's blunt ended sheath for trying. He knocked her out with a quick blow to the temple and a swipe above her head. As his blade swung, he saw in the light that it had blood on it, and, glancing at his had, he saw that the little trick he had just pulled with the other girl had cut his hand.

"Bah...humbug. You can't always get a busting level "S" can yah?"

Ngei glanced up to see that Eva was sitting down...just...watching him. Chachamaru was standing, and her eyes were a blur of numbers. Negi got tired to reading them after the three-hundredth and eighty-seventh digit. Just a load of binary that basically told Negi that Chachamaru was calculating his skill. He needed not to read any deeper into it than that...Yes, Negi is that much of a computer germ. He can read binary like we read English, only at about 40,000 words, or around 320,000 digits, a minute. Nice huh? Off topic we are. Negi looked up at Chachamaru and saluted her with his blade.

"Done sizing me up? Sorry to disappoint you, but, as you can see, there's not much to size."

"Chances of Springfield-sensei succeeding in protecting his blood from my master are only slightly above zero. 0.00%"

Negi quirked an eyebrow. "I think you need to check your math there, unless your significant digit count it off. Above zero certainly is not 0.00%

"Significant digits needed to display that your chances are above zero are beyond my vocal permittance to say. The first digit above zero is located in the hundred trillionth decimal place value."

Negi looked at Eva, who still had not said anything. She did however, slowly begin to stand, facing away from him. Negi felt that surge of power again. He had forgotten it in protecting himself from his students, but now, with nothing to distract him, it was quite apparent. He addressed her, his face almost bored. Might as well put a good face on it. He used the gemmed heart of HeartBreaker as a prop for his head.

"Now, I ask you, is all this percentage talk and and overly skimpy outfit on a generously proportioned illusion... supposed to scare me? I'm sorry, but I seem to have lost the memo about it."

Eva's head turned slightly in Negi's direction, hair falling to cover her face from him.

"Hmph. I like a man who doesn't talk to much boy. One who doesn't care for useless banter."

That was the last straw. Negi looked at her, and he, finally...laughed. Just laughed. HeartBreaker fell to his side and he openly laughed at Chachamaru's blank face, for she was the one looking his way. Needless to say, the robot was confused as hell, and try as she might, could not find a logical explanation for the reason Negi was laughing his head off. One does not need to mention it, but I don't think she'll ever find a logical explanation for it. It's a human reaction, and humans defy all logic... Eva turned to look at him full on, and, in her surprise, lost her illusion.

"The hell, the hell may I ask, is so damn funny?"

Negi's laughter stopped almost as quickly as it started, and one could see his eyes were beginning to burn with the flames of war. HeartBreaker glowed all the more brightly in it's fiery hue, and Negi's free hand began to glow as it began to show the gathering of magic once again.

"Oh, you, that's what. I see you've decided to rejoin us Evangeline-san... You're so funny. I told you already, I'm not a candidate for your lost love romance fantasies, woman.` More importantly, I might say that I, frankly, don't give a frog's leg what kind of man you like."

Negi's free hand came forward, and it's collection of magic grew brighter.

"They say, in religion, that the deities above put humans through trials. To test their faith, their mettle. The more important the job the human must accomplish, the more difficult that job may be, the more grueling their trial. Woman, Vampire, Mistress of whatever hell hole you came from, I've been through my own private hell in my short life, and you can be damned sure my ride ain't over yet. I've watched demons kill my family and annihilate my entire village, if not through my eyes at the time, then in my merciless, night time dreams. I've been through a four major, single year Doctorate's degree from nothing at Oxford time trial, and passed to go and teach dunces who would call themselves college students. I've been through Magic academy, an earth swallow of it's own. I've pulled HeartBreaker form the wreckage of my own village, after tracking down and interrogating thousands of people and demons alike. I've come _**here**_, to this living nightmare called a middle school. Excuse me for the rant, but screw you. _**You**_ are not going to end me. _**I'll**_ be doing the ending here, if I see fit to! But first, to fight me..."

Negi spun around, and with his magically charged hand, aimed a blast at his shoes before he sent one flying backwards at Eva.

"You'll have to _**catch**_ me!"

Before anyone could react, Negi launched himself forward, speeding through the door and into the darkness. The magic bolt Negi had sent Eva's way slammed into her natural barrier and cancelled it with a shatter. For a little kid, he sure packed quite a punch, even if it was just her natural barrier... Chachamaru jumped off the roof before Eva could even command her too, and fired after him, literally, those jets were packing today. Eva was the clam one, she jumped of lightly and landed on the water.

No not in the water, _**on**_ it. She froze it first of course. (What did you think she was going to pull a divinity trick when no one was watching? Nope, not this vampire.)

Even though her actions were calm, her body was seething, but her mind was curiously blank. Almost as her tensed body had a mind of it's own. She was absorbing what Negi had just ranted at her. Analyzing it, summing it up. As little as the boy knew, her interest was buried in his history, because it gave her clues to his father. Yet, she had to admit, he was turning into a case that was interesting in it's own right....she wondered how much he could pull off before she drained him dry...

+---+

Even gunshots can't ultimately defy gravity...so what makes you think Negi can?!

Negi was quickly running out of rooftops to run along. Freedom really was only as big as limitation let it be, wasn't it? It was times like these he wished he could fly! Alleyway!

Eva wasn't far behind Negi with her robot companion. Needless to say, both of these were taking it easy, Chachamaru could catch Negi in a split second if she really wanted to, after all, she was multi-mach capable. Eva sent a couple ice arrows his way, to make it look at least semi-convincing in her eyes. She only needed to peak this runt's agitation, all the sweeter his blood would taste. It was tiring after all, drinking stale fare such as seen in blood packets. Negi pulled out an odd looking gun and picked them off easily with magically enhanced bullets.

"Magic gun ehh? What other tricks does he have in his bag?"

"Besides his Western Martial Arts and marksmanship, Springfeild-sensei's reports are blank... He's done a good job of hiding his abilities... up until now. His scores in his magical academy were perfect, but he never did anything more than he needed to for a perfect score. Bios, reports, videotaped surveillance, even eye witness accounts come up empty. Yet it is obvious he's been holding back from what one can see here."

"As much as it was entertaining to listen to, I did not ask for a complete schematic Chachamaru."

"Yes Master."

".....God damn, can't you say anything else!?!"

"No Master."

"........."

((Wait, didn't she just prove herself wrong with that...?))

+-----+

_God this stuff is hard to balance on a flipping bike!_

Asuna had finished her quick errand to the store and was now heading back to the dorm, wobbling all the way. She had yet to cross the bridge. There had barely been anyone in the store anyway, it was too late. The guy just kept his store open in the late hours for pure spite, or the occasional late night runner, like herself this day. However, the day was not done with her yet, she still had to cart this stuff back to the dorm, and with no help, it all had to go on her bike, overbalancing it and making her ride a slow, wobbly one. Finally, she could see the bridge nearing in her sight, and she put on an extra burst of speed. The faster she got home, the faster she could get some rest, her head was still spinning with x's and y's from math...It was then that she saw them....

Three people, two of which were flying around, on the rooftops. With her unusually keen eyesight, she spied that it was Negi and two of her classmates, McDowell-san and Karakuri-san. It seemed that They were...chasing him. He was running along rooftops and, as she watched, sped up and shot under Karikuri, who had tried to cut him off by dropping down from above. He performed a little flip, jumping unto lower rooftops and running along as he glanced back.

_The hell? Why are they chasing him?! _

+---+

"The bridge. He's headed towards the bridge...but he can't know..."

"Master, should I intercept him?"

"....You should not even need me to tell you, yah bucket of bolts."

Putting more power into her jets, Chachamaru sped ahead of Evangeline, aiming to shoot past Negi and drop in front of him. Yet, when she shot past Him, Negi realized her tactic.

_Oh __**heeyall **__no._

Lucky for Negi, he had barely been using his magic at all this night. Pumping it into his feet with his adrenaline, he braced his feet against a ledge of a building's roof top when he came too it, and gave it his best kick off. As Chachamaru dropped down, He shot past from under her. He called back to her as his feet landed upon another roof top, a lower one, he did, after all, realize that his choice of rooftops was becoming more limited and he would need to soon drop to the ground...

"Missed me, missed me, but don't you dare try and kiss me!"

"Master I seem to have missed him..."

If Eva could, she would either slap Chachamaru to next Tuesday or slap her own self with enough force to knock her back fifteen years, right into Nagi's sorry ass.

"I can **see** that you _dolt_. Get after him!"

Negi however, had already lightly landed on the road and, nearly getting run over by a passing car, which he conveniently jumped over the path of, sped towards the bridge. He stopped just short of halfway through and waited as the two approached.

((Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed the supreme lack of vehicles in Negima?))

_This has got to work, otherwise I'll be a friggin zombie, just like Makie-san thought I was on the the first day of class._

Negi watched as the two landed softly on the bridge's road. Unbeknownst to the three of them however, they had a forth visitor in their midst, one who, upon seeing Negi touch down, had hid herself behind one of the steel pillars holding up the bridge's frame. Negi scoffed at Eva.

"Two on one, in an abandoned, dark scene, bad guys in the front, the figure of the good guy somewhere in the back..heck, all we need is some dry dirt, tumble-weeds and some old western music and were set for action!"

"You stopped here, why?"

"Oh, I just happen to know that vampires have trouble swimming, that's all. Wanna see if you can float? I'm an onion not a garlic, but you're the vampire, that's standing water, and this..."

He held up HeartBreaker, which took the opportunity to gleam in the reflected moonlight. It's blade was still tinted red in the place Negi's blood had spilled. The curious red aura around it pulsed silently, patiently...

"Why this is your stake."

It was Eva's turn to scoff. Hell, this boy was alone, inexperienced, young, and extremely annoying. He knew how to push her buttons it seemed, and he knew it. It's one thing when a person knows how to push your buttons, but when they _know _that they know how to push your buttons, that's something different...

"Give it a rest boya. You're tired, that's why you stopped. All I've been doing up until now was play with you, but play time's over now."

Negi piped up at that before Eva could being her tirade.

"Oh, so _**now**_ you decide to put away your toys. I should give you a time-out for tardiness."

"Chachamaru."

"Yes Master."

Launching herself at Negi, she sent a punch his way, which actually detached from her arm and flew at him. Negi brought out HeartBreaker, and wielding it like a bat, sent the punch flying back at her while he dodged out of the way from her charge.

"We want a real pitcher not a...aww heck, I forgot the rest."

The robot just reeled the thing back in though and aimed a kick at his middle, which he caught, but couldn't capitalize on, for the force of the kick sent him flying away. She reared back her arm again and sent another flying punch at him. Negi had just enough time to kick off one of the supporting beams on the bridge and down to the ground again before he had to launch himself sideways to avoid the punch.

"Guess you really are gonna pull that pistol, too bad, I would have liked to hear you whistle Dixie at least once!"

Negi quickly pooled his magic and sent about five arrows of fire at Eva, who had been chanting while Negi was dodging Chachamaru. Her ice spell encountered them with a very audible hiss, but the ice won out and sped along the ground, neatly freezing the lamppost behind Negi, but missing Negi himself. Convienently for Asuna though, it was the pillar she had not been standing behind...

Asuna looked on as Negi jumped backwards from a roundhouse Chachamaru sent his way, then, turning that backwards jump into a back flip, continued to create distance. By the time he landed on his feet however, Chachamaru was almost upon him, and Negi brought his blade out to clash with one Chachamaru had conveniently let loose from her arm. Negi spun and tried to slash at her middle, only to have the slash parried, Negi ducked under a elbow she sent his way and shot past her on her left, spinning around to try and attack her back, but no go, the robot had quickly spun and met him head on again. They spent a few precious second banging each other blades against each other's before Ngei detached and spun his blade like a disc, jumping away from Chachmaru to deal with a few ice arrows Eva sent his way. Chachamaru wouldn't let him get to much distance however, and neatly sent a powerful slash towards his middle, which, in blocking, sent Negi sliding backwards a few feet. Once again closing the distance, she tried to slice at his left shoulder, only to have Negi's blade come up vertically and block it. The two locked there for a second, testing each other's strength. Negi found himself to be noticeably weaker...but that was to be expected, this was a robot after all...

"You're pretty damn good."

"Why thank you."

+---+

_Holy crap, it's like watching a street fighter movie...sort of. Hell, he's pretty damn good. But Karikuri...a robot? Nihg...this can't be real can it?_

She watched as Chachamaru sent Negi flying when she finally managed to connect with one of her roundhouses. She had locked his blade with hers and pulled off three rapid ploys, none of which Asuna even saw and none of which Negi took. One the forth consecutive ploy however...Negi took the bait and received the roundhouse as punishment. He slid and slammed into the frozen pillar, wincing. Chachamaru flew at him, but Negi jumped out of the way and the robot had to stop short. Once again spinning his staff, he used the resulting disc to once again deflect the ice shots sent his way, Only Negi was blasted back when He realized Eva had not only sent Ice arrows at him this time, but had sent a wave of ice to freeze the ground at him, the force of the spell knocked him off his feet and a few yards away. It was too powerful for him to have been frozen by it, it's momentum to great to him to be frozen in place with his small weight...lucky perhaps? Chachamaru capitalized on his helpless status in the air by punching him right back upwards when he was about to come down, then, grabbing him, slammed her elbow into his midsection as her knee came up to bash his spine. Ouch. Negi coughed at that and dropped, but managed to roll out of the way of one of Chachamaru's kicks and spun himself to his feet, jumping sideways and turning to his side to avoid an actual beam of pure magic ice, which sent literal chills down Negi's front. If he would have taken the time to look, he would see his clothes had become frozen in front from that close call. Negi tried to strike at Chachamaru from his angle to get at her shoulder joint, but the robot was a bit too quick for that. He did managed to score a chunk of synthetic hair for his trouble though. He received a face full of a rocket punch for being too close when he slashed out again. Negi, sent flying again, slid along the tar, opening up cuts on his arm. His face already looked banged up from the punishment it had been receiving, and his back was killing him, heck, he wasn't even old! Still, just keep swimming. Negi wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and found blood. He flicked it at Eva as he dodged another charge from Chachamaru. He was definitely slowing down...not a good sign. Eva was close enough that the blood actually landed on her shoulder. Distracted, the spell she had been conjuring dissipated and she frowned at him oddly. The hell was he doing?

"Thick enough for yah?"

+---+

_Crap...I've got to help him, don't I? Shit..this is why I hate kids..can't do anything for themselves..._

Asuna stopped herself there. What right did she have to say that? If she were in a fight like this, she would probably die in the first ten seconds...how long had he been holding on? She watched as Negi flicked his own blood at Eva and asked her if she thought it was thick enough. That was this shrimp alright...she hadn' t known him long, but she knew from what she could see that he was sarcastic and burning to a fault, and hell, he was stubborn enough to outwit Satan, the guy he called the "ultimate spoiled brat" because he's been throwing a temper tantrum for thousands of years because he got kicked out of Heaven for being bad. Now that she had time to think about it..he had not been here long, but the amount of things he had done for the people in this school was actually astounding for the time he had been here. He had whipped class 3A so that, at least during English, they could have a normal lesson without any weirdness. He opened his free hours to teach students on any subject they wished, and right from the dorm house if they wanted too. He had made Evangeline and Chachamaru actually attend school…if only to try and stalk him. Hell, he had made Ku Fei and Sakurazaki-san become more active in school classes, if only to try and access him for a rematch. He made Chisame power down her laptop when he walked into a room...who the hell does that? She does that for no-one...but him. The whole class had banned together to fight to keep him, but in the end, he was the one who had stood up to the high schoolers and sent them packing in their own game. He had single handedly done what no other teacher could have done before...teach Ku Fei algebra well enough so that she actually could get a seven point five out of ten and Makie well enough to get an eight. That was impossible...but it had been done...heck, she herself had gotten a nine on the last test...a nine. She had never seen that kind of grade before...Konoka had asked the teacher is she had written the number upside down by accident. She hadn't.

Like it or not...this "kid" could do things. She had barely realized it, but all this time, Asuna had been putting her bags on the ground and leaning her bike safely against the railing, and had been searching through her coat pocket for that weird little star wand Negi had given her...she still had it, and it answered her call, extending to it's full length quickly and quietly. How did that spell for fire arrows go again?

+----+

_Rastel, Ma Scir, Magister.._

Comming at Chachamaru this time, instead of how it had been going these past few rounds of clashes, Negi began to chant a spell in his head, or in other words, cast a spell unincanted..but he needed a distraction, and this was it. Swinging his blade to try and slice right down from shoulder to torso, he found he was, unsurprisingly, blocked, and countered, which Negi managed to barely block, and which the force once again sent his little self flying.

_Ex Somno Exsistat Exurens _

Landing lightly about two yards away, Negi once again rushes his opponent, seeking to slash at her legs. She jumps up and over the blow, and sends her own blade slashing down at Negi's exposed back. He avoids this by letting his knees buckle, and rolling along the ground.

_Salamandra Inimicum Involvat Igne!_

Shooting upward, Negi grabs her arm and slashes with HeartBreaker at her right kidney area, which is closet to him. She blocks that with her arm and easily tosses him off, but that's what he wanted..He rushed in again, only this time, his close proximity wasn't to physically attack, but to disable the robot due his released spell...

"Captus Flammeus!"

Speaking that part aloud, it was the only warning Chachamaru had before fiery snake like jets erupted from Negi's hand and twisted around Chachamaru. Her surprise was lost upon that emotionless face, but her capture was, in itself, enough for Negi. Spinning around, he ran at Eva, who, in sending another bout of ice at him, took flight.

"Is all that you can do? Shoot ice at me? Come down here and let me put a furnace up your behind, see how you like it!"

Eva didn't answer, just began chanting another spell, almost imperceptibly shaking her head. This boy was not going to get her mad anymore..Chachamaru would soon dispell that trap and then would be back on him. This was her day. Her freedom was coming. But, why not have a last bit of fun? Why not test the boy to see his resilience?

A single, relatively weak fire arrow sent straight to bounce against her barrier distracted her..what the hell? Glancing down, she saw Asuna, who had stopped short after seeing her arrows simply bounce off.

"What, what may I ask, in hell do _**you**_ want?"

Eva heard a whistle, and turned around to see Negi, who had taken advantage of both her chanting and her distraction to run up to a cable wire and shimmy up it a bit before using it as a wall to jump off of. Since Eva herself had not gone to high in the air, his little trick actually put himself level with her as he closed in. Shit..

"Igneus Ambitus!"

_The hell is that?_

Magic is an ever improving art, just like technology. Unlike technology however, this art's improvement has been drastically slowing down almost directly proportionate to how quickly the advancement of technology is accelerating. Original Spells are rare, and as the knowledge of those precious languages fades, so does the opportunity to create new material. Negi however, has searched far and wide in his short life, gaining a knowledge to speak the language of his spell work fluently. Igneus Ambitus is one of his own.

His fist glowed violently bright as he managed to slam it home into Evangeline's middle. Several, tiny spheres of fire swirled around his wrist and were, by the force of Negi's impact, shot off it and right unto Eva, where they exploded on contact while the magic held in the fist was released right on her as well. Her barrier cancelled quite a bit of the effect, but the rest sent her plummeting downwards to nearly slam into the bridge's sidewalk...had it not been for her quick recovery and attempt to re-acend...her attempt was cut short when Negi slammed right into her from above, after all, what goes up, must come down. Knocked unto the sidewalk under Negi, who managed to ,land on his feet...on her.... she found herself in a position similar to when she first fought him...The spell had wreaked it's damage on Eva, singing her hair in a couple places and burning the more delicate parts of her dress. Most of the effect had been fended off, so the main damage came from Negi falling on top of her after weakening her barrier so much.

"Get the hell off me."

"Why? I like it up here..."

"..and you scold me about sexual innuendos..."

"Oh heck no, I mean the veiw."

"...that too can be taken..."

"You have such a dirty mind. You disgust me. The river, woman, the river. I can't see it normally, to damn short. But, if I stand on top of you I can see clearly now. Yes, the rain is gone too."

"The hell? Rain?"

Negi provided no answer, but jumped off Eva as Chachamaru, freed from her captivity of one fire spell, charged Negi. Eva actually winced as she got up. Hell...that actually hurt! Asuna surprised them all by trying to intercept. Negi had managed to block a slash downwards and was holding her off, with Asuna's help here....the robot detached and tried to slash upwards, but Negi jumped out of the way.

"Where did you come from?! I thought you were in the dorm sleeping!"

"I thought you were patrolling!"

"I was! These two caused a ruckus and I came running! That's my job! Hell, watch your back!"

Negi sped past her to her back and canceled a few ice arrows with his gun, which he had decided should make a reappearance.

"I appreciate the concern, but get the hell out of here before you get hurt!"

Rushing back in to the fray against Chachamaru, Negi neglected the fallen Evangeline, who was chanting again now. Asuna, seeing this, decided to let her teacher's statement go to hell and charged at her. Eva paid her no mind. Her barrier would take care of the girl...

That is, she thought it would until a straight and powerful kick to the jaw changed her mind, sending her reeling. The hell? How did she? Eva turned around just in time to get a face full of..Negi? He had been fighting Chachamaru and she had sent him flying..right into Eva. He got up and barely paid her any mind, except to say:

"Thanks for landing!"

_Pro unus quisnam _

This battle was seriously starting to piss her off....regardless of what she had told herself. Negi looked at Asuna.

_est non a socius, socius in bellum, _

"Oh hell. Forget it. Give me your hand."

_tribuo vox of pactum pro duos _

"Huh?'

_centum quod...quadraginta secundus.._

"Your flipping wand hand, hurry!"

_Asuna Kagurazaka.._

"Okay...?"

Allowing her wand hand to fall into his open, magically charged one, Negi looked at Eva, who was getting up, and at Chachamaru, whom had, curiously, stopped to go to her master, probably because her fall was her fault this time...Negi's hand came up and tossed HeartBreaker at Asuna, surprising her.

"Catch..."

He looked at Eva, who was getting up.

"This'll even the playing field a little..Impiger!"

The blast of magic that resulted was quite concentrated, almost directly on Asuna and Negi. Eva's head spun around.

"Don't you tell me she made a contract with that brat..she can't have, he's to damn young!"

The light canceled, and Negi was actually smirking again.

_Perspicuus lux lucis, _

"Oh, not a contract, but something ancient warriors used to get from mages on their side. A power boost without contract, an ally contract. Kagurazaka-san, I think you'll find you can well enough handle Karakuri-san on your own now.."

_sol solis of nox noctis_

"What?! She'll murder me!"

_adveho vultus vestri caecus_

"No she won't _**you**_ might murder _**her**_ though..try fighting her..you'll be surprised.."

_hostes hostium_

Negi said no more, but he rushed at Evangeline, Chachamaru stood to block him from coming, running at him, but Negi was prepared for that.

"Splendens Mico!"

Forming a ball of light in his hand, the harmless flash exploded upwards into the sky, and Chachamaru, still continuing forward, had to force down her head to block the blinding light. Negi used that time to rush past her, towards Eva, who had taken this time to take to the sky again. Asuna decided to test what Negi said and came at the disadvantaged Chachamaru...

She almost instantaneously reached there, and HeartBreaker clashed with Chachamaru's blade easily. It was...almost easy to keep the robot at bay..detaching from her, she tried to stab at her shoulder, and chachamaru found herself needing to block in close quarters..she had almost been unable to stop it.

"Friggin bats always fly the coop when things get interesting, get back here you overgrown Halloween fixture!"

"Lic Lac La Lac, Lilac."

_Shit, that must be her release._

"Rastel Mas Scir Magister"

"Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes..."

_Calling spirits huh? That's just about one of the highest spell levels I've seen...fine, I can do that too you know... _

"Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes..."

_Oh, so he knows this level? Probably the highest he has in his arsenal..lets see is he can match me in it then!_

"Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas..."

_Darkness and Ice, classic from what I've seen so far. Fine, I'll pull out some of my strongest._

"Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina..."

_Oh nice, so he's going for an almost direct opposite of me. This'll be fun._

"Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas..."

"Jovis Tempestas..."

"Obscurans!"

"Fulguriens!"

The resulting two beam like spells barreled forward and met each other in the middle, highlighting Chachamaru and Asuna locked in a clash. Asuna turned her head too look, and Chachamaru took advantage, kicking her in the middle and sneding her sliding. She barely felt it though, which surprised her, but she took it in stride, rushing at her again to lock blades. The two spells clashed against each other in the middle for about two seconds before the flow began to slowly, ever so slowly, march towards Negi's side. Obviously one could tell as Negi's spell length shortened, who was the stronger one here.

_Crap, crap, crap, crap! She's stronger...unbearably so! I might lose! Unless.._.

Negi recalled how Eva had lost her illusion, and the several times she lost her enchantment due to distraction. It was not to say Eva was easily distracted...but she could be distracted...Negi's mouth once again formed a sadistic smile, and he cleared his throat, yelling out in his best child's voice a single word.

"POOP!"

_The hell?!_

Despite herself, Eva had to laugh. She just had too. That single word is almost guarantees to make an entire room of third graders laugh their heads off, and the way and place Negi said it only compounded it's effect...yet, when Eva came to herself, which did not take long, she realized that Negi was smiling, and oh hell, she realized. The power of Negi's spell had pooled, and pushing against hers, he gained all lost ground and overcame her, sending the force of both spells right unto her. Eva had been near the edge of the bridge, but the force of the spell knocked her back a bit in the air, putting her over the water, she regained altitude, but stayed where she was.

The spell had succeeded in doing what Eva had told her fellow students under her control were free to do to Negi. He closed an eye in decency. Eva didn't seem to mind though. She pointed down at him.

"Oh very nice, fine then, It's time I got serious!"

Oh how nice that would be...except...lights began to pop up along the city, something Chachamaru noticed.

"Master.."

"Not now you fool...Lic Lac La Lac, Liac... "

A few more light came up, and the bridge's lamp poles were beginning to get cast in it...

"Master!"

"Ut Sumbolaion Diakoneto Moi..."

"Master! The blackout it ending hours earlier than it is scheduled to!"

The bridge came to life, it's lights all popping on at once, making Negi throw up his hands, his eyes being used to the darkness. Eva looked down, only having time to claim: "Shit." Before an electric charge ran right through her all over, setting her alight better than any new years ball. Negi shook his head. Now _that_ was a sight he thought was better than what the Rockettes could ever pull off in his eyes. When the shock dissipated, Evangeline fell and began a quick decent straight for the open water. Chachamaru ran to the edge, but, low and behold, her jets decided now was the time they would stop working. Negi opened his closed eye.

"Crap. I've got to save her, don't I? Of all the botherations."

Running to the bridges edge himself, he jumped. It was then he conveniently remembered he didn't have his wand. Oh well, crap. Still, he tried.

"Meus baculus!"

Asuna found that the sword she had been holding began to vibrate violently and she released it. It shot down and into Negi's hand faster than any bullet could. It collided with his hand just as he was about to hit the water, magic springing to life on the surface, their pathway to the outside opened.

+---+

Eva was falling...falling fast, her mind backtracked. All the way to Nagi. He was a liar after all...he said he would come back and free her...and here she was, defeated by his son..a weakling of a mage, but still, so very interesting. He was strong for his age...too bad...She glanced upwards, which, to her, was looking down, and saw Negi jump. the fool, he can't save her, he can't even fly. what the hell was he trying to prove? They'll both die..what an idiot...

She remembered an idiot like that...

+---+

"An aer ebullio inter mihi , unda spiritus!"

Eva hit the water, and Negi came after her not even ten seconds after. He grabbed her as the spell activated, covering them both in a bubble of air. Eva, on impulse, coughed up water. Still, Negi couldn't do much in the water with a bubble around her and his upper body. He had to try and swim it...

+---+

"Not that you really defeated me..I'd call it a technical defeat at best."

"A wins a win. I want you at least to stop attacking students yah talking tick."

"Talking tick huh? Fine...but you had better watch out for the full moon."

"Whatever, just go and put some damn clothes on, before someone calls in that a streaker is on the loose....here..take my coat..."

Taking off the coat, which was empty of anything besides some tissue and a pen, he tossed it to her.

"Scram. Your all wet, singed and bruised."

Turning around, Negi noticed Asuna's bike and groceries, and went to them.

"Don't we already have a full fridge? What happened, did the cookie monster rob us at gunpoint?"

+----+

Whew...that was a good one...looong. Must be. Hope this is good enough for now ya'll. I'll try to make um longer..but first, let me see if I can stop looking at this one as long. Aim for the 50 KB Midnight! (This is 50 kilo bytes on my flash.) Over 8,000 words. Nice. That's my new normal goal, neh? I'm trying to make um longer...visit my profile page and tell me what else you want me to work on on my poll....wait, now it says over 9,000...mistake?


	13. Chapter XI: Those who can't teach?

Oh my...*digs in pocket for flash drive* Shoot, shoot, now someone wants me to try and update faster...oiii. Well, like I said, I can try...Let's see...*Brain storms* Oiiii...ideas come to me! Ehh? They have? O.O Okay, I can work with this. Lets go!

+---+

If i've told you once, I've told you at least twelve times by now for this story. I. Do. Not. Own. Ne-gi-ma. There. I've spelled it out for those who might not have yet gotten it.

+----+

_**Chapter Eleven:**_TWCDTTWCTTGTWCLWW...? (Otherwise known as "Those who can't...")

(**T**hose **w**ho **c**an't **d**o, **t**each, **t**hose **w**ho **c**an't **t**each, **t**each **g**ym, **t**hose **w**ho **c**an't **l**earn...**w**ait...**w**hat?)

+----+

"We are home!"

"Don't bother."

"Huh?"

"She's a sleep..I can hear her breathing.."

"How the hell can you say that?!"

"I just can, and if you keep making noise like that, you'll wake her up."

"But I'm hungry!"

"Then sit down and wait awhile. I'll make something."

Asuna shook her head in exasperation as Negi held out his arms to take from her the bags she was carrying to add to his already leaden arms. Once he had relived her of them, he went towards the kitchen as she went towards the bedroom. Might as well see if there was something on T.V...

Opening the door slowly, Asuna met a dark room, and, sure enough, Konoka was in her bunk, sleeping away. How dare she do that to her? Send her on such an errand and then just go to sleep?! She could really be evil that way...Just for that, Asuna felt like sitting down and cranking the T.V all the way up, but her long time friendship with Konoka gave her too much empathy for the girl. She grabbed her towel and went to go take a shower, even though she had taken one only about an hour and a half ago...the past hour had been an interesting one to say the least...after that, she came back in the room and felt like giving Konoka a poke as she dressed, but she decided against it. Instead, she popped out of the room and into the kitchen, and stood awkwardly by the door. Negi, already having organized all the groceries on the counter, was washing a pot and shaking his head. He muttered under his breath, having yet to notice Asuna standing there.

"The fridge is, like I thought, still full. All this won't fit in it. I've put away all that will. I wonder if any or the neighbors would mind If I asked them to keep some of this. Sometimes I can never understand people. Why take your anger out on someone else like that? You're mad at me, so be mad at me! Not your roommate! Or, better yet, don't bug me with stupid questions; don't try to break down your Sensei, because I _will_ bite back..."

It was then Negi noticed Asuna standing in the doorway. He didn't turn around from his place on top of a stool near the sink, but instead spoke over his shoulder.

"If you want to use the laptop, all you've got to do is ask, and put it back where it belongs when you're done. I thought I said that already. I'm not a beast, I have teeth yes, but I don't bite unless you try to bite me. Go ahead. I know you can't watch the T.V with Konoka snoozing there. She neglected to wash the dishes after she had her meal, so we don't need to wake her up. I wonder if my being here has made her lazy..."

Returning his attention back to the dishes, Negi picked up a plate in the sink and began to scrub it with a scrubbing sponge. Asuna stayed by the doorway, looking at him for a few seconds before she turned around and with a small, tell-tale jingle, left the room. Negi shook his head at that. Darn girl was like a prize cow. You always knew where she was when those bells rung...

Entering the Bedroom, Asuna grabbed the light laptop from its place on a shelf in Negi's "nest" as he referred to it. Climbing down carefully, she placed it on the couch's arm rest, and she herself situated herself to lie next to it. What was the password again? She wrung her head for the elusive code, but to no avail. She got up and entered the kitchen again, but Negi, who was not opening a frozen bag of vegetables to dump into a strainer over the sink while monitoring the fire on a liquid in the pot, seemed to be ready for her, he didn't even look her way.

"Password's Aequitas. I know it's hard to remember, that's why it's my password. It's Latin for equanimity. "

"...That doesn't help much."

"A-E-Q-U-I-T-A-S. Equanimity means peace, and so does aequitas."

"..Whatever you say Sherlock."

"Fine by me, but last time I checked, your name was not Watson."

Asuna turned around, giving no comment on that. What could she say after all? She barely knew anything about Sherlock except that it was something a person might say to a wise guy. She was stopped dead at this Watson guy...typing in the password, she logged on to the laptop and spent some time surfing the web randomly until Negi would call her for what was to be a very late dinner...

+---+

"Ananstasia Cocolova, would you please rejoin the class from whatever dream land you've managed to land yourself in this time?!"

"Huh!?"

Anya's head shot up from where if had slumped when she had dozed off, and her face almost instantly became nearly as red as her fiery hair. Sleeping in the middle of history class...yikes! True it was boiring, but Professor Hucklebee was perhaps the worst guy to fall asleep on. He only seemed to hold Anya in regard due to her high grades...well, what used to be high grades. The first year's red face was enough of a message to the man. The girl, easily embarrassed, was already suffering dearly, even though he had yet to do anything to her. He wondered if she would ever lighten up, or toughen up for that matter.

"Miss Cocolova, do you mind telling us what kind of peaceful dream you were having that spirited you away from my class?"

Anya sunk down into her seat, wishing she could melt into it. Most of the class had already fixed their eyes on her, and some were already suppressing giggles. Anya fingered her wand in her robes and didn't answer...

In truth, what she had been daydreaming about was embarrassing. She had been dreaming about sneaking into the forbidden library and finding an odd version of a memory there. The night she had first come to this school and had snuck in there, and met a senior. The dream twisted the memory into something almost..nasty...though, and she could not help but turn a bit more red at the thought of it. After that night, when the boy had dismissed her, she had scoured rooms for the face, but he wasn't in any of her classes. It was like he said, he was a senior. She saw the name "Negi" listed under an honors list and wondered if he used the forbidden library to his advantage in that way...she actually had managed once day to confront him on it...

As the professor left her alone to go back to his lesson, Anya's mind wandered back to that memory....

+----+

"Come on, it's just a game..."

"Well I don't like it, kay? Go shoot your water at someone else..."

Dripping wet was not something Anya liked to be, but here she was being so, and it wasn't even raining! She couldn't get herself dry either, and, with not a teacher in sight, she was stuck like this. Walking off in a huff, she left the three boys to their "game" of water tag. Stupid. This was all just stupid. in her mood, she didn't see where she was going. It was recess anyway, but she had yet to wander to this part of the area...it was almost _reserved_ for older children.

"...I'm cr-"

"Ahh would yah shut us with that song already?! You're depressing me."

"What..it's a good song. Who told you to come into my corner anyway?"

"_Your_ corner?"

"Yes, I am always here, you are normally over there with your friends. Now scram."

"You want me to blast you into next Tuesday shrimp?"

"You know as well as I that your magic is too weak to do that._** I **_however, could do that to _**you**_. Now beat it."

"Hmph..."

Regardless of what the boy said, he left, and Negi pulled down his hood to further cover his face. He had seen Anya, but had chosen to ignore her until now. She had yet to see him, and, from what he could see, probably would never notice him unless he spoke up. Negi smelled trouble here. A first year coming into the deeper areas of the grounds normally got a beat down, and it looked like she had already had a bad day as it was. He addressed her.

"You know, you always seem to be on the wrong end of the barrel of a gun, don't you?"

Jumping around, Anya whirled, pulling her wand from her robes as she did so. She was a bit too fast in her whirl however. Her legs got tangled in her robes and, as she fell, her wand flew out of her hand. She never hit the ground....

Instead, she found herself dangerously close to a hooded face.

"G-gah!"

"Oh be quiet will yah? You don't seem to change, even though it's been what, nine months? You are nearly eight by now, should be at least, stop being so damn jumpy."

Negi set her straight and let go of her, and gave a about four feet of distance to allow her to see him properly.

"H-huh?"

"God, you can't tell who I am from my voice? Are you that dense? Or am I that forgettable?"

Negi pulled back his hood revealing his be-speckled face. Anya's eyes widened a bit. Now she recognized him...he was the one from the first day of school....

"God damn can people be dense. Why the hell are you wet anyway? Did you jump into the lake? Or were you a part of the famous "water tag" game?"

Anya looked down at her shoes and didn't answer him. He sounded like an adult, scolding her for something she had done wrong. Like all the teachers here did...regardless of how smart she was, she was clumsy as hell, according to her potions teacher, and as "opaque" (Whatever that means.) as muddy swamp water by the account of her Divination teacher. Yet Astrology and Divination were her best subjects..go figure. Negi sighed, and a ball of fire appeared in his hands. Anya took a step back, but Negi pointed to her with his free hand, and she felt a curious, warming sensation that took away her uncomfortable wet one.

"Of all the day's annoyances."

Anya looked at him. Her clothes were dry, and that fireball was still there. It was spinning around now, changing colors.

"How can you do that?"

Negi looked back over his shoulder.

"Do what? This? I'm just playing around with the fire's..strength and heat. Makes a nice show, huh?"

"....No, not that..I mean...all you do. All the other seniors avoid you...I see it. You walk alone all the time..."

"I'm not a very friendly person-"

"No, I mean, when you come around they look..._**scared**_...first years whisper about you, say weird things happen around you...some think you know more about magic than some teachers...It's the library...Isn't it?"

"....."

"You use it to learn all about magic, you cheat on tests with it-"

"No."

"Huh?"

"No. I don't cheat on tests with it."

"But-"

"No. I never have looked in to a book that has something inside it we are going to learn in class. Why bother? The teacher will explain it anyway, and there is so much more to magic than what they teach here, why bother trying to cheat on tests and look for tricks to know what they will drill into your head anyway? The exponential amount of information that is available, One can educate themselves on trillions upon trillions of subject matter and still never stray within a hair's breadth of the topics covered by this academy."

"..Huh?"

"....Sorry..I forget who I'm talking to, an eight year old kid."

"Hey! You are younger than me!"

"After all that you just said about me, do you honestly think of me as younger than you?"

"....."

Negi sighed and let his fire ball disperse. He rose his head up to the sky, closing his eyes. As his head rose, he took a breath, deepening it with the steep of the climb. He only let it go after holding it there for about ten seconds. It came out slowly as he glanced around at the grass, the trees, the building behind him that he could lean upon. It was May. After this, one more month and then he would be booted. He'd have to receive his assignment, pack, make arrangements, and be off. He let his head fall back down to look at Anya.

"I don't cheat. I don't need to. There is too much to learn outside what they teach here. I want to learn it all, as much as possible, so that I can be as strong as I need to be. If I cheat on tests, how can I be strong? I only stole a grade, I became no smarter. I only steal one thing, and that is knowledge. I steal knowledge from every book I can get these hands on. You do to. We call it reading and remembering. There are other things we steal, but this is the one I chose to monopolize....sorry, wrong word to use. This is the one thing I want to take with me, all I can, all of it if I can."

Negi turned away from her and looked out past the fields.

"Get going, your recess period is almost over. Anyone who tries to stop you from this area, just tell them Negi will kick their ass."

Anya gasped and covered her mouth.

"Ahh come on, it's not that bad of a word. No? Fine, then tell them I'll kick their sorry...and let them know you can't say back the word I told you, They'll know what the word is. Now scram!"

"...wait..but..."

"Beat it, the bell is about to ring for you all!"

Right on cue, a bell sounded in the distance, a single chime followed by a long pause before repeating. First years, in. Now.

"Skedaddle."

Anya skedaddled, even though she didn't even know what the word meant, she had a feeling.

+----+

"Miss Cocolove. Do you mind telling me just how much sleep you had last night, and why you chose to catch up on that lost time in my class?!"

Aw...another teacher to deal with...

+----+

A sixty seven. A sixty seven out of a hundred. Wow. That was an all time low. Anya looked at the paper sadly. Her transfiguration teacher brought her attention up front to her again.

"Oi!"

"Huh?!"

"Miss Cocolove..."

_I've heard my name so many times today....it's not good._

"What's happening to you? You used to be so a good student in the beginning of the semester, but you've been ever so slowly slipping. I've taken a peek at your records for my class, and it looks like a slow slide downhill, each test grade is lower than the last..."

"I'm sorry Miss Heresworth, but I...just don't seem to get stuff anymore."

The woman behind the desk placed her elbows upon the desk surface and propped her head on them. Fixing light, Irish green eyes upon Anya's downturned head, she addressed her again.

"Maybe you're just losing some steam? You're still passing, but barely. Perhaps you might benefit from some after school hours tutorials?"

_I used to go to him for those...at least twice a month... but..if I went to the library..._

"No..no...I'm just tired...not really thinking..If I sleep more, I'll be okay."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't mind..."

"N-no....I'm fine..."

Rushing out of the room, Anya earned an odd glance from her teacher that probably piece the door and followed her all the way to the dorms, where she was heading to get her next class's text book.

_If you go to the library, and copy the answers..._

No, she would not do that! She just needed to study more...

_More than you do already? You're too stupid to learn as it is. If you just go quick, no one will see you...No one ever saw him, and he wasted his time trying to learn it all that they didn't teach, and then spent time studying. You can't, you're dumb._

No!

+---+

"Now, I'm going to go take my shower if you don't mind."

"Not going to clean the counter like you always do?"

"After."

"What's up with that obsessive cleaning style anyway?"

"You want roaches crawling around here? I didn't think so."

"Sheesh, I just asked."

"You did well today during that fight. Better than I expected at least. Maybe I can look to you as a real ally sooner or later."

Negi, taking his towel, bowed at the door almost sarcastically before letting himself out. The door closed behind him with a soft click, Asuna still looking at it thoughtfully. That kid could drive a person mad. One second, he was a sadistic smart ass, the next, he was...well, a nice guy. It made absolutely no sense. Like Konoka said, he had a switch...and that switch was a dangerous thing if flipped the wrong way...Asuna had found it seemed to have three settings to go. Nice guy, Sarcastic evil brat, and killing machine. (Well, what she thought was a killing machine.)

Oh well....might as well just finish up and go to bed, huh?

+----+

"I will not."

"Ahh, but if you value your job here.."

"I would do what I must, which is teach."

Negi stood in the Dean's office, about two yards away from his desk. It was the only way to see eye-to-eye with the dean due to Negi's height. The sun shot through cracks in the cover of deep red curtains behind the old man, making him more of a shadow upon a chair than a man. Negi shook his head. It was just before classes, so Negi was in a black suit with a blue button up. He

had a black tie, but it was in one of his hands, getting a custom wringing job done.

"I will not play favorites Dean. I refuse to. Go ahead and put me in this test if you will, but I will not put my homeroom class in front of the other classes I must teach, regardless of what stipulations you give me. The way things are going, my homeroom class will probably be in last place anyway, but their grades will all be above seventy-two percent, guaranteed. Compared to a terrible average of fifty two percent last year…the lowest grade was a what for Takamitchi? A seven? No, it was a four, I remember now."

Konoemon winced at that, but Negi could not, thankfully, see his movement, the sun was to bright.

"Regardless, If they are not out of the last place position by the time the test grades come in, I will boot you."

Negi actually rolled his eyes. His head tilting back to admire the work done on the ceiling. Letting loose a long, loud breath, his head fell, allowing eyes to fix upon the shadowy figure of the dean.

"I am a teacher, not a racetrack jockey. I will not strut my homeroom around like a prize steed and leave the other students with substandard help. Who needs help will come to me, and I will help them to the best of my ability. I will not favor any student above any other, that is a virtue of a good teacher and I will not yield it to satisfy your games Dean. This is your little test to me, thrown in because you were bored. I came here to fulfill my duty to become a Magister Magi, nothing else. My scroll says I was to be a teacher, so here I am, being a teacher. If you had hired me to be a private tutor for all of class A, then I would be that, but I am not, I am a teacher for this school's English class, one of many."

Negi spun around to walk out of the office, but the dean halted him with his voice.

"So you refuse to bring them out of last place?"

Negi's head turned to look back at him. His body stayed facing towards the door. The face that the dean saw only had one thing written on it: "This conversation is over." Yet, Negi opened his mouth to speak.

"If they get out of last place, it is because they took my teachings to heart and got themselves out. I will not favor them."

Allowing his head to snap back into a forward position, Negi pushed both of the double doors open and walked out, leaving them to swing wide and stay open instead of come back and close.

"...Damn. Now I have to go and close them. Negi, why do you have to be such an ass?"

+----+

"That was written using poor English." is a more correct statement than that, although, the way most English speakers orate, you could get away with that sentence Miss Miyoku...well enough. Fine, this report is acceptable now. Don't try to do that again, okay? If I tell you I want a page of typed text, don't hand in a double spaced, 16, copperplate type set, bolded font paper to me, especially if the date and name take up half the page alone. That is just being lazy. At least make a cover if you're going to be lazy!"

Negi handed the paper back to her and made a "shoo" gesture.

"Get outta here. It's getting late, and I don't really hold After-school drills any more...no one comes to them anyway. They don't get notices from me...you need my help on another topic, take me up in the dorms...Although I suggest coming before six o' clock..You won't be able to get past the door after then...that's rush hour."

Negi watched the door close and sighed. Another one dealt with. How many students did he have? It was hard to count. At least he knew all their names and faces..but it was hard to put a number down on them. He could open his planner and easily check, but that thing had not been opened since he had gotten it on the first day...and now it had nearly been two school weeks since teaching. Once Friday rolled around, which was tomorrow, it would be two weeks....

Getting up from his chair, Negi stretched and walked to the window, jumping up to sit on the sill. A chill ran through him, but he ignored it, and glanced out the window.

_Sensei...sensei...I have a problem..._

Waving her hand in front of Negi's face gave her no answer, not that she really expected one. She put her hand on his shoulder...and he shivered again. That was about all the response Sayo ever got from people, that shiver of cold when she touched them. She really didn't know why people didn't see her..not at first anyway...but when all those classes passed through, and she never left, it eventually did dawn on her, that no one _could_ see her. She was a ghost, and she had no idea why.

Yet, this teacher was different than the others...he noticed everything. If a girl was reading a magazine in the back row, even if they had just got a text message and were trying to respond quickly, he saw it all, and called them out on it. He called students out by name from the first day, and never took attendance until everyone was gone and he could do it from memory...she had thought that maybe...maybe...he might be able to see her..but no go.

"God damn, why is it so cold in here? Not to mention on the side that's _not_ near the window."

Sayo's eyes widened a bit and she hastily took her hand off his shoulder, which Negi reached up to rub thoughtfully. He seemed to stare right at her then. No Sayo, don't be stupid. He's not staring at you, he's staring _through_ you. Negi got up, and he swung his arm out, as if beating back something. His wand came and rested it's star point in his hand. He fingered it thoughtfully. Sayo touched him on the shoulder again, the opposite one from before, and he actually spun around this time. She didn't see the wand, but his actions peaked her interest...maybe...?

What harm would it do? Taking her hand, she touched it to his cheek. He tilted his head slightly to look at her..no, again, he couldn't see her. Through her. Moving away, she tried to reach for a pencil. It was a trick she had been practicing for years...It came up, and Negi's eyes fixed on it.

"Crap. I know I have not been sleeping, but come on..."

Ignoring his comment, she spun it slowly in her fingers, gaining speed to match her slowly building confidence. Negi gripped his wand, and then, with one fluid movement, flipped it into sight. Sayo paused in her spinning to watch it...was that a toy wand?

"Okay...lets see if I'm as stupid as I think I am...Rastel, Mascir, Magister..."

The pencil came down and away from the spinning, ghostly fingers. She held it to her middle now. What language was that? It couldn't be magic...that would be too much to hope for...

"Permissum mihi animadverto quicumque est hic , ostendo sum verum ut mei oculus.."

Sending his arm in a slow arch, he spun around, almost on tip toe and his wand circled the room in his hand, an arch. His eyes glowed slightly before fading back into normality, at which time they were closed. Inhaling slowly, he turned to where Sayo was, where he had seen a floating pencil, and opened them.

He had to take a step back, but he allowed a small half smile to break his visage.

"Why...hello there...I believe I've seen your picture before..only....with black hair and eyes...Printing mistake my behind..."

Negi walked up to her, his wand held loosely in a hand whose arm had fallen to his side. He looked her up and down, and it was Sayo's turn to take a few steps back."

"The one seat no one will flipping sit in. The cursed one. Seat and student number one, Aisaka Sayo...or am I wrong?"

Her eyes had no part in this, but yet still one might say at this time that Sayo could not believe her eyes. I however, would say that, truthfully, at this time, Aisaka Sayo could not believe her luck, not her eyes. She didn't answer him at first, and her first reaction was not what she wanted it to be. She actually dropped her pencil and bawled.

"Whoa, whoa, turn off the water works, regardless if they can't effect anything! Oii!"

+----+

"Why the hell is it, that every time I think I get this Magic stuff, it gets more friggin complicated? Next you're going to tell me vampires exist."

"...Funny, I thought you already knew that, didn't you fight McDowell-san and her cohort Karakuri-san already?"

"....Shit, I forgot about that...alright, werewolves then."

"How the hell could you forget that?! And yes, they are..I fought one before...pain in the neck to beat too. Damn thing didn't want to go down. Almost bit me..."

"See?!"

"What's so hard to believe about ghosts though?"

"....Truth? Nothing. I love it. It's like I've stepped into a video game and found out I have powers and all these cool things are real. Still, it's a hell of a lot to take in."

Sayo floated above Negi's head, watching the conversation go back and forth like an interesting tennis game. Negi swore that, if she wasn't already dead, her neck would break. He had recast the spell for Asuna's effect, and she was having a ball playing around with Sayo, mainly asking her to do assorted tricks...and while Negi insisted Sayo was not a toy, Sayo was only too happy to oblige. Being visible to someone was after several years of solitude could drive a person a little bonkers after all. Currently, She was messing With Negi's hair, not as a direction of Asuna's, but because she simply wanted to. Negi took this in stride and frankly paid her no mind, so he did not see that Sayo had arrived at the knot he uses to keep his hair bunched in. Nor did he notice her working at it to discover what it's purpose was for...Asuna watched her with an almost half pleading look. Negi could be a dangerous customer...even if the girl was already dead....

"Did any mail come today by the way?"

Asuna looked up at that. It seemed that Negi knew just about everything.

"Yeah...some for you...how'd you know?"

"I...expected it. I told you I had no friends right?"

"You lied huh?"

"No...I did not. I just have this...stubborn acquaintance who keeps popping up. It's almost disturbing, the coincidences...I think that, after saving her from several little disasters she thinks of me as a confidant..."

"You mean she likes you."

"Hell if I know. Anyway, she normally would send a letter by about this time. Her cut off for getting into trouble and needing me is about two weeks."

"...You have her mapped out that well?"

"...Yes."

Asuna reached for the mail on the coffee table next to where she was sitting on the floor, and pulled a slender white envelope from the list. Negi flipped it over and slit it expertly. A yellowish piece of paper fell out, which was blank except for a couple symbols used on players for play, pause, rewind, etc. Asuna stared at it.

"You are not going to tell me that pushing the play on that paper will play a message are you?"

"Nope, I'm not going to tell you that..you'll just see it for yourself."

"..You can be such an..."

"Ass? You walked into that one, deal with it."

".............."

Negi picked up the paper and pressed the "play" symbol. A small figure of a red haired girl popped up, making Asuna raise eyebrows.

"Oh, you never told me she was so cute."

"Go and stuff it, looks only go skin deep."

The figure was talking in a rushed and hushed voice, as if trying to convey a huge amount on important information while in a library. Which was exactly what she was doing. Negi watched as the face went from it's usual pale to a bright red, and then, suddenly, a sickly green. The letter was taken and stuffed in her pocket, causing Negi to get a view of some forgotten parchment with a terrible grade on it. He heard a familiar squeal and shook his head. He didn't need to see further, he knew what had happened...the fool.

Negi fast forwarded the image as Asuna watched and Sayo continued to fiddle with his hair, paying the letter only a token glance. After about a minute of continuously fast forwarding at varying speeds, the image of the girl appeared again, only this time she looked drastically different, and Negi almost felt Asuna wince.

Her long, fire hair had been cut short until it barely reached her shoulders, and her face showed a red bruise that quickly was fading from sight, yet Negi saw the shape of the mark before it disappeared fully....

A long, thick stripe running from the cheek to the neck, a mage lash. Typical punishment dealt out by teachers using special instruments. They left no lasting marks, but were just as painful as a regular lash with a whip. Only the pain reminded one they had been lashed, for that lasted as long as any ordinary lash's would. She was shaking.

"T-they're going to ex-ex..pell me...I know I should have listened to you....but....I just...with none of my own magic, I have to use my wand's, and I keep getting lower and lower marks....I know you didn't cheat...but I had too...It was too...big to ignore. I was passing still, but if I had left it alone..I would sooner or later fail....they wanna send me out...but first they say they'll put me up for...adoption they say. They told me...it's like having a mage come and teach me themselves, until I can enter school again...I know you're not a mage yet..but I don't wanna go to some strange place...help meeee!"

Negi sighed and cancelled the letter, looking at the blank piece like a man on death row would the electric chair.

"I'm not a magister magi. Leave it to her to get into the biggest trouble a student could when I'm not there. Hell."

"So you're not going to help her then."

Negi turned back to look at Asuna, who was staring at the paper that Negi had left on the table.

"I can't get that face out of my head. That change in look..it was so drastic..her clothes all rumpled like that..almost as if they had fed her to something and waited for it to spit her out..."

"Don't try. You're not hard of heart like I am. In a way, they did feed her to something. She committed one of the worst acts one could. Get caught in the forbidden library."

"Didn't you say you went in there..?"

"I didn't use it to cheat, like she was, and I was never caught."

"Shouldn't you help her though? Didn't you show her in there?"

"No. It's a bet all first years make...they pick a person to go in there and dare them to learn a spell and get out before the next day. They know nothing of magic at that point, so it's easy for them to make stupid bets like that. Every year it happens, and every year, they get caught...except for two years. The year I went in, and the year she went in. I saved her from being caught, but that was it. I told her not to try and go in there again. I wouldn't be able to save her every time."

"You showed her it was possible to get in though..."

"For me! I was an exception to the normal pattern. I had magic coursing through me since I was born, instead of having to rely upon my wand as a faucet to draw magic from the outside and my skill and making it draw magic until my body opened up to it at around ten and eleven, like normal people. I breezed past tests, memorized things almost instantaneously, I was feared in my school because of the sheer skill I held. Respected. I earned that respect through hard trials. She is an ordinary girl in magic school, and ordinary people are doomed to get caught."

"So you're special now? That's kinda..high and mighty of you."

"I'm only telling the truth. I don't like to think of myself as being more than ordinary, but that fact keeps getting shoved in my face. Most magic school graduates only know three spells when they graduate, a special few know around five. I know hundreds of them, not including the thousands I can't use but still can recite. I have raw magic power in me, not only from what my body collects like all mages above the age of twelve can, but a small amount that I can only guess is _exuded_ **from** me."

"So why can't you help her, mister special?"

"I am not a magi. She needs to be taught by a magi. It's the _law_."

"..and since when has that stopped you?"

"Hey, I may be sarcastic, mean and generally cold hearted, but I'm not a law-breaker. I don't even flipping j-walk."

+----+

"Are you absolutely sure Headmaster?"

"I am positive. Even if she broke a major rule, an actual law...she'll never survive the punishment she'll get from an impatient Magister Magi like Swallowthorn. I am inviting him over here to duel Swallowthorn for her, simple as that. If the boy cares, he'll show up, if not, the girl goes to Swallowthorn for an apprenticeship lasting twelve years."

".....That is a bit harsh. The boy might have that weighing him down on his heart if he doesn't accept."

"He's a cold hearted child. It won't affect him. I'd be surprised if he actually showed up."

+----+

A note materialized on the coffee table, Negi, smelling mint, turned and saw it. A transportation module for mail. It disintegrated after use, leaving it's mail and a mint smell. Ironic that he should receive more mail right after Anya's plea...Negi stared at the note. Only Magi's could get their hands on that kind of thing....Lunging at the piece of paper, and earning a weird glance from Asuna, his eyes zoomed over the page as she was about to raise a question, but Negi, who had already finished reading, tossed the note to her. His only comment as she grabbed it was:

'Looks like I'll have something to do come the winter holidays."

+---+

Dear Negi Springfield, former leader of the scarlet mage in training association and probationary magi-in-training.

You are called for a test of skill. A Magister Magi, Swallowthorn, has been elected the teacher of a student guilty of transgression to a variable degree. However, as per the rights of the accused, they have the right to request a teacher for themselves, and they have requested you.

As you are not a Magi, initially, under the law, this request is impossible, and would normally be denied, however, Swallowthorn is held in contempt in this case, and as a result, you have been granted a right to the student if you so desire. However, you must arrive at the school grounds and hold a duel against the Magi, to settle the dispute as per the law states. You are free to turn down this offer if you so desire.

In best regards...

AFRAM

(Association For the Rights of Accused Mages)

PS: Written by your previous Headmaster:

As you might put it, you either can get your ass over here and fight like hell on Christmas Day, or not give a damn and ignore this message. If you want my input however, this girl will die if she goes under the service of the good man Swallow, and even if you are more strict, she'll survive better with you I think. You can act as icy as you want, but I know you are too damn young to be completely without compassion. Get your butt over here.

+----+

"Oooooookay..."

"Basically put, you got your wish. I can get over there and fight my ass off Christmas day to save her ass."

At that moment, Sayo finally succeeded in undoing Negi's hair knot, and had to hold her hands up to his hair to stop the avalanche of hair that flowed free from it's tightly knit bonds. Of course, being a ghost, her hands were ineffective against the extreme released pressure. Negi's hair exploded downwards and out, some of it coming to rest in front of his face while the rest went all the way down to his ankles. Asuna's eyes widened a bit and she turned away to prevent Negi from seeing her face, for he would kill her if he did. Negi got the message though, for his eyes caught on a strand of his own hair.

'The...hell? Ahh crap. It got loose..how the hell did it...."

Asuna's shaking caught his attention, and he whirled around to see a very nervous Sayo. Negi opened his mouth and she flinched, but his voice was soft when it came.

'...I would yell my lungs out at you, but you're dead, so what's the point? I was going to go take my shower anyway. Might as well loose my hair...although it's gonna be a pain avoiding people in the hall."

Speak of the devil, for Konoka chose that moment to enter the room and see Asuna suppressing her laughter and a short, long haired person.

"Oooh! So cute, who is she Asuna!?"

_Awww...Crap._

Glomped from behind, Konoka latched on to Negi, choking him and looking up at Asuna, who, having turned around to see Konoka, had to show her back again, for thelook on Negi's face, and the contrasting one on Konoka's was too priceless for words. A grumble could be heard from inside Negi's throat, and with very little warning, it exploded out from his mouth in a yell that nearly shook the dust from the celing.

_**"GET THE HELL OFF ME YOU LEECH! IT'S YOUR CRAZY AS HELL TEACHER ABOUT TO THROTTLE YOU!"**_

....Yeah..Negi was not having a good day.

+---+

_Friday, the beginning of the third week for Negi._

"Could you cover for her?"

"She's not sick, she's not even busy, you told her she didn't need to come today on purpose so you could ask me Dean, I'm not stupid. She doesn't have too much over time...just enough to make this break her even. You kill two birds with one stone. You don't have to pay her over time and you attempt to keep me here by showing me you have college students too. I'm not shallow Dean. Just because you have a college section doesn't mean I'll latch unto it like a small child who's just found his mother...after three hours of wandering through an unfamiliar crowd, crying no less."

Konoemon sighed. This was one tough cookie, this Negi. He knew now what the kid had meant when he told him not to mess with his MO. Normally, you wave around the pink slip a bit and any one of the employees bow at your feet. This kid? Nah. He'd laugh at you and eat it. Eat it, I say! Then spit in your face whatever didn't go down in one swallow. Konoemon struggled to find a way to convince him to take on the job, and in his distraction, did not hear what Negi said, so Negi brought him back to the real world with a jump and a straight slam of his palm to the desk.

"Ehh?"

"I said I'll do it, you senile old fart. Sheesh. Isn't it about time you let your granddaughter take over? You won't make it until she graduates high school the way your mind is going."

Negi shook his head and spun around to leave. Looks like he had work to do after class again. He kicked open both doors this time, one at a time in a quick fire style and walked out, calling back as he did so:

"You should know that my overtime status is already far above the normal cut off for the month, and it's approaching the cut off for two months worth. I expect to be paid fairly for that."

Negi was out of range before the Dean could answer him properly, but he wasn't really interested in answering him...he was praying that the doors would close, but, being the guy he was, Negi had kicked them with enough force to knock them open, but not enough to make them bounce back off the walls, so they stuck again, wide open.

"He's gone and done it again. Damn."

+----+

"It's Friday, I know, but that's no excuse to try and leave my lecture early girls! Get back here and sit, I just gave everyone a bathroom break. If you have a potty problem, tell me now. Trust me, if you try to leave saying you have to use the bathroom, I'll know, and I will leave the ninety-nine sheep to go and search for the one, so put your behinds in the chairs."

Turning back to the board after the guilty party of three sat down, looking ruffled but not singed, Negi wrote down Thevenin's theorem on the board. He paused halfway to call to a student in the rows around him though.

"Oii! Student number 0649, Miss Honyai, I don't appreciate texting in my class, yes, I can see you too Miss Hungzai...put it away, it your friends interfere with your college education, it's time to consider if you really need them around or not! They should respect where you are and what you are attempting to do. I don't want kids whose parents forced them to come to college, I want students! Now, can anyone tell me a useful application for Thevenin's theorem? Yes, Miss Fung, in the corner there. Don't look surprised I know you names girls, you're memorable enough, now what's on your mind?"

"Well..it seems like a waste of time, all that work just to find how the circuit effects only one source.."

"Ahh! Someone with a brain is thinking here! Look lively folks. Yes, it may seem so, but imagine this scenario. This one source here, the load, is variable. If you were to write out equations to see how the circuit is affected by this source being variable, it would take forever. this way, you can do one long equation and how ever many short, simple ones, instead of billions of long hard ones. Kapeesh?'

"So that's what this is for?'

Ahh, Miss "I want to get the hell out of here two hours early." No. Miss Xai, I show disrespect, and No, this is not the only application, but it is one of the most useful. You can use good old Thevenin to find the maximum power output setup for a circuit easily. Actually, the maximum power is the total resistance, without the load, due to the equations you already know, right? So you could say Thevenin's theorem gives you the answer to that question right off the bat. There are other applications, but you won't use them in this course, so I won't waste your time explaining them.

"So why are you explaining it then?"

"Honestly? Because it's on your flipping final, that's why, no other reason. I'd rather sit here and teach you Delta-Y transformations, which is also on your test and which your teacher has neglected to cover, but I have orders.

"Delta-Y?"

"...If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll teach it to you all."

+---+

"Hell...look at the kid go." He's slaying them out there. Hypnotized...how the hell....and he's teaching Middle School English? Hell, the dean should put him here."

"The youth always gets the best teachers Holt."

"Damn midgets."

'Why did you just damn midgets? Isn't that teacher one?"

'.....Nah, he's a kid."

"Yet that is what you meant when you said midgets."

"You know what, just shut up Radman, go and play with your microphones and new media stuff."

"Hey, what I do isn't all fun and games!"

"Sure seems that way. The study and applications of the internet. Half the time, I see your blog page up in the corer while you teach kids how to make music videos or make flash games. Sure seems like fun and games to me."

"You know what, just shut up."

"That is what I said, so I will, as long as you do."

+---+

Okay, here again, with this, and I must be late but I find these are the times I can write and I am ranting without pause and it must be painful to read let me take a breath but I must not I must type and finish and write the next one being wound up so much is painful so the tension must be released but not until I finish this so there...

*Sigh* wow. Okay. Now I am fine. Heeeeee. Looks like Negi has a lot on his plate this time around! Finals, Anya, College classes coverage, the Dean on his tail, and I still have yet to tell you the craziness that goes on in Library Island! Yikes! Next time!


	14. Chapter XII: The crumbling walls?

I don't like word. Especially this one, it gets all the margins messed up and makes files huge. It is utterly insane. I am going to transfer this to WordPad the first chance I get...hmph, even the spell check is terrible here…it doesn't recognize that "WordPad" is an actual name of a program. This computer doesn't have WordPad on it…a shame. Oh well, I must go on, let's go. I move like a snail don't I? Already, chapter twelve and yet I still have yet to cover Library Island, yet I finished the Eva arc. I like it that way. Ehh. I don't have to put Library Island, now that I think of it. It's what messed me up last time, but put it I will, and things will go differently this time around. My page already looks like a Christmas decorations, so much red and green, but I am an unorthodox and conversational writer, I don't care if it makes the word "wanna" red. It's the way a person pronounces the word, so there. Hi ho!

+----+

((Another annoying this is that the separators I use for sections of my story, the plus three dash plus, is also it's short cut for creating a cell which means I have to stop work and undo the creation of a cell, annoying.))

Did I mention to you all that I don't own Negima? No? Well I don't.

((Silly Word, tricks are for kids, and Negima is the name of an anime/manga! Don't you dare tell me it's not a word! Manga too, don't you dare tell me that's not a word either!))

+---+

_**Chapter Twelve: The crumbling walls**_

"Let that which is in my hand strike forth and rip my enemy, White Lightning!"

Negi's hand lit up with energy as the spell, hissing like mad, shot from his palm and toasted a small boulder on the ground about three yards away into a melted slag, almost instantaneously. Asuna, who was holding Negi's star wand and _trying _to cast nine arrows of water, stopped her work to look at him.

'I thought you said we had to chant in Latin, what's up with you casting a spell with Japanese?"

Negi sighed and shook his head, fixing Asuna with a glare that was all but lost in the darkness of the night to her. She got the point from seeing his shadowy head spin around though.

"You _do _have to chant in Latin. I'm chanting Latin in my head, but I am, at the same time, translating and saying the spell in Japanese out loud. It's good practice in multitasking. If you can chant a spell in one language in your head, and say it out loud in another, and still have the spell work, it shows that you can multitask and still keep your focus. I plan to try and apply it to cast multiple spells at once. I can chant one spell out loud, but I will still be performing another in my head, a two in one punch, or I could have one waiting while sending off the other one. It means I can cast a whole bunch of spells at my opponent out loud as a distraction while I set up a powerful, wordy spell without their knowledge."

"…_Two_ spells at once? Hell...I have trouble concentrating to get one off! What are you trying to do, become a god?!"

"…Heh. If you think of me as a god, you've got another thing coming. I may be powerful compared to the average Magic school graduate…maybe I even have a slight advantage over most magical teachers, but I am nothing compared to Evangeline or a powerful Magister Magi...if I want to beat this mage, like I know I have to if I don't want you up my behind every day if I don't, then I have to train like hell. I may even know more spells than this Magister, but I still lack the experience and practice they have. I have to overcome that with either intelligence or strategy, but I still need to train myself to try and close the gap _somewhat_…"

"Waaaait…didn't you beat Eva-san?"

"She went easy on me...I don't know why…but I can tell she went easy on me. She only used higher mid level spells at best. With the power I felt from her, she should have been able to pull of spells of a completely different higher-arch. Besides, I've taken the liberty to look her up after fighting her…and I found some interesting things that tell me she definitely was babying me."

Asuna could almost feel the sweat drop on the back of her head materialize and slide down. She remembered the fight…and it did not look like someone going easy on someone else...it looked like two people trying to kill, no, _annihilate_ a kid.

"….You call that babying? Why the heck would she go easy on you anyway?"

Negi turned away from her as magic once more pooled in his hand in preparation for a spell. He let loose an exasperated sigh.

"Didn't I already say I don't know why the hell she would? If I had to guess, it's who she thinks my father is...and honestly, I can't blame her for that guess…she might be right."

"Your…."

"Yeah, my pops. It seems she thinks he was the "Thousand Master, or as some called him, the "Red Haired Demon"

"Thousand Master..?"

Negi let the magic in his hand dissipate and, he called up a small scale magical holo of the man he was talking about from his memory. The image came up as if one were viewing a computer screen, simply because that's the picture Negi was remembering it from.

"…..Well, he does look a heck of a lot like you…actually, you look almost like an exact copy, only younger and meaner…I can't ever imagine a smile like that being on your face, unless something really bad is about to happen to the guy you're looking at…by your hands…

"You give me too much credit Asuna-san… The thousand master was said to have learned and mastered a thousand spells, and was a skilled ninjitsu artist who supposedly saved all of Mundus Magicas from destruction."

"You mean that magic world you keep blabbing about?"

"Right."

"So this dude saved the world, and Eva-san thinks he's your dad."

"Yerp."

"She's nuts. Good for you thought, what did she have a crush on him?"

"You read my mind. Yerp. She did."

"That's even more nuts. The hell would _he_ want with _her_?"

"……She just might be right."

"Ehh?!"

Negi turned away from the holo to look at her.

"When I fought Sakurazaki-san, do you remember I got tossed into the bushes at one point?"

Remembering the fight, her face sobered and then became a bit sympathetic. Negi's own face became angry at the sympathetic look, prompting her to drop it.

"It was way more than one point…"

"Whatever, the point is, after the battle, when we were walking along the street, I saw them, Chachamaru and Eva, I heard them, but I made an excuse about a squirrel…I wasn't sure. I overheard them talking about DNA though, and I realize now they had swiped some of mine from the bushes, maybe some of my hair got caught, but the point is, I heard them say something along the lines of: "He is part of the family, too close to the blood line to be anything else." I thought I imagined it at the time, and paid it no mind, it didn't make any sense to me…but now…"

Negi looked back over his shoulder at the magical holo he had called up from memory.

"I wish he wasn't my father though."

Asuna raised an eyebrow. Negi was weird, and she had learned that after being around him for these past couple of weeks, but…why wouldn't he want a super powerful and talented dude as his father? Don't all kids think their dad is the best, and want them to be the greatest so they can boast about it?

"Why?"

"He saved the world, but he was an utter idiot."

_Of course, leave it to a genius to want their dad to be smart._

"….Nobody's perfect."

"Oh no, you misunderstand me. This man was a disgrace. His only saving grace was the fact he was insanely powerful. He didn't master thousand spells…he probably couldn't even remember what he had for breakfast the previous day. He dropped out of magic school because he was failing and thought it boring."

"…So?"

"You still misunderstand. He was had the power of idiocy on his side. The brute power to rush into something with absolutely no idea what he was doing and win because he was over powered anyway…He was a man who couldn't keep a straight thought in his head, incredibly distractible and borderline perverted. Not only that, but after spending a night with whoever the heck my mother is, he got up and left her, and went and got himself killed, or at least disappeared off the face of the earth, because like it or not I have a hard time imagining an overpowered fool like him getting killed. A rooster flitting from one hen to the next, without a friggin' care in the world as to what his actions might accomplish. A guy who left so many enemies behind to prey upon his family while he gallivanted about doing God knows what, someone who always could save complete and utter strangers, but who left his whole family tree to die."

Asuna took a step back at this point. Whoa… What was up with him? This was the time a kid might look at their toy and ask:" Did I break it?" Negi was shaking like a leaf and nearly yelling now. Magic was pooling in his hand, but, unlike the normal light, fire, wind, thunder or other element he normally had, this one was a pure dark. She had never seen him pull dark magic…she had only seen Eva do it…it didn't bode well, but Negi's face was scary, she didn't dare go near that shaking being with magic spewing from both hands…he looked ready to snap…

"Do you know why I am the way I am? I have no family because a couple of fu---ing demons came and slaughtered my whole damn moth---- village, making them flipping garden statues before breaking them into a million pieces! My foster sister and I where the only ones left, and she tried to leave with me, but they got her too. I couldn't do anything. I was a toddler! I was told I somehow cast a spell…a baby repeating words they had heard before without any knowledge of what the word meant. It was the right word, but It didn't help, she still died, still lies in pieces eroding away in the snow and rain. Where the hell was he then huh?! Oh and I'm not done, he left his son to bear the weight of resentment. His son had to grow up fast in magic school and learn to deal with people who were all older, trying to break him down because he was small and somehow smart enough to be there. His son had to deal with outside forces too, demons, werewolves, mages, mad people, all who hated my father's cause trying to slaughter my ass so I wouldn't continue his legacy. Every time someone picked on me, I trained to blast away the weakness. No they would not hurt me anymore. Every time some crazy fool tried to kill me, I trained that away too. I would become too tough for them to scratch. I didn't know why these people tried to hurt me, but I wouldn't let them. When I found school challenging me, I was not like him, thinking it boring and dropping out. I simply just trained my brain. This would no longer be hard for me. I would become something that no one would dare try and break apart any more, no matter how many people thought me a bast-- for it."

((Whoa Negi! Whoa! Heel! Heel! Think of the children!))

_Shit, he's not gonna stop is he? He's just gonna spill all this on me. Holy…._

"My own students trying to terrorize me, wheedle me, they found that their worms can't burrow into my steel. Professors trying to pick at me found their beaks unable to penetrate diamond. Trials, rites of passages, whatever came my way just meant I had to train it away. I became a workaholic, a person who vitally strives to erase all difficulty my life holds, to become powerful enough so that life will no longer hurt me. Hardened by the flame until the flame can melt me no more. I just want to live my life. Is that so hard? Is it so difficult to satisfy that one little desire? A peaceful life? No one trying to kill me because who my father was? No one trying to second guess me, take advantage of me, because of my size and age? No one trying to break me down to learn what makes me tick and exploit it? No one can love an ass like me, not even If I HAD a family, so I just want to left the f--- alone for once."

Letting out a solid and powerful breath, Negi raised both of his hands and wordlessly let loose a powerful stream of magic of some non-descript element. As he did so, his face was steadily becoming a simple blank mask of concentration. Like he said, he was training the pain away. Asuna stayed where she was. Almost rooted to the spot. Normally, she would at least approach the person in question, but Negi's hands where still twitching, and that was _**a lot**_ of magic he was spewing out there, that could so easily be directed right at her instead of up into the sky…she only hoped no low-flying planes where flying above on that path…

_Holy crap...he's belting it...and what is that?_

As Negi continued to spew magic, Asuna noticed something fall from him, and it took her a few seconds to register it as a tear. An actual _**tear**_. Was he actually...crying?

Once again abandoning all her spell work, she dared come closer, and Negi cancelled his magic. He didn't turn to look at her however, his face was kept turned towards the direction the magic he had sent was still disappearing rapidly upward. Taking a chance, she reached out her hand and caught one of those odd tears.

"That? I got some damn thing in my eye. That's all. I won't let it disturb my training though-"

"Bull. You know it."

"Believe what you want but…damn it, it's really _BUGGING_ my _EYES_!"

Even as he said this another drop of offending salt water fell. Asuna let it drop from her hand and put that said hand on his shoulder, but Negi shrugged it away forcefully.

"Get off me... You're in my way! If you don't need help with a spell…then leave this baka brat alone to train."

"...Baka brat? Have you forgotten Japanese? You know what baka means right?"

"Of course I do...I am one."

"Now _**that**_ _**is **_bull."

"Buzz off."

"If I don't want too?"

"Then don't buzz off."

Turning back around to start spewing magic again, he almost fell from spinning to fast, but, before Asuna could react, he had caught himself, glaring at the floor. Asuna cast about for something to tell him...anything. He was acting too weird.

"I suppose you want to know about my mother too huh?"

"Uhh...well.."

"As far as I can tell, she either left me after giving birth or died during it. No one dares tell me which, I think she just up and left. Like I said, I'm an unlovable bastard even from birth. Now get back to your work."

"....No mom in their right mind would leave their kid without a reason."

Negi let his magic dissipate again, only this time, he simply began to punch and kick at the air.

"Like being slam-bam-thank you mam'ed by a fool like my father, whom she probably idolized, is not enough to reject the child? He up and disappeared the very day after I was conceived I bet, as soon as he learned what his little swimmers had done. The story fits the time frames."

"...Little..?"

"Don't tell me I have to spell it out for you?"

Asuna almost slapped herself for no realizing, although her face became red enough for a person to think she had.

"...Actually, no you don't.....but if you say that, then why didn't she just..."

"Abort? Against the law in many places, not to mention the fact she might not have had the heart for it...she probably thought having the child might bring Nagi back anyway, he might want to take care of his "legacy" Of course, once he was rumored dead, what was the point? Besides continuing the line, perhaps duty kept her from just...not having me."

"....You actually believe that?"

Negi's eyes had cleared, but now they darkened again, not with tears, but with possible anger.

"...Yes."

Asuna looked away from him, but said nothing. Negi continued to fight the air, increasing in speed and elaboration as he did so. He continued his monologue after a few seconds of silence.

"....Yes. I do. It fits the facts. Whoever she was, she had to have been smart enough to figure that out, and she probably was from a high family, Nagi had quite broad yet "expensive" so to speak, tastes."

"You don't think to highly of him do you?"

"Hell no. Now get back to your work."

+---+

"So that's how it is huh?"

"Hot off the press. What did you expect from Asakura?"

"So sensei doesn't like us?"

"No...that's not quite it."

"Yue-san? Where did you come from?!"

Detaching a juice box from her lips, Yue looked up at the little knot of students who had gathered in the empty classroom. Negi-sensei, gone for the day to hold and after-school cram session, was in another room far below them.

"It's not that Sensei does not "like us" or that he does not want his job. He is, as he claims to be, a teacher. I still don't think it was right to bug the dean's room though, Asakura."

The ever present smile on her face easily beat back any weak offense Yue could offer Asakura. Widening that grin just a bit more to flash some teeth, she responded to Yue's comment.

"Ahh, most of the time the dude's just making weird sounds as he reads adult magazines. It's well worth it to get juicy tid-bits like this though. Sensei's voice is a welcome change, and it's been sounding off in the Dean's office often lately. His tongue burns my microphone to a crisp every time. Still, you're right, he doesn't hate us, just refuses to give us anything more than he would any other student. Doesn't play favorites, am I right?"

"Correct. It is actually part of a unwritten code for a teacher. If you favor one student above another, you could lose your job. The dean asking him to do so goes against all what a teacher should be. However, this matter is quite disturbing...to try and force Sensei to either favor one class above all others or lose his job if we don't get out of last place...I think the Dean is just trying to push sensei, to see how far he will bend. Sensei is the only teacher who has not bent to the Dean's will so far. He does what he wants, when he wants to do it and how he wants to do it. The thing that annoys the dean further is that Springfield-sensei does it correctly and without problem. There is no reason for the Dean to try and inflict his will upon Sensei."

"So what should we do?"

"There's also the problem about this school's system changing."

"Huh, what do you mean the school system's changing?"

"The dean was talking about it, changing the system from an escalator school, meaning...we'll get left back if we're in last place again..."

"What?! When?"

"This morning...just before they discovered they'd been bugged this whole year..."

"This is bad! What can we do?"

"Go to sensei's cram session." - This coming from Yue.

"But that's boring!!"

"Well...no, there is no such thing."

"What is it Yue-san?"

"They say that there is this magic book..."

+---+

"What is this nonsense that I'm hearing? Magic book? Asuna-san, go back to sleep please, stop reading so much damn manga..."

"Are you trying to tell me it doesn't exist? You, mister godly mage?"

Negi sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, trying to bring a blurry Asuna into focus in the dark room. Konoka lie still sleeping, but Negi could tell from Asuna's manner that she would soon be dragged out of bed too, and into this nonsense. Magic book his ass. As much as he wanted to say it did not exist, that this was fruitless folly, which it _was_, that they should all just go to bed and try to attend his study sessions, or hit him up between classes, which they _should_, but it would be useless. Asuna and her band of people outsides the door had won the moment Asuna had tapped his shoulder, waking him from his ever delicate, light sleep. They had ignited his scholars' spirit, and artifact hunter's soul, nothing he could do would change that, sleep was now thus impossible. He muttered under his breath as Asuna's face still failed to come into proper focus, and he groped from his glasses on his tiny nightstand, jamming them on his face when he found them.

"To hell with it all. If what youi're saying is true, which I doubt, there are about three different texts you could be talking about. At least as far as I know. One of which being the: "Libri per Scientia"

"There yah go. I knew you had to know something."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm your resident walking, sarcastic library right? Anyway, get out of the way, I'm gonna jump it."

Asuna, quickly getting down from the ladder, went to go wake Konoka as Negi grabbed his coat and stuffed his star wand in his sleeve before grabbing his staff. He looked at three pairs of shoes next to lined up near his ladder, and, kicking off slippers, he chose his boots. (He left his socks on in sleep, it was cool enough for it anyway.) He hesitated as his eyes fell upon his gun, and then grabbed it too, along with at least three reloads worth of ammo. By the time Konoka was groggily sitting up, Negi jumped off the little railing he had put along his living area to prevent the very thing he was doing, jumping or falling off. Landing lightly on the floor with his toes he saw Konoka cast him a sleepy glare.

_Don't look at me girl, look at your friend over there. She's the one waking you up._

Negi walked out the door with his coat slung over his back. As he left the lighted room however, his eyes alighted upon his wrist, where a faded tattoo caught in the light. Negi mentally cursed his luck. It was fading, which meant he needed to reapply the ink on it soon.

You see, have you ever wondered why Negi was able to use magic during his fight with Eva, when Asuna held his staff HeartBreaker and his star wand? Or did no one notice? No, that was no blunder. Negi relied on this tattoo to help him do that. As one might expect, Negi, having buried his nose in just about every book in the forbidden libraries of study, has run across many forms of magic, and even if he cannot utilize all he knows, he can always practice until he can, and he has a broad base to draw from. In his studies and training, he had found it absurdly annoying to no end, having to carry his wand all the time to use magic, and, even if HeartBreaker can double as a blade, if it is confiscated, he would have to rely on his star wand, but what if he doesn't have that? Sure, training in martial arts can help him supplement weakness there, but for Negi, that was not enough. He wanted to be able to use all of his arsenal, even when situations looked grim.

So, he had studied, searching for a way to cast magic without a wand or other suitable vessel for casting magic. In his studies, which centered around a rumor of he himself achieving the feat as a toddler, he came across body paint as an answer to his plea. Combining the elements of a vessel for magic, metals, certain plants and other potion ingredients, Negi mixed these with body inks to produce a concoction he could paint upon himself to allow magic to be channeled from there to the outside. He would no longer need to keep some kind of magical vessel close to him if he painted on himself after all. Yet still, this did not satisfy him. Rings with gems inset on them to grant them the ability to be used as a wand, enchanted rings, necklaces, bangles, anklets, things like these where nice, but Negi wanted something totally free of strings. The reason for that was simple, if something like this happened, his tattoo fading, he would not have to worry. He had yet to discover it though, and that meant he had to worry. How long would his tattoo last? Would he need to use magic in a library anyway? What if the suspicion of a magical book was true? Would he need to disarm traps and defeat guardians? How the hell was he supposed to do that with just his daggers and gun if they were magically protected?

_Crap._

+---+

"Wait, you brought sensei along? He'll just get hurt though..."

"Oi oi, did you forget when he fought Ku Fei?"

"I thought that was a fluke!"

"Is no fluke aru!"

Konoka looked at the collection of misfits, who had separated into two groups. One of three and one of six, one of whom was still in his pajamas, regardless is he had his coat on. Stifling a yawn, Konoka turned to Yue, who was perhaps the only sensible person here in her mind.

"...Why am I here?"

"You are part of the communications team."

"What?"

"The communications team."

Negi reached into his coat pocket and tossed Konoka a cold energy drink, which nearly smacked her in the face due to her slow, sleep-affected reactions.

"Here, have a cold one and wake yourself up. I didn't want to be here either. Being in class A means embarking on frivolous, spur of the moment adventures whose purpose is both obscure and hilarious. Deal with it."

Konoka turned to Yue again, tossing the beverage from one hand to the next because of it's icy temperature.

"What did Sensei just say?'

"If you are in this class, expect to be pulled into situations where you have no idea what's going on, or why it makes sense. "

"...Oh."

"Konoe-san, you don't need to worry, your part is to stay here and monitor. It's the six of us who have to go into the belly of the beast."

"Springfield-sensei..."

"What?"

"Why do you call me Konoe-san, but Asuna-san, Asuna?

"...I don't know you well enough. Asuna-san has requested I call her by first name for convenience. Thank you very much."

"Hey, Negi-sensei! Hurry up or you'll be left behind!"

"Oi oi, fine I'm coming. I'm coming!"

Negi turned around to Konoka.

"Look. I don't like what you tried to do to me, nor do I like to get all emotional and all feely. I'm not like most kiddies. Hug me and I bristle. Yet, as much as I like to think I'm a heartless demon, I'm a human. Drink your juice before it gets warm, and keep an eye out for your friend Asuna, because lord knows why we need an underground surveillance team for a library trip, but something tells me tonight is gonna be hell. Kapeesh? I'll forgive you if you can do that much."

Turning around, Negi ran to catch up with the rest, leaving Konoka to look at the beverage in her hand. It was a Ginseng Tea with Lemon leaf mix. Hell? Sensei was a health buff? Maybe?

"Sensei!"

Negi turned around again to see Konoka running after him. What the hell did she want now?

"I'm coimg too."

_What?!?_

"...and why is this?"

"......Uhh...well....."

Negi narrowed his eyes.

"Fine, whatever, I really don't care all that much."

+---+

"Watch Springfield-sensei Asuna-san."

"What, why the hell should I?"

"Because he's a kid and might get...ahh!"

Negi, seeing Makie fall, grabbed her wrist deftly and braced his feet. Her ribbon came up a split second later and attached to a hanging pipeline, allowing Makie to pull herself up with ease, using Negi as a brace.

"Watch out for your own self, I'm fine."

Standing on tip toe and still failing to pat her shoulder effectively, Negi jumped across the gap Makie had fallen into, leaving her to stare. He rapidly walked away while she and those behind her jumped across the gap, his aim being to catch up to the Yue, who was in front. Asuna, who was looking back to see Negi draw level with her, unknowingly stepped on a panel, and Kaede, Makie and Ku Fei were assaulted with falling books from an overbalancing bookshelf. Negi, who had turned back to see what the noise was about, reached the book shelf the same time Ku Fei did, both of them performing the same action, which was to kick the thing away to prevent it from falling. Kaede did her part by catching the assaulting books in her hands. It seemed like Makie, who had called out Negi, was turning out to be the one who needed help...No one noticed Asuna's screwed up mouth. She knew that was her fault. As Negi drew level with her, he made a "no problem" gesture to her, telling her she was not the only one who knew of her blunder. Crap.

"Springfield-sensei...all these books are written in a strange language....but they look like they are in the same one..."

Negi put a hand to the back of his head and rubbed it, his face kind of apologetic.

"No...no. They are not in the same language Konoe-san, I see several Greek, a couple Latin, one Norse, about three French, Five Spanish, What seems to be quite a few Arabic, One English and perhaps six, no seven, German. However, many of those languages I just mentioned have roots with each other, so they may look the same..."

Asuna shook her head incredulously.

"How many languages do you know anyway?!?"

"....Ehh....wait..Serbian, Ancient Latin, English, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, German, Italian, French, Spanish, wait, did I mention Swahili? No I did not...uhhh...About thirty eight I think.."

Yue looked back at him.

"Is there really a need to know so many different languages?"

"I used to work with American students a lot when I went to school as a college student, plus English was my first language anyway...Latin I know because....it interests me..*here he casts a nervous glance at Asuna* Spanish, Italian and French share roots in Latin, so I studied them....Greek and Russian I studied because I traveled to both Greece and Russia before and wanted to be able to communicate...Chinese and Japanese I learned so I can be of use here.....Serbian is another form of Latin, so there goes that...Swahili, Irish, Polish, Yiddish and Czech I have no excuse for, I'll admit. Did I mention German yet? I took a trip there once as a teacher with my class for a meeting and no one in the town we settled in knew anything but German, so there's that...what am I...shit Ayase, put back that damn book!"

Shaken out of his reverie, Negi jumped up and grabbed the book from Yue's hand, his other hand frozen about an inch from her heart, an arrow in it. He jammed the book back into its eager shelf, where its title, in English, claimed: "The true Secret of Flight." In the one hand that the arrow was in, the fingers contorted and snapped the shaft in four, and Negi flung down the remains into the pit that was on either side of them all along the wide book-case path they walked.

"God damn, if you really believe there is a magic book here, don't you think it would be well guarded? People, be more flipping careful! I can only react so damn fast!"

+---+

Crawling through a tunnel was one thing, but crawling through a tunnel in this school uniform was another. Negi asked to be first in the line her, but Yue had the map, she had to. So Negi decided he would look inside his coat while he crawled, it was what he said, and no one understood what the heck he was talking about...

Until they began crawling that is. Does the genius always have to be right? Bottom to bottom, they had to crawl, and it was not a pleasant experience…for any of them, except perhaps for Yue, who was in front and had the map. It took a while, and Negi got tired of staring at the ceiling in an attempt to be decent and not see something else, so he began staring at the ground while he crawled. It was mildly cold here, but the temperature didn't bother him, it was the length of this part of their travels that did. He called out to Yue.

"Oi oi. I'm jumping on the bandwagon here, wanting to know if we are nearly there yet or not. I haven't crawled this much since I was a flipping toddler!"

_Which was not too long ago Sensei, even if the way you speak contradicts that fact. _

"Actually, we are here...just about...I'm just searching for the right panel....here it is, this one. Can someone get up here and help me?"

Negi crawled up in the space to reach where Yue was, saying all the while:

"I'm coming, I'm the smallest anyway..."

+---+

Finally moving the slab of rock out of the way, Negi climbed up and hoisted Yue noiselessly up after him. He then ducked back down to help Asuna up, who in turn got the rest out with his and Yue's help. Standing up fully, the party of five feasted their eyes upon the room they had found themselves in. A large, squarish area made completely of stone, cracking in several places, and yet, it was obvious it had once held quite a bit of grandeur to it. At the other end of the room, a book lay open on a pedestal. Negi, looking at it, was suddenly reminded of Indiana Jones and had to shake his head to hide his amusement. Yue, stating the obvious, pointed to the book.

"There it is..."

" Oh hell. It's the Book of Merkisedek...who would have thought."

Yue turned to look at Negi.

"You know of it Springfield-sensei?"

He cast the girl a sidelong look. Even with her, he had to look up, but not too much. A half smirk formed on his face, and he let out an odd laugh.

"Heh. I nearly got my hands on a copy of one once. Almost got to read the bugger. Yet, I didn't. I was out-bided by some rich stiff in the auction house. He was robbed of it a week later, and no one knows where the heck the book is now. There are only two, _**true**_,known copies of the book. The original and that one. Last time I checked, a rumor was floating around that some idiot had tried to copy the text and died trying to extract the secrets. You can't just simply copy the stuff on that book down unto another book...it's one of the highest grade magical texts currently known..."

Asuna stared at him. What would he want with this book anyway? Then she realized what he was saying.

"Wait..you almost got one?!"

"Why would you want one Sensei, aren't you smart enough already?!"

"Springfield-sensei really knows his stuff, doesn't he..."

Negi gave a backwards glare at the five of them, an odd light shining in his eyes. Once again, a single, off laugh escaped his lips and his tongue darted out to relieve them of their dry state.

"You could say that I'm an artifact collector...one who likes to chase rare and obscure things. Why do you think I came with you all once you started to talk about a magic book? You captured my collector's interest....as much as I hate to admit it. This must be the original copy of the text..."

Makie and Ku -Fei, ever energetic, decided to take the final step and make a break for it. Yue chased after them. Asuna wasn't too far behind, Keade with her.

"Hey, since when did you two become fans of books?! That's mine!"

"Yue-san, don't be a baka...we'll all share it right?"

Negi shook his head. Running after them, he stopped at a bridge of rock and yelled out after them. Konoka stopped just behind him.

"OIIIIII! A book like is bound to be booby trapped you-"

Negi didn't get to finish his sentence. The bridge broke and dumped Makie, Asuna, Ku Fei, Yue and Kaede unto a stone platform. Negi recognized the marking on it was made a face. He had once played that game when a couple of his fellow students from America had hosted a party...they had gotten drunk, (Not Negi of course.) and had tried to play it. He'll never forget that hellacious day as long as he shall live....it scarred him for life. At the same time that the girls fell, a statue, which had been next to the book, one of two, started to move, scaring the heck out of anyone besides Negi and Keade.

"OH HO HO HO..."

_Oh hell, why do these things always have to come equipped with a stupid laugh?_

+---+

One hectic twister game later....

"Asuna you monkey!!!"

Falling, falling, falling, that's what they all were doing. Negi was trying not say he told them so, but he told them so! Negi landed face first in the sand, filling his mouth with the stuff. What was worse was when Yue fell on top of him, knocking his head deeper into the stuff and cutting off his air supply. Oh hell, this was fun. Fun fun fun till the father takes the fudging keyboard away. Negi waved his arms around, getting Yue's attention as to why her landing had been harder than the other's. Getting up, embarrassed, she was about to help him when he got himself up, pushing up and sending sand cascading off him. He opened his mouth and let a steam of sand fall out. Oh nice, he was a fountain now. Looking around, he shook his head, spitting sand.

"Oh hell, lookie lookie, we are in some huge, no-exit-in-sight underground area that's lighted up to emulate outside and be some kind of underground paradise where we waste our lives away. How nice."

Getting up fully, he looked around and then turned back to the others. More of less in one piece, he shook his head.

"Might as well look around, why don't we? There are plenty of books. I told you you should study before, but now, you have to. Nothing else to do. I'll go look for some kind of food. Anyone else coming?"

"Me."

Fine, so Asuna-san and I will go. Just....just don't get lost will yah? Keep in touch, always.

+---+

Pah. Here we are. I wanted to make it a bit longer, but decided against it. I got time constraints. See ya'll. A bit shorter than I should make it, so the next one can be longer...I have a long one planned for it...


	15. Chapter XIII: Thirteen Squall

Ahh well. So I gave you all something to look at, neh? Here I am, continuing the tide again. I wonder how this will turn out. I am also debating, Negi's cursing....I know he's mad, but he deserves a spanking for that. No, I joke, yet still, I wonder if something else might happen that might make this story more serious. If that occurs, you may see this get bumped up in rating. Watch out. Only saying. Oh, and..."The Curious Fan", worry not. I learned my lesson from last time. Speaking of last time, I have never, ever, seen such traffic to a story of mine since last time. I'm happy about that. I'm trying, that's all I can say. This time will go slightly different, no, I should say totally different. It may seem like I'm heading the same way, but you may have already noticed some differences from the last one. Ahh well, let's get moving, shall we?

From the 23rd of December to the 3rd of January, I was unable to get my hands on computer time. It was as I expected, but still…know that, for me, holidays are my enemy.

I do not own Negima, silly people.

+---+

_**Chapter Thirteen: Who said it was an unlucky number? (Thirteen squall.)**_

+----+

Sometime later on, Asuna and Negi returned with food that was conveniently located in a convenient residence upon a convenient shoreline in side this utterly odd and convenient underground library area. Why this place was such a user friendly area was a lost concept on Negi. It was supposed to be a punishment for those who tried to steal the Libraries primary secrets, so why was it so warm, sunny, well furnished and all that other fun stuff? There was running water, cabinets full of fresh food (A technical miracle.) All the necessities, and some of the perks, needed and used for living. It was insane, yet there. Negi just didn't get it, but who was complaining? Not anyone but him seemed to care, and that was fine by him.

Negi grumbled as he tried to wash his hair in a roaring waterfall. A waterfall of all places! He didn't want to bother anyone else in the baths of that mansion like house they had found...nor did he want them to think he was acting strangely, for he had wrapped his left hand in some plastic wrap he had found in the house. It was the only way he could think of on short notice to save the tattoo without draining its power magically. After spending the night in there, Negi just had to get out and walk around. Something about the place set him on edge. It held an obvious magical aura that he felt could turn at any second. He didn't like that feeling, especially when it came from a building that was the basis of their current survival. He needed to find a way out of this place...fast.

Oh sure, during the night and after waking up, he had gotten all his students to gather to at least do some studying, in hopes of being able to put it to use. There was not much else to do here after all, and they did come here for the purposes of preparing themselves for the test...so He had had them do just that...the old fashioned way. Now, on this new day, perhaps Early Saturday morning, Negi was beginning to have his nerves worn down. "How the heck are we going to get out of here." Constantly played in his head, and, unless he could fly, he doubted he had an answer to that question just yet, which peeved him.

A scream broke Negi from his revere, and shaking his head violently, spraying his surroundings in a fine mist from his hair, Negi jumped out and grabbed his clothes, putting them on as he ran. Forget about tying his hair up in knots. Screams just didn't get issued for no damn reason at all after all.

Said free hair flying behind him like a streamer, Negi ran towards the house, pulling off wet plastic from his hand carefully as he went...he cursed. His tattoo was practically nonexistent. The he felt one of his coat pockets bang against his legs. His gun was still in there...thank zippered pockets. Okay, forget the magic for now.

+---+

"Wahhh! The perverted rock statue has me!!"

_Perverted rock statue? Brilliant name Makie, just brilliant. Ahh well, at least I know why the hell I'm running...where is the other one though..? Weren't there two in the chamber? Even if it didn't move before, I wouldn't put it past the thing. Why charm only one statue to move when you have two there guarding?_

Thankfully, by the time Negi got there, he had managed to get his clothes on, and, his coat and hair flying along behind him, he slid to a stop in front of Asuna and Kaede, who were in the front of the line next to the statue, gun already in his hands and pointed.

"Gah! Some strange girls come and is pointing a gun at the statue!"

_God damn, does hair really make a person's gender at my age? _

The statue decided to speak.

"Oh ho ho....what are you going to do with that girlie?"

_Oh, hell, lookie there, that answers my question._

"In case you haven't noticed, I am a dignified male you churlish fiend, and that is my student, please unhand her before I blow your brains out. If you even have any in that boulder of a head that is..."

"Negi-sensei!?"

A bit surprised, Yue looked at his back.

"Well, who else could it be, there is no one else here as far as we know, and that is obviously Sensei's voice and demeanor..."

"Are you gonna let go of her or not...?"

"Ahh! Look, the book!"

Yue pointed to the statue's neck "collar" where the book was stuck in a niche. Apparently, when the statue came down here, (Must have fell.) The book fell with it and got lodged there. This fired the team of people on the ground, for now they had a double standard for defeating the statue, getting the book and getting Makie back.

"We'll be taking that book, thank you!"

The statue, finding the thing it had to guard being on it's being, only brought it more power in the situation. Rearing it's hand back towards itself, the one with Makie in it, it's free hand came forward in a punch that would have struck home on Negi had he not jumped back in time. His gun came round, reflecting the soft light of the area.

"That's the wrong answer, rock head."

He pulled the trigger so quickly, five shots sounded like one, and Negi fired off nine in an easy, quick succession, all aiming for one place, the joint connecting the golem's arm to his body, the arm whose hand held Makie captive. In an explosion of dust and debris, the joint shattered, and a bit of the golem's shoulder broke off as the arm came crashing down…thankfully, the hand had released Makie before crash time. Kaede had used the dust as a veil to grab the girl, who in turn used her faithful ribbon to snag the book from the golem. Thus cheated of it's victim, it's hand glowed an odd red-purple and it fired off a beam like projectile spell at Kaede, who had landed next to Asuna and Konoka with Makie. Negi's eyes lit up a bit strangely, and he dropped his coat as he jumped in the way of the beam, almost dutifully planting his feet in the way. Yet, when he mentally incanted the spell for Deflection, it didn't come, his eyes widened to the fact…his tattoo was kaput. In a last ditch effort, he sent a back kick right at Konoka, tripping her up and sending her skidding out of the way of the beam, meanwhile…he took the rest of the shot. He raised his gun and began firing like hell. He managed to knock out the other arm and crack the statue's torso and legs, and had even managed to, with the last shot, send his head flying off, just as the beam came at him. Gun tossed aside, no one heard him even scream. Asuna watched as the purple thing engulfed him, but nothing else… a second later and it was gone, the hit taken. A burnt pile of clothes and residual ash was all that was left…the golem collapsed, it's feet gone and it's head blown off…the rest of the cracked body shattered upon impact with the sandy ground. All was silent…

For some reason, Konoka couldn't take her eyes off the spot where the fried clothes lay. She had just been standing not a foot from there…he had kicked her away…and this was what was left? That kid….

At the same time, only one thought played in Asuna's head, for the impact of what her eyes were seeing had not yet reached her brain fully…

_Heartless my ass._

+---+

Let's take the time to check up on the others, shall we? Hi ho!

Saturday, around four o clock in the morning was not a good time to get woken up to chaos, but is exactly what had happened to Ayaka Yukihiro. Last night, after attending one of Springfield-sensei's "dorm-crash" study sessions for the first time, she had been enlightened to what she had been missing in the ways of Sensei's after school teaching. In class, he was the best teacher any student could possibly have in this school for English, outside it...he was the best for any subject you happened to want to know about. He was more lax outside of the school setting too, which meant he was prone to give you more information than you asked for, but that extra information was always on an interesting, related topic. He was the kind of teacher who interested you enough to go home and search up the topic he was teaching you on, so you could learn more on your own time. He involved you. Yet, as much as she had grown to appreciate the little Sensei, and as much as she adored his valiancy for such a young age, and as much as she thought him adorable…

Okay, Ayaka, you are getting off topic. Ahem.

As much as she held the little sensei in high regard, it failed to strike her as important that he was not in his dorm at Four o' clock in the morning on a Saturday. Yet, this was what an alarmed student by the name of Niwari Todashiwaryu was relaying to her. The sensei had told her yesterday morning that she could drop off her homework on Saturday morning and he would still accept it. Ayaka failed to see why this girl would try to drop it off at four in the morning, but that was besides the point. Why was she coming to _her_ about it? Just because she was president of his homeroom class and might know where he was? How did she figure that? As much as she would probably enjoy keeping tabs on the cute little boy, she failed to see how she would know where he was, he was a grown…well, no, he was not a grown man, but he was a responsible little boy who knew what he was doing better than most adults did. Why should she worry about him? Well, scratch that, why should she…no, scratch that too…okay, weren't Asuna and Konoka in their dorm too? After all, couldn't this girl have asked them where he was? Sleepily, the girl told her that she could go and ask Springfield-sensei's roommates where he was, but the answer she got back surprised her to near full awareness.

"With all due respect class A lincho-san, if I could, I wouldn't be bothering you. They are not there…the other dorm next to it is empty too…"

Okay. One sensei missing at four in the morning might mean an early morning power walk, but six people? This was odd. While one could say Sensei took a walk with his roommates, and the monkey-girl he rooms with does have a paper route job, so it would not be unusual for an early morning stroll for the early riser, but to take all the girls from the other dorm too? No notes anywhere? This was something one might have to look into…but later…not now…she wanted to sleep! Yet, a nagging voice told her that the little sensei might be in trouble, danger even, and she could not bear the thought of that…that little face shouldn't be anything but happy…Still, if all the people from both dorms went out, it would not make any sense to leave a note, but that bit of logic was lost on Ayaka.

Rubbing sleep from her eyes, Ayaka addressed the girl, who looked embarrassed now for some reason that escaped the blonde girl.

"Okay, I'll look into it. If it helps you, I'll take your work and give it the sensei the first thing I see him, or I'll drop it off at his desk in the teacher's area. Does that suit your needs a little?"

_She's got a hole in her pajamas right there…I didn't need to know what color her undies where, thank you miss Lincho for that little fact. The thing is worn there too….how old is that set? Or is it they have rodents? The edges look rough..eww…_

Snapping back to the present, the girl bowed and handed her folder to the other with both hands.

"Yes, thank you, that would be great. I really appreciate it.."

Ayaka took the folder with a slightly peeved look on her face.

'Next time, hand things in on time...and don't try to wake people up four o' clock in the morning on a weekend! What were you thinking, trying to go to him at four...?"

'Sorry, sorry, he said come at any hour, so…."

"You assumed sensei would wait, awake, all night, just for you to come and deliver your work to him? Silly. Now go on back to your room…you're lucky you didn't wake up my fellow roommates…that would have been a disaster."

Bowing again, the girl frankly ran off, wanting to get away from the lincho-san with the rodent problem and a stern tongue as fast as possible. The door closed behind her.

Now, as much as Ayaka thought herself disciplined, sleep waited for no man, or woman for that matter. When Ayaka tossed the envelope on the coffee table next to the couch, she couldn't help collapsing, face first, into it's soft length. About three minutes later, the only sound in the living room was a light snore from the couch. Lincho-san was out cold. A cell phone on the kitchen counter, plugged in to charge lit up and began to vibrate violently, it's little speakers blaring out some Japanese pop star's new single as a ring tone. It's screen clearly labeled the guilty caller to be one Haruna Satome. Ayaka snored on.

+---+

'No one's answering. Figures, it's four o clock in the morning….still….I had hoped Lincho might be awake…"

The manga-ken Haruna closed her phone with a snap. Nodoka looked at her sidelong.

"What would you have told her if you got her?'

"That we are outside Library Island, monitoring Springfield-sensei and the baka rangers, and we've lost contact with them and need…oh, right...I see…I sound like I'm off my rocker."

"Sometimes you need to hear what you were thinking of saying to know it sounds silly."

"I suppose, still, we lost contact with Yue-ecchi. What are we supposed to do now?"

"Wait."

"...I hate waiting though..."

+---+

((Let's go to the magical academy for an update…))

Dark…I don't like the dark…..it scares me…

It scares me more now that I know I'll be here a long while.

More when I don't know what's out there…

My own wand scares me now. It's beaten me…badly.

They've used it as my treatment.

They say you can't go into the forbidden library. They say you can't cheat on tests. They say you can't try to change your grades, they say you can't try and ask for help from students who took the test the day before. They say you can't use magic in the halls, they say you can't leave your spot on the playground. They say you should leave seniors alone…they say you shouldn't sleep in class…they say….they say…they say…they say it all day. Lights out before seven thirty, wake up no later than seven thirty. Potions should be done without looking at the ingredients book. Magic should be from your wand and not from something else. They say you shouldn't fight with others…no wetting the bed, you're too old. No teddy bears when you sleep, no crying at night, don't be mean to teachers, don't speak unless spoken too. Don't go into the record halls to peek your grades, don't go into the greenhouse alone. Don't steal and ingredients don't use magic outside the classroom. Don't sneak out at night, no gum chewing, don't break school stuff.

These rules they set for the first years, I have broken them all, and more. I am being…"punished" for that. He broke into the library, but that was all he did. Never did he sleep, never did he disrespect, never did he lift a finger to break something. No sleeping, no teddy bears.

The day they found out I had been in the library…I set fire to it by accident…my wand went off. They stopped it, but a lot of books were burnt. They chased me...I ran into the hall of records. I don't know why…I sent fire arrows at them…the hall of records was burnt too…I ran and hid in the greenhouse….I knocked over a bunch of weird logs when they found me. The logs tried to grab them….I ran and crashed into a weird tree, it let off a bunch of sack things that made everyone sleepy…I didn't mean it…I was scared…I ran…and ran…they caught me though…they took away my wand….snapped it in half and tied the pieces to my neck. It burns me there all the time…after a while it sends me more pain…it gets worse every time. I can't do anything…I'm locked in this dark, dark room, looking all around but finding no way out…They cut my hair, used their special sticks and hit me with magic. They say I can't go to school any more. They want to send me away, to some mage to teach me…for twelve years…I don't even really know how long that is…around twice my life time, one of them told me. That's long…with a strange mage….for more punishment…after the years, I will take m finals tests and if I pass I will graduate…but I can never be a magister magi. They said I could ask for someone…I said his name…from what I remember…all those times in the trophy halls…those times before lights out that he helped me…they laugh. Tell me they can't. He's not a full mage…but then…then they change their minds. A little…but he must fight the old way they say. He must fight to the death against the candidate they s-selected. The winner will take me as their "liege". In a week they tell me, I will be sent to '"Swallowthorn" where they will see me and I will see them. They want to see if I can go there, but it won't matter even if I don't. They will send me to them anyway once they win. After another two days, they will send me to him…to stay for two days and for them to see if I can work with him. Then they tell me, I go back in my dark room, to wait until the cold burns off my toes and the music outside celebrates my punishment, as they say. Christmas. The fight will take place in front of a panel of judges, an outside hearing, court they say. He and Swallowthorn will fight…I will get to watch. The loser will die…the winner takes me. I am their "trophy" they say. I'm not a golden cup though…how can I be a trophy? They use words I don't understand. All of what they say I don't understand anymore…the court, the judges, the punishment, the Swallowthorn, the years. I only see the pain they are causing, and the pain they want to cause _him_ the only one who can save me from it. Help me…help me please!

+---+

Back to Library Island.

Asuna saw Negi's gun, sooty and burnt, and picked it up quickly. It still was in working order, thank good craftsmanship. What would she say if she knew Negi had more or less crafted it himself? Shaking, the effect of the event that had just taken place was finally coming upon her body, but her mind had yet to register it fully. She pointed the gun at the fallen, broken Golem and shot. Once, twice, thrice, Quad-rice, five times, six times, by the time the seventh shot rocketed from the gun, Yue had managed to grab her arm and force it down.

"Asuna-san, it's dead already! We need to find a way out of here!"

_Dead huh? That's a funny word, dead._

_+---+_

Deep in the heart of the underground library, there lies a castle, one of the most feared areas of the living. A time frozen copy of Dracula's castle. A place where the souls of victims to the guardians of the library fall when the golem is forced to use one of it's most potent weapons. In this ruined castle, among the dozens of battalions, one of them was currently occupied by three beings. Sky clad all of them, only one was human, although this figure was unconscious. The other two approached it with the practice of ones used the shadows and their powers of dark…

_Oh god, it hurts like hell… _

"Sister…I found something…"

_Why does it hurt so damn much? _

"It's a human! Wow, that's rare…"

_Where the heck am I anyway…and __**Why**__ am I so damn cold? _

"I wonder if they have finally stopped trying to hide their beautiful selves…it makes drinking their energy so much harder."

"This one doesn't have anything on. Maybe they have."

'Ohh, it looks young..."

_Hell is going on? _

"Ohhh..this one must be a pervert, they have good energies, their drives are overwhelming."

"The hell makes you say that?"

"The memories are full of the female blood."

"Idiot, if you would read the memories properly, you would see those are students, this is a teacher."

"So young?"

"Who the hell cares if it's young. Human's are quicker minded and more energetic when young anyway."

"True…ohh, look at this one! I like her. See?"

"…Cora. How many hell of a times do I have to tell you, if you don't need to transform into the form of one' memories, don't! It wastes energy…"

"Oh but it's fun. This one has lots of beautiful ones. You can load up and lure more humans in easy. We're not called 'Beautiful Nightmares" for nothing! Ooooooh. I like this one.

The succubus stood in a school uniform with long, flowing, black-brown hair and a deep chocolate brown eyes. Sticking out a pink tongue, at her pale gray skinned counterpart, she spun around.

'Cora, this is no time to be playing around. Crap! This one had LOADS of energy on him. I can't get at it though…it's so wild, I can't tap into it. The energy flow is crazy strong…Cora! Are you listening!? I need you over here…were gonna need to tire it out. I suppose I could take a form too."

"Ooohhh..see? It's fun, try, try! Who you gonna be?"

"Just wait a damn minute while I chose will you? There are hundreds of them here. All shapes, sizes, colors devils tongue, look at them all! Hmmm….this one's nice…"

Assuming the form of Nodoka, the succubus cast a glance at the other. Seeing her through strands of deep bluish purple-black hair.

"You happy now?"

"…….."

"What?"

"You always go for the subdued, quiet ones…it's so cute."

"……They're the easiest to copy."

+----+

Negi groaned and sat up, rubbing his back, which seemed to have acquired a lot of rocks and dirt to stick on his skin. Is hand froze in mid-wipe. His back was…bare. If that was bare, then his front was…

Shit, shit, shit, shit, crap, shit, shithouse, shit bucket to hell and back! He was without a scrap of anything on! Glancing around quickly, his eyes caught on something that made his life ten times worse. Nodoka and Asuna sitting by a fire, watching him. Oh hell, life was a real pain in the ass. Decided to just wing it, for it seemed like the two already had seen just about anything there was to see, he called to them.

"Any of you know where the hell I can find my clothes?"

"Clothes….? Oh those things? You don't need them, don't you?"

Lidiara cursed her luck. The hell did Cora say that for?! DID she want to give them away? Trying to pick up a damaged line of thought, she addressed her, trying to draw from her own memory the attitude of the one she was trying to emulate.

"U-uh…K-K-Konoka-san...you can't be serious…N-Negi-s-sensei needs his clothes."

"Well hell if I know where they are, they're not here. He can walk around without them for a bit."

Lidiara felt like slapping her right then and there. She could tell by the slightly flabbergasted, horrified and suspicious look on the boy's face that he was not gonna buy this for very long if she kept this up.

'Wh-what? W-wait…sensei…take my uhh…coat..?"

No, wait, the girl wouldn't do that for him, she messed up! Blushing a bit under her cover, she made an attempt to take off the coat and then feigned failing. "Konoka" tossed off her "coat" and sent it flying towards the boy.

'You need more?"

Again, that odd, horrified look, and again, Lidiara felt like slapping her partner. More? The hell? The boy answered for her though, almost echoing her thoughts.

"Uhh..more…? No thanks Konoe-san…you can't take anything else off in case you haven't noticed…not without being inappropriate that is. Your coat will do…it covers me just about fully…"

"Nodoka" feigned shyness again. Now, Negi was a smart boy, I'm sure you all know, so his clever head was currently wondering why the hell Miyazaki was down here with Konoe and him instead of with the communications team, or why Konoe was here with him and Miyazaki, for if he followed a hunch, that beam teleported him somewhere, and he had clearly kicked Konoka out of the way of the beam. If he got teleported to the surface, there should only be Satome and Miyazaki. If it transported him somewhere where Konoe could be, then Asuna and the others should be here, not Miyazaki. Something was fishy here, and he couldn't quite lay a finger on it. Konoe also seemed very out of character, the normally overtly motherly figure being gruff and brushing off Negi's state without a care, while the norm would be her getting upset when Negi brushed _**her**_ off. Miyazaki, ever nervous around him, seemed to have drunk ten cups of coffee and taken Ritalin, producing the opposite effect and making her jump off walls. One was completely off, and one was to strongly acted out…

Oh, Negi had no doubt this was an act. Neither of them would be here if he was teleported away somewhere, nor would they sit watching his naked, unconscious self near a fire while he froze his arse off. The question was, who were these people, and what were they trying to do?

Coming to sit by them, Negi realized the coat was far warmer than it should be, as if it were part of the person who had tossed it to him instead of just clothing. That got him thinking, but meanwhile, he talked.

"Soo…how did you all find me here?"

This put a damper on the plans. How did they find him? They can't just say they found him lying there, it would be to obvious. Lidiara wished she had some kind of help from one of the older succubae, they were smarter than this sack of crap she had in Cora. To her horror, Cora said the very thing she had been trying not to say.

'Oh, we just found you lying there…"

The kid's voice took on a dangerously sharp tone, and he spoke slowly to Cora, turning to her.

"Sooooo…so ho ho……you find me lying there, you leave me there, go off the side a build a fire and wait for me to wake up finding that I am naked and freezing?"

Ouch! Blunder, blunder! How could they have not thought about dragging him near the fire?!

"What's more, I ask about my clothes and you say I don't _**need **_them? Then you toss of your coat and ask me if I wanted more? Did you bump you're head somewhere? What kind of people are you? Nut jobs?"

Cora hissed, which was perhaps the worst mistake she made till now. The kid's hand was instantly on her neck, chocking her. Lidiara scrambled away, but Negi managed to drag the other girl and catch her skirt, pulling her to fall back and right into his free hand's prepared choke hold. Dragging them both by their throats to prevent struggling, Negi walked awhile along the battalion until he found the way out. He squeezed all the harder, so hard that Lidiara lost her illusion, revealing her pale gray skin and skeletal wings. Cora lost hers not a second later. The boy scoffed. He was naked again.

"I knew something fishy was going on here….now it's been confirmed. Hello succubae. I've only seen you creatures in books. After my life energy huh? My dreams? Well too bad..."

Coming to the edge, he hefted the too over, holding them there, arms shaking with the effort it took him, but he was strong, and he could take it for a little longer. By this time both of them had stopped struggling for air so much. The pale gray skin had become a deep blue purple.

"I'm reluctant to give them to you, sorry for the inconvenience."

Squeezing so hard Lidiara heard a pop; Negi practically crushed the throat of Cora and disdainfully tossed the body over the edge. The grip on her own neck tightened, but did not yet reach the level of her unfortunate former partner's. She could only squeak. Negi leaned in a bit to whisper to her:

'To bad, you were more convincing, You over played your show though, now it's over. Take a bow, the curtains have closed. Tell death I'm not planning on seeing him all too soon for me..."

Finally putting the last needed burst of strength in; Negi crushed her throat before pitching her off the edge of the castle. He stood looking down at what he had done, watching the body fall…gruesome Negi, gruesome...did he see a yellow light burst from one of them? Nah….turning around, Negi felt something slam into his back, pitching him forward. Stumbling, he swiftly turned around, at the ready, but he saw nothing…

Shivering, he walked to the broken door he had seen and stepped through the door way. Hellfire, he was cold! In more ways than one!

+---+

No…no…no….there was no way out that any one of them could see….

It was late. How late, none of them could tell, but it had been hours since the encounter with the golem. As far as any one of them had searched, they saw no sign of Negi. Yet Asuna had a funny feeling he wasn't dead. I MEAN, COME ON. He was a super powerful mage-ninja-swordsman-marksman-teacher kid. (Whew, mouthful.) Who could kill that with just a pansy ass blast? Okay, so it was big, huge and a mean looking for a beam blast, but she had seen the kid spew out magic beams the same size as that one, bigger even, and she had seen him send them right at himself to block them all the time. Those didn't affect him, so how could this?

Yet, she couldn't tell everyone else why she was so sure the kid was alive, she could only search…and search. She was starting to have doubts of her own though. Since when did the times he sent blasts at himself include burning off his clothes and making him disappear into thin air? Asuna had his boots tied to her waist belt, and she had tossed his coat over her own shoulders. Its pockets bounced on her sides, reminding her constantly that something was in there. When she had originally checked, she had seen that it was just reloads for the gun, just as his shoes had bumped her to tell that they held daggers in their soles. This was simply not right, something just had to be off. It must. Yet, now, in this timeless, every sunny, book-worms paradise, it must be nearing night time, and yet, no sign of Negi as everybody gathered in the house to refresh and refill…

Konoka and Negi had both cooked yesterday, along with some help from the others cutting stuff up, but now it was just one cook, so it drastically slowed down the process of getting something cooked out there to eat. Already they were feeling the effects. It also worried them that they had no idea how to get out of here. After all, they needed to get back home…for multiple reasons, besides the test…they couldn't just stay here after all…

+---+

"Negi-sensei still hasn't come back."

"Bookstore and Manga-ken came back, but they won't talk about where the others are…they say they don't know."

"Ku Fei, Kaede and Makie-san are all gone too."

"The baka rangers plus Konoka-san and Springfield-sensei…I wonder if they are doing a private study group…?"

"No, no one has seen Negi-sensei on campus since yesterday, where would they go?"

"It's getting late…"

"We are just going to have to study like normal. It's still Saturday, we have time. If we must, we will have to make up for their grades…"

"But that means we would need at least and extra fifteen points from just about everybody…"

"Then we better get cracking."

+---+

"Thank you god. I was tired walking around stark as hell, still, I look like some kind of video game character….well, hell, this is like some kind of damn game in a way…"

Negi turned around, looking at a dusty old mirror. He was in a musty old bedroom, which had previously been occupied by some crazy animated skeleton wielding an axe. Ever since stepping into this building, Negi felt like he had entered a Dracula video game. Animated skeletons littered the place wielding all sorts of different weapons and wearing all kinds of weird armor. You would think this was a barracks for the armies of weirdo land, no, scratch that, the army of the Devil, or Dracula. Demons with and without wings jumped at him from every corner, hell, sometimes he'd get some kind of odd, floating caterpillar like being with one huge eye just flying around randomly trying to attack him or follow. The thing probably didn't have good depth perception, it's flying patterns were erratic…it kept crashing into walls when chasing Negi…that is, it _**would**_ crash into them, if it didn't phase right through the damn things. It was solid enough to hit him though, which was a pleasant enough thought. Ghosts bombarded him too, turning solid to chuck something at him or do something before phasing out as he attacked. Mainly, Negi ran like hell and attacked little when that was the case.

He turned around again to get a better look. He had finally found this place after some good few hours wearing a couple of loose pieces from random skeleton's armor and wielding their weapons. Now he finally had some proper, if old fashioned, clothes.

He wore a smart blood red shirt that had a ruffled chest area he didn't like, the stupid things only would get in the way of his sight of the floor. He had cut them off, leaving the bell flare of the sleeves because they allowed his hands free movement. A simple pair of dress pants with a wide elaborate belt buckle and a black over coat whose wide shoulders provided such an annoyance, Negi had cut them off. He had on a pitch black cape with three gold fastening buttons, plus some semi-fancy black dress shoes with pointed tips that made their large size fit him. They also would make excellent weapons when kicking forward, but that was just Negi's mind trying to access his battle ability. He had on a large trench-like coat under his cape, and it's multiple pockets were an extra plus for Negi, who had put a dagger in each of the bottom two pockets even as he wielded two in his hands. A thin sword whose length was nearly equal to Negi's height was strapped to his back, under the cape. It was light enough to be useful to him, so he had taken it from the demon who had wielded it. Negi twirled the daggers he had in his hands as he thought and stared at his reflection.

Three times. Three times he had pitched forward from some unidentifiable force that had slammed into his back. All he knew is that, after defeating enemies, he saw a light escape from them, and then, wham. A blow that sent him flying forward, but did not damage to him as far as he could tell. The blow actually made him feel more powerful, as if the enemy were lending him their strength. Ridiculous, right? He had also seen another one of those lights that seemed trapped in a ball of glass, vibrating violently. It was gray, unlike the red, yellow and blue that had flashed before the forwards thrust caught him. He had taken a chance and shattered the glass, and learned the truth of the mystery. The gray thing flew and slammed into his chest, sending him sprawling backwards, and disappeared into him.

He could…absorb…these things.

The revelation had been expected, but it still frightened him slightly. After all, why the hell were these things attracted to him, and why could he absorb them? It made no damn sense. After finding this out, Negi had fought whatever came his way, looking out for those odd little things.

One had come to him after one of his most annoying fights. Negi had been running along a hallway, casting glances around him for an enemy, when one nearly kicked off his head. Negi had only just managed to duck in time. He turned around and saw a skeleton, it's skinless mouth showing a full set of pearly yellows. It jumped up again and in midair, shot right at him as if it had kicked off a solid wall…Negi ran as it came crashing down on well placed feet and knees, sliding a bit with momentum before it stood up and once more jumped skyward before shooting at him slantwise….the thing was literally jumping off air, performing aerial drop kicks! Finally, after what must have been three minutes of intense waiting, striking, dodging and ducking, Negi managed to knock off the things head in passing and smashed it's body to bits…releasing another gray ball of light that sent him soaring upwards with an punch right to the gut. He was not a happy camper, for he slammed his back into a platform that just _happened_ to be there on his way up.

It was only later that Negi understood what all of this nonsense was. Not only could he absorb these things…they did, it seemed, grant him power. Or more like abilities. He found that, after the kicking skeleton, when he faced another one and jumped up in the air to slash the thing and missed…he managed to perform one of his own drop kicks, although, it hit nothing, and he almost crushed his foot by nearly baseball sliding into a wall, foot first, how nice.

This really was like a video game…and Negi planned to play it to the fullest. He had no doubt now that this place was a magically sealed area, and he had to get through this damn maze to get out...anything he did in here wouldn't change a damn thing to himself on the outside…except if he died he bet...once he left, he would revert back to normal…theoretically...

He only hoped he could keep the clothes…

+----+

Okay, panic button time Ayaka, panic button time.

It was a bright, early, and Sensei-less Sunday morning. Things were getting ridiculous. Where was monkey-girl and Sensei? Tomorrow was test time, and there was no Sensei in sight. People needed their review time, _**guided**_ review time. Without him, people got off track real easy in class A, and Ayaka didn't have the power to keep them focused. That incredible ability was the sole power of one Springfeild-sensei..did she mention he was nowhere in sight yet? Yes? Well she would say it again, He's nowhere to be found. Neither are any of the baka rangers, or Konoe-san. Two pieces of the library exploration club of class A offered no explanation as to where their last third piece resided, no matter how much Ayaka harassed them, and she _knew _that _they_ knew something about this whole mess. Other class Presidents where choked up in her room, twittering away at her as if it were all _her_ fault. It really made people realize how much they had leaned on the little boy in such a short time. No, they had all fallen on him in expectation he would hold them all up for eternity. He was capable, so naturally everybody left all the work to him. Once he's gone...no one knows how the heck to do their own jobs anymore, so the whole place is backed up until they remember what they were trained to do. Takahata-sensei was out...somewhere, who knows where, and no one wanted to try other, more abrasive teachers at the moment...like it or lump it, the boy was a doll when it came to education, he even had the keys to a couple of rooms already...meaning some faculty had to try and remember which keys were for which door, because Negi hadn't opened them yet. ((By the gods! People needed to type up reports, and only half the computer labs were open?!))

"For the last time Lincho....we have no idea where Sensei is."

"Then why were you missing this morning?"

"Lincho, don't tell me you keep tabs on every one of your classmates for where they are at four in the morning, you stalker. We were out for a walk. That a crime?"

Haruna, knuckles pressed against her hips, stood in the doorway to prevent Ayaka from entering the dorm room. Nodoka tried to avoid being visible in the doorway to prevent starting another interrogation session, this time, herself being the target instead of Haruna. Yet, this cut her down to about half of the accessible dorm, and the bathroom was on the other side..not that she needed to go, but if she _did,_ she would have a problem...wouldn't she?

"Without telling anyone?"

"Lincho-san it was four in the morning! Who would have been up?! Who would have cared?!"

"You still have not explained where Negi-sensei and the baka rangers are."

"For the last time Lincho-san, I don't know!!"

+----+

"Oh veeeery funny."

Negi was very happy at the moment. Yep, he was ecstatic, out of his mind with joy, elated beyond belief. He was on his behind, his back up against a wall at the corner of a case of ruined stairs, and looming above him, filling his entire visual scope was this floating mass of pasty white corpses stuck together by who knows what, staring down at him with one huge red eye with a beautiful emerald iris and goldenrod pupil. Yeeeeeah... and the thing was dripping ooze all over him, which stunk to high heaven I might add. Negi was currently the happiest dude alive as he clutched his dagger in his left hand and tired to look somewhere where he would _not_ see a part of someone's deceased body. All the while, he spoke out loud in a cheery, conversational voice.

"You must be the famous Legion, Hi, I'm Negi, Negi Springfield, It sure is an honor to meet you dude...or should I say mam? No wait, I should just settle with "it"... You know, I've got a friend who's been _dying_ to get your autograph, mind if you sign one for me? Oh, it will only take a minute of your time, I assure you, you can't be _too_ horribly busy right about now, can you? I say, how _is_ the weather up there? No offense meant of course. Just you are so much taller than I am. You know, I've always wanted to ask where you found the time to get all those bodies from, you've got a wonderful collection... Take that one for instance, such a strong visage it cuts, wherever did you get it from? I'd like one for myself, it would make a nice placemat at my door you see? Oh my...you really do know how to make saliva...you could give lessons on it, you're so good! You know, I'm a teacher myself, yeah...I teach English, but I dabble in everything, yah know what I mean? By the way, did I mention that I simply love what you've done with your eyes? Oops sorry, I meant "eye" Blame my silly habit of thinking things have more than one of those! I say old chap, It must be awful difficult lugging all that around all day though, I envy your determination."

Negi tried to wriggle himself past the mass of human matter, getting himself all covered in goo as he tried sliding underneath the thing. He held his breath as his head went under. Squirming seemed to work somewhat. He got on the other side of the mass and made a break for the door, but, surprise surprise, it was locked. Legion began to rotate like Negi imagined a planet would spin on it's axis, it's eye going down from the side Negi was and now sliding up to settle in the new direction Negi was located. It began it's slow, unwavering float over to Negi's side, dripping mass as it went as if it were a giant ball of white turd.

Not a nice visual Negi. Not a nice visual at all. Negi stood back a bit and kicked the door with all his might out of frustration. God damn thing, open would you!? Negi didn't care how much this place acted like a video game, he only had one life and no replays left! Not only that, but he had yet to find a save game point in all his six years of playing! Negi kicked the door again and turned around to see the seemingly indomitable mass slowly continue it's procession towards him. If there was one blessing in this world, it was to make a monster like this slow as a snail. Having nothing else to Do, Negi yelled back at the mass as he shook the door again.

"Remind me next time I play a video game to make sure my character doesn't take a single ounce of damage. I never was a bad player, but I now understand their pain when they have one, ehh Legion? You're pretty silent for someone so famous you know? You don't have to be so modest. Speak up, I'd love to hear your voice. Oh wait, I forgot, your voice hypnotizes people. Ever thought of trying out for a singing career? You'd make billions! I'm talking Euros, Dollars here, not Yen. Think about it awhile will yah?"

Cursing at the unyielding frame, Negi reared back his fist and held it that way, his entire arm shaking as a tremor traveled from his legs upward. He was tensing all his muscles, channeling their strength progressively until he could concentrate it all into the action of launching his fist. As he finally launched it forward, he again yelled back at the mass, which was just about to be upon him by now.

"Here's looking at you, Sally!"

Fist connecting solidly with the door, Negi felt the backlash of the action shoot up his arm like lightning, pain laced his very sight as he briefly saw red before he registered falling forward. The door had shown damage, but it had only splintered. Negi, seeing this, was seized by a madness he could put no name upon. He ignored the pain in his arm as he reared back and struck again, and again, and again. Somewhere along the line of this endless punching of a door, Negi dodged side to side to avoid having some zombified mass of a person attack him, kicking them away before renewing his efforts on the door. Somewhere along the line, the door finally shattered, and Negi, still rearing his fist back for a punch to be thrown, was pitched forward by his own force and into the open sky...

+---+

Sand. Sand was everywhere. Sand, sand, sand, sand and more sand...that and books, lots and lots of books. It was eternally sunny here, and that was annoying. Especially if you're trying to sleep and the sun gets in your eyes because the curtains can't block it. The pillows smell to musty to be used as light blocking devices...the smell of sweet, old pages was everywhere. Yue loved that smell but...enough was enough already.

Well, more like she _used _to love that smell..before her grandfather....

No Yue, don't go there. Think positive.

How could she though?

There was no sign of a way out of here, and this timeless area was quickly driving her insane. Her companions were all too dull to be of any use as a source of entertainment, and she had to get back to school...not only that, but their teacher was missing, presumed dead. Asuna-san wouldn't stop looking for him. Konoka-san wouldn't get the dark look out of her eyes. Something nagged Yue about the way Asuna continuously, and stubbornly, thought the boy was alive, yet Yue had to look at the facts. His clothes had been burned away, all the evidence of it was there. While there was no _body_ to be found, one could assume, from the state of the clothing, that the body, which had been right in the middle of the blast, had been disintegrated. The boy had not moved from the spot, he had stood his ground to take the blast, there was not way he could have escaped it.

Yet, a nagging litte voice told her that a little boy like that one, who displayed skills near the equal of Ku-Fei, who handled a gun like he did, who could teach as well as he did, was to tough for a beam of unidentified energy to kill.

What was even worse was that, after obtaining the book, they found that none of them could _open_ it. It was as if someone had crazy glued all the pages and the covers together. The book seemed to resist even all of their combined efforts to open, and seemed to be indestructible. In water, it sunk, but upon being taken out, revealed itself to be completely dry. It would not bend, tear or show any damage at all. Knowing magic books, like in books about fantasy people looking for magic books, it would have some kind of password to open it, yet Yue had fiddled with the book and all kinds of pass codes and not once did the book even so much as crack it's spine covering. Still, it was undeniable that the book did...something. When anyone held it, they suddenly became quite knowledgeable about...just about anything. Yet, take the book away and it was all gone...

Yue sat up slowly in bed, allowing the book to fall off her. Konoka's voice floated to her ears from who knows where, probably the kitchen, to tell all how cared that Asuna had found something, something that might be a way out. Finally. Grabbing the book, Yue raced out the door...it wasn't like she had brought anything else with her...

+---+

Pain. That's my best friend by now, isn't it? It hurts, but I like it that way. Means I'm still alive, or at least, I can still feel. I'm not a statue, that's what pain means...but dang..it stings. Where am I now?

Negi opened his eyes. It was pitch dark. It was so dark it actually hurt. The silence pressed against his ears, making his breath quicken. He focused on that little noise, his sharp breaths, the slowly increasing tempo of his beating heart to match them, the way his digestive tract twinged and groaned...He focused on the sounds until he became aware of the smell...of earth, mold, wet stone and salt, of sand. It was not the smell of decay, of blood and musk or of demonic sweat, which he had become used to recently...no, it was clear and salty, wet, moldy and stale air. This was the air he had taken in when he had popped his head out of the sand after being used as a landing pad by one of his students...it was the air that, to him, meant freedom, for now.

He had broken the rules. Negi was supposed to have played the game out, somehow beat Legion and then advanced, but Negi had stopped playing by the script...He had broken the door and fled into the open air, to land here, free. Who knew how long the game would have lasted otherwise...who knew if he would have survived. Hell, his life was difficult enough, don't go adding nightmares from the depths of evil to the mix.

Blood tainted his senses and his heartbeat rose as he readied himself...but it was only his own blood, streaming from a cut just below his right eye. Still face down where he lay, he licked the salty, metallic tasting concoction that kept him alive every day. It was still dark...darker than Satan's heart in here, he thought as Negi remembered the man who guarded the forbidden library used to say. Negi heard a knock on stone, soft, then harder, as the sound moved up, then down and to the sides. Someone was testing to see if the place was hollow he bet. He strained his ears for a whisper of sound otherwise, to alert him as to whom was there..Slowly getting to his feet, Negi shuffled to the source of the sound, reaching to unsheathe the sword he had strapped to his back...but nothing was there...He checked his pockets, thanking whatever deity that was up there in the great beyond that he had pockets, and found he didn't have his daggers either...so he went bare fisted, one hand sliding along the wall for guidance.

+---+

"It's a door."

"Duh, we can see that. Where does it go though?"

"Wherever, maybe it's a way out."

"It has something in English written here..."

"Name that which has past and what yee must do to get to my dot. Both one and the same."

"The heck?"

"It's dot? What's it's dot...?"

"It's a period."

"Ehh?! Yue san?!"

"This riddle is so soft, it might as well be a pillow. You must read to get to the period, and the past tense of read is read, said differently, but spelled the same. The answer is read."

The stone door, which had been so solid before, now showed one long crack, which quickly expanded to make the whole thing crumble into dust, and revealing something none of them expected to see.

"Springfield-sensei?!"

"The hell?!"

"...What are you doing there?"

"Ohh, he's bleeding!"

"He's covered in goo..."

+----+

_Oh hell, more Succubae. Yet, these are smarter, they've got the right amount, and the right people...and they said the right things too..._

Negi raised his fists. He was a mess, that was for sure. Covered in goo courtesy of Legion and co, Negi stood in clothes that seemed to be a faded, yellowed paper version of what he had been wearing before. The armor was gone, and the shirt had been simplified, mainly due to the frills being torn off, and all the fancy pieces do his dress had come off. What was left was a simple overcoat and cape, along with a shirt and pants, all of which were the same shade of brown and covered in the dirt, gunk and blood that came with traveling on Negi at the moment. Negi stumbled but managed not to fall as he stared at Konoka.

"Why do you hate me?"

"Huh?"

"Answer the question! Why do you hate me?"

Konoka looked him up and down. He was a true mess, he seemed almost...drunk.

"I don't hate you Sensei..."

Turning to Asuna, Negi offered no explanation, but asked her:

"Who the hell is my father?"

"What the he- Why are you asking me that all of a sudden?!"

"God damn. You're real. What do yah know..."

Completing the "drunk" look, Negi threw back his head and laughed like a maniac, extracting some very odd looks from those present...His laughter only lasted about fifteen seconds however, for he had to clutch his side and hiss.

"I'm more beat up than I would like to think. Oh well. Ayase, I don't want you picking up anymore random books, I can't stop arrows from beaning you square in the forehead like this. Let's get the heck outta here before something else tries to blast me into next Tuesday or eat me...or use me as a piece of their body...or cut off my head and use it as a living room decoration for that matter. This place must be the way out, I got dropped on top of it from wherever I was, so I assume they only have one exit...or at least, only one that they advertise."

+---+

"I hate being chased..."

"Well, so do I, so keep running."

Negi's body had had enough, at least, that is what it told him. Negi on the other hand, firmly told it that it still had a full tank of gas and no injuries, that it's stomach was full and that he would probably wake up anytime now to shake off a bad dream, which he knew was a dead lie, but hey, a guy can try, can't he? After Yue had tripped on a step and nearly pounded her face in on the steps, Negi had scooped her up and was, so far, doing a good job of keeping up with everybody else while giving a piggyback ride to someone taller than him. The book was in one of his hands and his gun was in the other. Ohh it was great to have it in his hand again, it was seeing an old friend..especially now, as Negi took aim behind him and once again sighed as the bullet pinged off an invisible shield around the golem chasing them all. Another door was coming up, oh joy. Negi pushed past Makie to get to it and feasted his eyes on two triangles with a line intersecting the both of them at an odd angle. A circle surrounded the two, while, in between the both of them, a square resided. (The two triangles were facing each other, right triangles.) A single angle where the line exited the first triangle was labeled "x". It was simple, find x. Maybe she thought it was funny, or maybe she really was that much of a dunce in math, but Makie pointed to the "x" and said: "There it is!" Negi sighed and slapped his hand upon the slab for support. He studied the picture for about two seconds before Asuna interrupted him.

"No mean to rush you, but we've got a big golem who can't get hurt by bullets coming this way..."

"X is equal to 13 degrees."

The door quickly crumbled, surprising Negi and almost sending him face first into the steps. He caught himself in time to turn his near fall into a leap forward, which he performed while yelling back at the others, who needed no prompting:

"Come on already, time's a wastin'!"

This continued for quite some time until they finally came to a kind of elevator, in which, after they all had piled into, kindly told them that there was to much weight on the load. Only a little bit too much, as Asuna observed, by taking a single foot off the elevator. A couple of them tossed off shoes, but it still, persistently, told them it could not lift the load Negi stopped them before any mayhem could take place and held up the book.

"No, were's not overweight, this thing can't leave the place. Either we leave one of our number or leave...this."

At that time, the golem had gotten to the elevator. Negi tossed the book to Asuna and stepped off. Yep, it no longer said it was overloaded, just like he thought. Damn.

"Negi?!?"

"Go."

"But you can't beat that thing, you can't use your gun Sensei!"

"Go."

Asuna was about to push the button to allow them upwards, thinking he would be okay with his magic, but then she realized...she turned to look at him, almost horrified and awed at the same time. She knew he could use magic invisibly to a certain extent, like controlling the winds, but he had not done so during this entire trip.. She decided to ask him.

"You can't use it can you?"

Negi instantly knew what she was referring too, even though most present thought she meant his gun.

"Of course he can't use it, the shots keep bouncing off...."

Negi imperceptibly shook his head. Damn he was tired. He wanted nothing more than to lie down and rest right about now...

"Go."

"No way in hell..."

Before he could react, Asuna launched forward and pulled Negi by his coat collar, slightly choking him as she pulled him towards her and into the elevator. She rose the book he had given her. Hell if she was going to let him sacrifice himself again, this time for good, in the name of them. Hell no. Rearing backshe tossed the book with as much force as she could muster, saying as she did so one simple line, which that poor rock heard all the way down as if slipped from it's overbalanced grip after getting hit in the face with the only thing that could pass through it's barrier (Except air.) without breaking it open, the book.

"Take it you overgrown garden statue!"

The doors closed smoothly, taking a weight that was actually quite well within it's limit up to the first floor express style, closing upon the party that had escaped the underground libraries clutches, if only by, in part, dumb luck...

+----+

Well, that's that for now. I'll see yah next time, neh? Remember, be safe and not sorry. I wanted so bad to try and finish this in one chapter, but I could not, as you can see, get Library Island to fit in one chapter. I'm sorry if this chapter has a bunch of typos or spelling mistakes, it is kinda long, and I have no spell check, remember? WordPad…your one downfall. Review maybe? Tell me how I'm doing maybe? Drop me some kind of line…maybe?


	16. Chapter XIV & XV: Duo

As always I appreciate reviews, as I am reading them right now as I type this. Just wanted to put that little piece in...as for open office, I tried it before, it kept making my com crash. Memory usage is less than word, but not quite enough to help me...unfortunate. I appreciate the thought though..omegarulesall.

Extremely, extremely, extremely corny end to an odd chapter that was long in coming...I am attempting to play catch up now. I mean that in many ways one of which is in numbers. I am going to try to give you all a couple double or triple shots in one to counteract my three chapter long prologue. Before you ask, no, I can't gather it all into one chapter and replace it with that, even though that would be the easy and pain free approach on my end. No, I want to try and do something impossible by trying to get a double or more chapter long document out there in the allotted time for myself to even the score. I had to make things difficult, didn't I? Well, who benefits but you all? I'll explain my proposed system a bit to you all though. Be extremely careful, as I am seriously thinking, still thinking...of making this an "M" rating. Consider it T+ if you will. The violence will only get worse I feel....perhaps.

Ever notice how, on an extremely long document, it is very easy to lose your place? I hate that, especially because, regardless of how fast I read, I am always scraped for time, and I simply cannot finish reading an eight thousand or more word document in thirty minutes or less...well...I actually I _can_, but not while I am doing about three other things, which I always am doing. I am certain there are others who, like me, find themselves unable to finish a chapter in one sitting. (Especially those good authors, who have chapters so long the scroll bar is miniscule, but the detail is do gripping! Grr.) You definitely don't want to lose your place, right? Fear not, I have employed a simple system used in long documents so you can easily find your place. At the start of every chapter, next to the title, there shall be a simple figure: [xxxx] The x's being a simple little code, like, say CH12, for chapter twelve, even though we are already past that one, so you won't see it. All you need to do is remember what chapter you were on and use your "Find" option on your browser menu. (Edit -"Find on this page." In Internet Explorer, I don't quite remember what it is on Firefox though...) Perhaps some of you already were using this system to type in specific sentences. Ehh. Still, for those of you who were not, or don't want to, you can now limit your search on one of my double chapter documents, which will inevitably come around, to one of the chapters there. I also may employ this system if I am progressing two storylines at once (Like when I give you an update on what Anya may be doing at a given time, her story being, at the moment, separate from Negi's.) Some authors use little bold and underline titles, but I bold and italicize quite a lot, so that would be somewhat pointless. My little : +---+ symbols may include numbers now to help you along, sort of like this: +--1--+, but I don't want to get _too_ fancy, It would distract people from the story after all...speaking of the story, I'm talking too much, keeping you from the goods! Shame on me!

How many times must I tell you all?!? I do not own Negima!

+----+

_**Chapter Fourteen: You can't spell Teacher without each, as in each other. (We're a part of this too.)**_ [CH14] (Like you need this here anyway.)

+----+

_Pack your bags Negi, you're out. Strike one is strike three, they all are the same. Who the hell cares anyway?_

After the insane experiences in Library Island, Negi had not been able to sleep, regardless of how tired he was. He had dropped off Yue in her dorm room on his way to his own, although the girl insisted she could walk on her own, she still stayed on his back, and he still carried her there, he was too tired to even let her off. Why he was so tired was a mystery to him. True, he had not slept at all since Thursday night, but that was nothing new. True he had been through hell, but that was nothing new either. He hurt all over, and that wasn't new, but it was something different, he thought he had trained away the ability to get hurt all over like this by now. Guess not. His students had only _just_ managed to get to school in time for the test, which was a miracle, and Negi had managed to snag his wand from the dorms to give them a little refreshment boost when they managed to all file into the test room, without their knowledge, obviously. He had then gone back to the dorms and taken a BATH, something he desperately wanted and needed. A nice, burning hot steam room after a scrub down that turned his skin bright red, and the peace of silent solitude, nothing was better to relax the body, even if it still hurt all over like an old bed sore. He had then dressed in a deep, forest green suit with a pair of brown hush puppies and, stuffing his glasses on his face, ran to the school building, where the students would probably be getting off from their test or, having already been let out, would be pacing the halls like caged animals waiting for the results. As he ran, he dodged and weaved in and out of a crowd of students, many of which were incredibly happy to see him, something Negi did not want quite want to deal with at the moment. He heard one of them call out to him to open computer lab C-7, and he mentally shook his head. Hell if the janitor didn't still have his copy of the key, he just forgot which one it was, what, he had only been here about a month by now, and yet here these people were, already forgetting their own jobs because he picks up a little slack.

Negi had waited around for about two hours with Asuna, watching her pace around like some kind of husband whose wife had just gone into the delivery room. At one point, he had barbed her about paying for the damages she would case to the floor, for she would cut a hole in it soon. He only got a weak smile for the old joke though. Not that he wanted a smile from her, he could care less about how she acted, she was setting off a chain reaction and making other nervous around him, he was only trying to cut off the flow...right?

When they had finally begun to announce the results though, Negi saw the girl freeze, eyes wide and planted on the screen. He had learned, at least in the few weeks he had been her roommate, which was that this girl was very animalistic in her ways…she was showing it right now, for Negi could only be reminded of a deer in headlights by her current stance. Not that she was wrong though, for indeed, she was about to get run over if they got last place. This school may currently be an elevator, but that elevator, like the one on Library Island, wasn't going to go up anymore for the ones who get last place. They would be the overweight cargo to get tossed off. What belonged in the basement was going to stay in the basement this time.

Negi observed a girl from 5C biting her nails hedge-trimmer style with interest as the list of classes named got longer...and longer. The girl was down to the wick by the time they were finally called for twenty-second place. Negi then turned his attention to his own homeroom, which still had not been called. Not that he was _worried,_ hell, there were a clear fifty classes in this section of the middle school ranging from 1A to 5J, why get worried that he wasn't in twenty-second place? He only needed to be forty ninth to stick around with a job. It was his final test to make his practitioner's license official anyway. What was there to be nervous about?

Yet the list became longer, and longer, yet Asuna still paced, all a bit more jerkily, and Negi still waited, his eyes almost half closed. Yue managed to steal a glance at him between rank calls. He was falling asleep?! Did he not even care?!

No, you are wrong there Yue. You'd be better off trying to get a rock to grow wings and fly by talking to it then get Negi to admit it, but by now, at the fortieth place, Negi was paying _very _close attention, and he was beginning to care _**very **_much. He had always cared...but would never admit it...by the time they called the forty fifth place, his eyes were quite fully open thank you. The differences in scores was becoming near the thousandths place, the fact that they even bothered....

The "booby" prize went to 5A. Just turn that five into another number....god damn it. It hit Negi like a ton of bricks, just like it hit his class like a freightliner full of crates of tons of bricks. They were last place. They were last flipping place. Negi spun around before anyone else could even react to the news. He had been hit quite a bit less profoundly than the rest, but that still didn't mean he was unaffected. Yet he had a task to do now. Pack.

+--1--+

"I don't want any."

The man rolled his eyes and scooped up a large steaming gop of...whatever it was inside the bowl he was holding. What appeared to be raisins punctuated the pale brown mess, giving the impression of roaches crawling over a piece of spoiled meat, or large, misshapen ants on their hill. He grabbed the girl by her chin, all a bit gently, and opened her mouth to stuff the infernal stuff down her throat. It burned all the way down.

"I don't like being your feeder, girl. You're not going to die of starvation here, that's for sure. You've got a sentence you have to live out, Ehh? Eat."

Things weren't all that bad for her actually. It was mainly her stubborn actions that made her life miserable. The man lifted another spoon of the stuff, presumably oatmeal, and cast his eyes up to the heavens. True, just like any other confinement area, this was underground, and had only a single barred window high up, near the ceiling, but this place was warmer than the other "cells" they had, and was better furnished. At least she could say she had a proper bed, and they did at least put a decency wall in-between it and the toilet. She had a lot to be thankful for, no one could touch her in here, and did she know what it was like out there with other cell mates? Girl could become someone's "toy" in less than a second, the way she is. They even provided a book for her, about as insulting as it was, for she didn't understand half the words _in_ it, but still...that and her food was hot. That put her a cut above just about ninety percent of those in here for whatever sentence they had, and she was acting like it was the end of the world. He hovered the spoon in front of her mouth again.

'You gonna take it or do I have to stuff this one down your mouth too? You have to finish this bowl."

Looking at the spoon, she was reminded of roaches again. Those creepy, crawly things she hated so much. She shuddered lightly and shook her head. _Never, __**ever**_would she look at one of those things again without remembering her food. They crawled all over the place...the man sighed and took hold of her chin again.

"Have it your way princess."

A bit later, after the feeding, Anya tried yet again to read the book they had provided for her. They changed the book every week it seemed. Like she even had time to get halfway through it by that time. Most of the time, she couldn't even understand the first page. This one was no different. Oh, the front cover was easy enough: "Brave New World." Beyond that though, was a mystery. What was a "feely"? Or an "Alpha minus"? Was a "clone" something really important? Why does the man on the last page go up a tower and then just come back down again? What happened? Why do they play stuff for people to hear while they are sleeping? Was this supposed to be a funny book or a bad one? She really couldn't tell. What she could tell however, was that the book was on the floor now, for she was staring at Magus, who seemed to have magically appeared in her cell. The door was open though...how did he get in without her hearing? He slowly bent down and picked up the book, dusting it off before looking at it.

"Goodness child, what are you doing reading this? Are you trying to prove something?"

Anya didn't answer; she simply looked into those old, almost completely sunken, dark eyes. She didn't see what most did when they looked at him. The image of a pleasant old man with crinkling eyes and a comically bent nose complete with warm smile, was lost on her. She only saw the image of him in a near uncontrollable rage, wielding his wand like a sword, chasing her through a burning library. That warm smile flashed again for her benefit, but all Anya saw were unnaturally white, feral teeth. The old man shook his head, a few wispy white hairs flying loosely atop his head.

"You have a face that reminds me of one true child prodigy that graduated this year. Yet you have experienced none of the pain he has to get that face. I told him he was too young to wear it, I am telling you that _**you**_ are too naive. Drop it."

Sighing, the Magus came and sat on the bed next to her. She scooted away, not out of respect, but out of slight fear. He ignored the action though, for he was staring at the open door in front of him, imagining it closed. His mind wandered to the image of Swallowthorn, and the Image of Negi standing next to them. Negi was a fly next to them, but he was a fly to any grown adult. What Magus sought in his mind was a prediction of power, how did the boy look next to the other in the sense of power? Magus had no idea. The boy had never given any more effort than it would take to do everything exactly correct. No more no less, he was not flashy with his power, but Magus could always feel it surging off the boy whenever they passed. A quiet, tiny black snake in the corner of a pitch black room, with a venomous bite hidden in powerful, ripping jaws. Seniors would rage and roar about their power, having just received it, wantonly challenging anyone who bridled them, but Negi never challenged, and all who saw him thought him too young to even hold power.

Those who challenged him however, were easily put down, though the boy hardly ever used more than the spells taught in school, only countering Magic arrows with Deflexio, he never attacked them. He twisted Deflexio in so many ways, binding his opponents so their magic could not exit a bubble around them with it, sending their magic back at them with it, he became known in his first year as an absolute master of the spell. Yet, Magus always suspected the boy knew more than he let on. Always reading in the library until he had literally exhausted its resources, he then drew into himself, quietly practicing techniques and rarely piping up in class other than to put a good word in. If there was one student Magus would suspect of being in the Forbidden Libraries, it was him, only, he had never managed to catch the boy. Good till the last day, top of the class, awards coming out of his ears he had gotten away and left a glowing reputation behind, academically. Personally, the glow turned a menacing purple. Brilliant and helpful boy, but don't try and cross him, or get close to him, ever. You can't spell Principal without pal, but the boy constantly maintained he had no pals, no buddies…that friends were far overrated, and the only beings you should keep close were your enemies, friends were thus only enemies waiting to happen. Magus turned to look at Anya, and saw her flinch. This girl...was too soft. If there was one thing that would be good for her, it was working with a hardened boy like Negi. He was too strong to easily be softened by her, but he would toughen her up gently, without her even truly noticing. Swallowthorn...they would eat this girl for breakfast. He remembered Swallow as a student...flashy. Flashy and clever, even then, with a quick wit and an even quicker temper. He really was old, wasn't he?

"Anya Cocolove, you will be remaining here for another week. Then you will be sent off to Swallowthorn for a week of evaluation. After which you will come back here for another week before you will have your week with Springfield. It is simply to see if you can operate effectively with either of them, and to allow you time to adjust to their operating system, lest you end up with that person as your Magi-sensei. Remember please that a Magi-sensei is similar to a Ministra and Magister relationship, only here, your Magi-sensei is your teacher and you are their liege. Essentially, they are like your adopted parent. In fact, legally, they are, You are their liege, their responsibility. Please remember this and do as they order you, as if they were indeed your parent during this time, for you Magi-sensei _**is**_ your parent essentially...only way we can put this stuff on legal documents without looking like idiots."

He muttered the last part so Anya couldn't hear. Of course, it would look stupid showing a legal representative who is not a mage that you are a Magi-sensei to this person, just like it would be nonsense to tell a judge that you are someone's Ministra. You normally say domestic partner, wife, husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc. in that case...doi. Mages have had hundreds of years to perfect the art of hiding their existence from society, it isn't that easy to spot one!

"Wha-what?"

Magus had gotten up to leave after dropping this bomb, but he turned around after hearing her.

"Pack whatever little you have and prepare yourself to meet you potential parents."

+--2--+

_Come __**on**__ you damn train. You're supposed to be a bullet, where the hell are you?!_

Negi stood with his bags on the waiting platform of the train station, waiting for the seemingly ten minutes late super-fast magnetic bullet train. It wasn't hard to pack up his stuff. He just stuffed it all into his seemingly infinite storage box-trunk and put the box in his roller bag. The box helpfully sucked up stuff too, although it would be a downright pain getting the stuff _out_, he didn't have to worry about that yet. Negi tapped his foot slightly impatiently and blew a gust of air out of the side of his mouth.

It's not like he didn't care a frog's leg, just that he felt like he had to act like it. It was his motif. In time, he would forget all the happy-go-lucky people here and chalk it all down to experience. Not hard. He would go home, having failed, and that was that. He would wait around, training and maybe take up a couple mercenary jobs, the like. Maybe he'd become some kind of fortune teller on the streets of London, who gave a hoot? Negi wasn't cut out for a Magister Magi anyway. Those people...cared about others. They had hearts. They had...friends. They did good stuff just because they could, lived a care-free, battle crazy, I-don't-give-a-crap-as-long-as-I-do-what-I-think-is-right attitude. Negi only tried because it was one of the only jobs a mage could hold that actually _needed_ you to be a mage. Magic teachers don't need to be mages, just know about magic, or just know about their topic, as his old English teacher didn't know jack about magic except for the fact it existed and his students could use it. Negi only tried because he knew he had the power to perform the job...he had the power and that meant he should use it. That was it. Nothing more.

"Negi! Negi! Wait up you stupid-!"

_Oh boy, here we go, the devil has come for my ass at last. There's only one person who I gave permission to call me Negi, and only one who has the gall to forget the honorific that goes with it._

Negi turned around to see, as he expected, one panting Asuna Kagurazaka, staring dead at his face, which meant she looked like she was looking at a bug on the floor I might add, as he was short, over the turnstile. He put on a false cheery face and waved. He face, which had been set, became momentarily confused. Why the heck was he waving, was he stupid? She didn't come here to _see_ him off, she came here to prevent him from _taking_ off. Yet, Negi proved to be just the same genius he always was, he knew exactly what she was here for and she knew it the moment he began to speak.

"Oh hiiiii! I'm sorry, but I've gotta go, you see, I've been booked, yah know? Not that I wanna go, but I gotta ehh?"

_Don't go stupid._

"Maybe we can just talk it over with the Dean, I'm sure he'll let you stay if you just..."

The coming of the now officially fifteen minute late train interrupted her, Negi glanced back at it as the doors opened. Oh well.

"Sorry girl, say bye to everyone for me, but I can't shake a decision made by the Dean like this."

He turned around, breaking into a run to catch the train, but Asuna was one step ahead of him there, Causing some alarm from the guard, who saw her jump the turnstile, she ignored him as she used the obstacle to further her leap and make her land right on top of Negi, grabbing him around the neck. Meanwhile, Negi, who, after receiving all this physical punishment from everywhere, decided to pitch forward, and collapses with a nearly audible splat on the concrete. His voice came out slightly muffled.

"The hell are you doing?!"

_Please, stand clear of the closing doors._

"I said don't leave, stupid."

This, of all things, made him remember something he had long hoped he would soon forget. As he turned his head around to get a better look at her, his mind flashed back to a snowy day, years ago, as a white, blue patterned blanket was removed from his eyes and allowed him to view a beautiful, young face, who's blonde hair lazily swayed in the biting breeze. A tuft of his own, robustly auburn hair was visible off the side, and, as he watched, a snowflake settled on the other's nose. He watched as recognition flashed across that face, making it seem to crumple. At that moment, he knew his cousin had realized that they were the only two remaining people of their family. Then, not too much later, the demon, the snow and her, getting hit...in the biting frost, while Negi would only sit and shiver, waiting for the man to come and help his dying cousin, he could only feel and see, her love, trying, trying, to survive for his sake..She had turned to stone after beckoning him to come and let her hold him, as much for her own strength and warmth as for his. He knew few words, but he was old enough to string them into sensible sentences, and he had told her, quite simply:

"Please, don't leave..."

That of all things had made her smile, why he, at the time, could never know, but her answer echoed in his head to this day, and never failed to make him feel, to remind him that he had not hardened himself to the point of oblivion, that once, more, he still had a heart that could be hurt, and a soul that cared.

"Don't worry..I won't leave silly..."

_Yet, you did leave me. Now I am being asked the same question. If I give the same answer, does that mean I will break a promise too?_

Snapping back to reality in the instant he had left, he could only croak at her, for the train was pulling away, and he was losing air.

"God...damn. I can't give you no promises, but would yah get the heck off me? I'll see what I can do."

+--3--+

"It's a pie."

"I can see that, but what the hell did I deserve to get a flipping pie?"

"...You're kidding right sensei? If there was one teacher that deserved a pie..."

"It probably wouldn't be me, but hey, I appreciate it anyway, thank you. Now where is Xu-san, she said she'd drop off her homework in fifteen minutes, it's been two hours already. Miss Todashiwaryu, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but the fridge is not something worthy of a picture, it's just a drawing of mine...I haven't even painted or inked it yet, please try and correct the mistakes I gave you to look over on your paper...oii! Miss Wu, don't use your math homework as a door mat! Please pick it up before it becomes unreadable...Miss Yin...please button up your overcoat, you are distracting Miss Tanshi, among others around you..."

"Springfeild-sensei is a sensei to the core...still, I don't like being in last place sensei! Why did you class jump up in ranks like that?!"

"Some of my students had not been added to the average, so when they were, it boosted our average score dramatically, since there were zeros entered before. It's not my fault that your class couldn't pick up the slack a bit more...Miss Yin, you are a class president, please do not behave that way...you don't let go of your discipline simply because you are being left behind along with the rest of your class, pick up the pace."

"Sensei, get a piece of your own pie before it's gone."

Negi cast his eyes up to the ceiling and left the packed living room to enter an equally packed kitchen, only the class that packed the place had changed. Taking a napkin, he scooped up a slice and folded it into it, resting it off to the side.

"Fine Satome-san, I have secured my own slice. Anyone touches it otherwise and they die by my hands."

"Oooooh. Sensei's got a weakness for pie!"

Negi sighed as many perked up at this, seeming to take mental notes that made a far deeper impression on their heads than Negi knew he could ever dream of seeing something actually useful making.

"Like hell I do, just if you continue bugging me about it, I might as well secure my piece and guard it."

It was a party slash study session slash congratulations ceremony all rolled into one. Class 5A and class 3A were hanging out, half studying and half well...doing other random things that these girls tend to do when they are bored and looking for entertainment, which is plenty...I think. Negi leaned against the counter and looked across it, seeing Yue. The only calm one, the girl simply stared back, although he knew she was looking through him, not at him. A glass of some odd drink or other rested near her. Negi pointed it out.

"What's it this time?"

The answer came almost automatically, and Negi suspected she had rehearsed the answers for all the odd drinks she consumed so as to spout them out without giving it a second thought.

"Hot Cola."

He looked at the glass and indeed, it had some steam rising from it. Oh well, that wasn't _that_ strange. Interesting how the girl seemed to go out of her way to sample the different beverages of the world it seemed. He wondered where she put it all. He seemed to get his answer when she got up and left the room though give a simple word as her pass excuse.

"Toilet."

So that is where it all went, no that it was surprising in any way, just...ahh who cares, he's sitting here wondering how the girls lives his life, he should be contemplating his own mess of one. Yet, at the moment, it was going pretty fine. His body hurt like hell, he was more tired than an old ox who had just plowed eight fields, he still had his job and he was sitting her being offered a soda by, of all people, Konoe-san. At the moment, all was pretty much fine.

+--4--+

"Crap. Ow. Hell! Ye. Yee. Yeee. Pow. Ouch. Heeeeyaaaaallllll!"

"If it hurts you so much, why are you still plowing that scrubbing sponge over your injury?"

"Only way to heal the damn thing is to clean it and treat it, then let it rest. I first have to clean it though, and my shower this morning is not enough....Yeeeouch! Okay, could you hand me that Mentholated Spirits over there?"

"This purple stuff? I thought that was some kind of weird beer..."

"Drink it and you'll see what kind of beer it is, can't you see the cross bone icon on it? It's poisonous to drink. Not only that, but since when have you seen me drink beer?"

"You're the depressed, sarcastic and acidic type perfect for drinking beer to drown the pain away."

"Oh very poetic. I don't run from my problems and hide behind a bunch of booze, thank you very much, I'm stronger than that. Pass the bottle."

Asuna picked up the glass bottle filed with the see-through purple liquid and handed it to him. It weighed a surprising amount, maybe due to its glass container. Negi spilled some of the liquid on a towel and slapped it on his back, upon the open wound and gritted his teeth, hissing. Asuna caught a whiff of the stuff and grimaced.

"...Don't tell me you just put a whole bunch of rubbing alcohol on an open wound like that one..."

"...Yep. Ow."

"............You know...you go through too much to prove you're a tough guy."

"Maybe. Or maybe this is just how I am. Pass the cloth tape and that roll of bandages."

Asuna reached for them, but paused when she realized that they were no longer there. Konoka had them, and she was staring at Negi as if he had come from Mars. The open bottle of spirits continued to fumigate the room with its rustic clean, alcohol smell. Negi blinked. Then he systematically turned over the towel in his hands, revealing a bloody side, to reapply the clean one to his wound. Staring contest, commence!

"...Do you always insist on taking care of yourself like this? It would have been easier with some ointment and a couple bandages...why strip the skin raw and then torture it and yourself with alcohol before slapping on these?"

"...You didn't see the injuries he had Konoka...some normal bandages wouldn't cut it on those babies...I'm still surprised he went the entire day with his clothes rubbing against them without any dressing and all that."

"Still...I can't help but feel it's my fault, let me help you."

Negi narrowed his eyes at her slightly.

"Because I jumped in front of you and took the blast? That doesn't warrant pity, and you owe me nothing for that. Nor is it your fault. _**I**_ jumped in front of the blast, _**I**_ pushed you away, all of _**my**_ free will. It's my fault if it's anybody's, as to what happened to me after that, not yours. I did what any half assed idiot with a body and a head would do when they saw someone about to get smoked. Try and push them out of the way. My own damn fault for not being good enough to block of get out of the way myself."

"........."

"Still..."

"Fine. Do what you want."

Negi, surprising Asuna, relinquished control and turned over on his stomach on the couch, allowing Konoka to approach and access the damage. He was quite...torn. Lifting up the back of his shirt, Konoka saw quite an ugly array of raw, pink, red and an odd, alarming, yellow areas of skin. Black and blue with red all over where it was bleeding, it was not pretty, and despite being quite a caretaker and having quite a maternal instinct, Konoka could not help but shudder a little inside at the sight of it. What had...._happened_...to him?

Underneath all the colorful bruises, scraped away skin and raw cuts, it was obvious to see that Negi had been, up until now, pretty much well taken care of, from what little undamaged areas she could see. Really, now seeing the actual damage, she couldn't help but think that perhaps the boy had actually **underestimated** his injuries.

"I think this needs a hospital."

"Pish posh. I haven't been to one as a patient in my entire life. I wasn't even born in one. I'll live. One layer should be enough."

"....I don't think even _ten_ layers of bandages will be enough."

"Well, if you say that, it must look a whole lot worse than it feels."

"Negi, you look like mince meat over here, didn't I tell you that already? What the hell happened?"

"...You really don't want to know Asuna-san. You really do not want to know. Just remember Library Island as a peaceful place with an underground booklovers paradise and a crazy stone golem, and know that I'll always remember it in my nightmares with some stuff that would scare Stephen King out of his pants."

"...Very...intense..."

+--5--+

The date was October 5th, 2003. The time was 7:12 AM in the morning. The student had arrived at 6:45 AM in the morning and already, Swallowthorn was bored.

Sighing the woman watched as the girl tried to avoid touching too much of her couch. Admittedly, it was pretty messy from last night's shenanigans, but then again, what was life if you couldn't have a bit of fun? The girl squirmed one way to avoid a shirt but then nearly jumped the other way to avoid a simple sock. She took her in. Crudely cut fire red hair, she guessed it must have been pretty long before, she held her head as if she was used to having the weight of it pull on her, or of her sitting on top of it. While she was much too thin for Swallowthorn's liking, she girl seemed to be very weak and soft spirited. Or at least, that is what her time in a cell had done for her. She seemed to have lost a fire. It did look like it would be fun poking and playing around with this little girl though. It was something to sink her teeth into so to speak. Still, she had to be nice, at least until she won the little prize. A knock on the door interrupted her thinking and, sighing, the woman slid off her seat to get the door. When she came back, it was with another woman, and both of them got a blank stare from Anya, who had frozen to examine the both of them.

Swallowthorn, at first glance, wasn't all that bad to look at. Long brown hair came down halfway along her back, and a short bang covered half of her forehead, but barely graced her eyebrows. These thing eyebrows housed underneath them brilliantly blue eyes which somehow seemed to flash even without a provoking ray of light reflecting off them. She was almost pale in the sunlight, but here in the calmer electrical light of her apartment, she showed a slight cream-olive color of the skin. Slightly stocky, she was taller than her companion, but only slightly above average height. Nothing really screamed "evil" to Anya from her eye's point of view, but she got a really bad feeling from her. The other woman was about average height, and her skin was more ruddy in color. She also had brown hair, but it was lighter than Swallowthorn's, an almost deep, dirty blonde to Swallowthorn's chocolate brown. Her eyes were startlingly blue too. The one thing Anya noticed is that she seemed to lug around quite a bit more weight than the other. It made her wonder what these two did for a living. It can't be anything to do with major fighting...

"Ahh...what was your name again girl?"

_Girl, nice title...I am one, but so are you...I think. I gotta be nice though..I have to act like she's my mommy...although I wouldn't want her for one...I don't like her...but why don't I like her?_

It's called intuition Anya, intuition.

"My name is Anya, miss..."

"Adorable. A bit thin though huh?"

"She's been in a cell, what do you expect?"

"Well, I've been reading you mail, girl. You got a profile of your opponent, did you read it?"

"No, who is it that wants her besides me?"

"A shrimp. A real shrimp. Cute though, but it's just a kid...maybe her brother? Look."

The other woman brought out the envelope from her bag, showing the formal profile given to a magi to tell them about their opponent in an official battle. Anya was surprised to see Negi's form near a bunch of squiggly arrows with words along them. Swallowthorn shook her head.

"This one is thin just like her. Ehh, similar hair color, though their eyes contrast like hell. Young enough to be a brother of hers maybe twins? The hell cares though, I gotta kill a kid to get _this_ kid? Is he even out of his diapers yet, this one here?"

"Graduated Magical Acedemy Class of 2003, Practioner's License became official as of September of 2003. Hell if you'll believe this, but he's finished school and is an oxford graduate. Maybe he only looks young? Could be one of those damn midgits you know."

Swallowthorn studied the picture with a more critical eye now, seeing as her supposed opponent had some qualifications.

"Tickled if I know, Cierra."

The other woman, now identified as Cierra, spouted out Swallowthorn's first name in her next comment.

"But Alice...where is the girl going to go? You promised you'd do it _today_."

Alice Swallowthorn, looking at the other's face, gave a small smile and shook her head. She turned to Anya.

"You hungry kid?"

"No."

"Well then....stay there will yah? Don't go anywhere, and try not to come into my office...I did promise to complete some important tasks today...Cierra, you know your job..._right_...?"

"How can I forget my own job?"

Both women going in to the room now dubbed the "office" ,the door closed with a snap behind them bringing with it a complete silence and Anya stared ahead at the wall. She suddenly realized how silly it was, what the woman had said. The door leading to outside the apartment was huge, and incredibly thick. She bet she couldn't even make it budge an inch. The windows were barred; she was, pretty much, trapped. How could she go _anywhere_?

How come someone who doesn't look to bad at first need soundproofed and bullet proof doors, barred windows along with elevated, soundproofed floors and walls??

+--6--+

"Konoka-san, please get the hell off me. I said please. I don't care how high or drunk you are, no one told you to taste Asuna's...uhh...juice...Get off me dammit! Hell do I know when you got this clingy, or so strong while you're clingy... Asuna-san! Stop laughing your god-damn head off and help me dammit! This is your potion that did this anyway! Crap, what did you do? Put French Dressing instead of passionflower essence in here?!"

"Sensei...."

"I...put...everything...you told me...to...oh wow...oh ow...ow ow..it hurts...my sides..."

Negi, struggling to stay on his feet while being ridden like a bucking bull by Konoka, glared at her.

"Don't go sensei...stay..."

"You're useless here Asuna-san! Come on, get her off me!"

"If _**you**_can't get her off, what makes you think _**I**_ can?"

"Oii. Can't you try and _**help**_ me?"

"Not right now...can't really breathe yet."

"Oh hell!"

After the fiasco with his back, which, after much deliberation, Konoka agreed to just put one layer of bandages over after all, Konoka and Negi had closed the huge chasm that had been between them for their different beliefs and operations, and had become a kind of team that kept all of the chores in the dorm done extremely efficiently, and in a way that reflected both a male and female taste that made the place come together. It was no longer a fight between two housekeepers as to what should go where, but a functional space in which every object was put strategically there for a reason that agreed with all of them. Just like the dorm, the three of them had reached a kind of...agreement in which they could work as a seamless unit. Each member knew their responsibilities, and each member knew what they brought to the table. It had not been uncommon for Negi to accompany the girls shopping now, while previously he would go buy the food and stay home when they went out...and while Asuna and Konoka both considered Negi to basically be just as much as a friend as a teacher, Negi still stubbornly stuck to his guns on the word acquaintance, which he had not lightened on. Yet, Asuna, who constantly dropped his honorific for one reason or another, he could practically say was his sister, but he dared not. That would, after all, be getting to close to people. You only keep your enemies ultimately close to you, and thus, close friends were enemies in waiting. His logic on that point had not wavered. Nor had his tongue softened towards any of them. If they deserved a telling off, they got it, and stung he did, but now, when that happened, both girls knew there was a reason behind it. Life was calm.

Negi finally managed to detach himself from a very clingy Konoka with the help of Asuna. The girl was still in a kimono from her omai, which she had come back early with and had caught Negi teaching Asuna how to make...juice. In reality, Negi had been trying to get Asuna to learn some basic potion making skills, one position in particular that she wanted to master, the love potion, was proving to be a fluke on her part...at least in part. Konoka really was all lovey dovey and clingy after "sampling" Asuna's work, but a love potion was not supposed to act like this on its subject. Not only that, but Konoka had only had a little. Who knows what the whole concoction might have done to her?

"Good, she fell asleep. Asuna, poor that mess in the potted plant..NO, do not pour it down the sink, I said in a potted plant, who knows how that thing will affect the water, especially if it can't be filtered _out_."

"I should keep this stuff, save it for a rainy day."

"....And get us all killed? Who knows what time will do to that mess, it could dilute it, it could _increase_ in strength. It could become poisonous...hell, just dump it in the plant. If the plant becomes clingy with water, it'll be good for its leaves. You probably added too much mint. Mint can do that..."

"...I'll remember that the next time I get some spearmint gum."

Negi picked up Konoka off the couch easily, yet her size made him look like a baby with an oversized teddy bear. He couldn't really lift her high enough to make sure she didn't drag on the fllor..lucky the whole place was carpeted.

"I'm going to get her in her bed."

"Shouldn't you by her a drink first?"

"...You know, as much as I walked into that one, that was not funny. You're getting better with your punch lines though I must admit..."

"You're rubbing off, that's why."

+--7--+

((_**WARNING:**_ PLEASE, skip this part if you wish. By writing this, I am only providing some background on Alice Swallowthorn, there is no real importance except for fleshing out Swallowthorn's character. You can skip it. Just scroll down to the magic +--8--+ if there is one. I glaze over quite a bit of informaiton here too...I "feather touch" as I say, and, "beat around the bush" as others say, here. This is perhaps the first chapter I had to go back and completely change a section of. I think I put too much detail into the section originally for the rating we have on here...so I toned it down.))

"Awww...little girlie is scared. Come over here, let me hold you then."

Disgusting was the word, and she was glad she had found it. This woman was disgusting. To think this was her...business...all this time,...

"No thank you. I want to look outside."

It had not taken Anya long to realize that the other woman, Cierra, was Alice Swallowthorn's Ministra. It had also not taken Anya very long to realize that all the doors in this apartment, including the one to "her room" were big, heavy and thick. They blocked all sound from the other side, and made her stay alone in utter silence, a silence that pressed upon her ears, as if air was trapped in there too, pressing on her from all sides. She couldn't move those doors, but Alice could. Anya quickly realized that Alice liked to house nightly parties, in which she had a bit of what she called "fun" and what Anya called the predecessor to "mess". It was utterly disgusting though, what she found the woman doing to her partner one day, by accident. She was...well...doing...something.

"You always look outside girl, like there's something out there for you. Pay attention here."

She had not been able to see much, and she was thankful for that. All she knew is that it had something to do with a funnel, having her partner strapped to something, and a lot of amusement from Swallowthorn's end. Who knew what was it about, but the other party seemed to enjoy it...maybe...she couldn't be sure...

Besides this little insight into what else Swallowthorn did for "fun" around here, Anya saw little of what she actually did to be called a Magister. Mainly, her job was paperwork. Or computer work perhaps. She had yet to see the woman do any actual magic...

"I'm only here for a few more hours. I don't want to forget the view."

Sunday came and she still stayed like a plastic stick-on window ornament. Anya didn't like talking to the woman either. She talked about odd things. Things deep into potion making, which she seemed to think was the most potent art of magic. Anya , when remembered every time she stood next to Negi Springfield or the principal and felt the surge of power coming from them, had to say she disagreed. This woman had power flowing from her too, and she despaired at the thought that it seemed to be stronger than she remembered Negi's being. Then again, she always remembered how the boy put down those he faced, how he always...lowered his power level to the minimum he needed. Maybe he did that when he was near her too, so she didn't know how strong the boy really was...all in all, she needed him to be stronger than her. She didn't like being taken from one cell and locked up in another...she didn't like the lifestyle the woman had, the job she held, which only required her to sit in front of her home computer every day for a couple hours, she didn't like the way she called her girl, even though Anya had told the woman her name countless times. She felt no _care_ coming from her, and even if she did everything needed to keep Anya alive, the existence did not satisfy the girl...nor did it satisfy her unending boredom...there was no TV in this place even. Just that infernal computer the woman sat at every day. Not even a radio to keep someone busy. Books here were even scarcer than in the cell, but the ones she did see, magazines, she had no desire to read, for many reasons...

"Oh you're a funny girl, girl. There's barely any view there for you to see."

"I'm Anya."

((Can you believe I typed all of that in one sitting, this too, up to the part about Negi doing all the work again. I had time today...))

+--8--+

"I have got to do what now? This just keeps getting more and more difficult."

Negi's eyes scanned the page in front of them, speeding down its length faster than a fist sized rock sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool. His hand reached out and grabbed the odd, keychain koosh ball like apparatus hanging from the bottom of the letter. Asuna, who was the only person in the dorm besides him, as Konoka was once again off to deal with one of her grandfather's hare-brained schemes to marry her off, looked at it curiously.

"What's that now?"

"A two way, here and back transportation device good for one round trip use and rated for up to four people."

"Round trip transportation device? You mean a transportation spell?!"

"Yep. Up to four people, one use, going to one apartment of one Swallowthorn Alice, my opponent for custody of Anya."

"Wait...don't you have to fight her at Christmas?"

"Yes, but the person who is supposed to pick Anya up for her evaluation period is unable to. Anya was with old Swallow to have a weeklong evaluation period. Then she's supposed to have a week back in her cell before coming to me. But they screwed up and now no one can pick her up from the place, so they decide, hey, let's chuck Negi over there to pick her up and have him use up his evaluation week now? Why the hell not spring something on him when he was expecting her next week, we're too lazy to use the spell ourselves, give him in a letter to go do it! Hell yes! Let Negi do all the work, again."

"You sound over the moon with joy."

"Yep. Oh well. How much longer do you think Konoka-san is going to be with her omai?"

"About an hour and a half before Setsuna-san gets fed up and rescues her, or about half an hour before Konoka manages to slip away."

Negi made a face. That didn't give him much time, but then he mused, the transportation spell would at least cut out travel time. He took a split second to think and then stuck out his hand, the little bit of his bare wrist that was visible showing his renewed tattoo glowing a slight violet before a pencil and a piece of notebook paper flew to him. He rose an eyebrow and the pencil twitched.

"Let's just say I went to the airport to pick up an early, surprise delivery that was supposed to come next week, and that, if she's reading this and we're not home, to prepare for a guest."

"We're?"

"Hell, this thing is rated for four people. last time I checked, you and I plus Anya on the return only equals three, and you have always been asking me what a place in Europe looks like, haven't you?"

+---+

Okay, there we go...hey...where are you going?! This is a multishot, remember? Let's get this over with, number two, coming right up! I might mention that yesterday I had from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon to type that...I had been waiting for someone who proved to be a no show. I'm still waiting today. If happens again, I might finish this chapter today like I did the other one yesterday...

I don't need to mention that I don't own Negima twice in the same document do I?!? WELL, I just did. Can't be too safe...okay, maybe you can...don't want to end up like Alice...talk about home security!

Another thing, always remember, I do have a poll up that you can vote on. IN fact, I have two, but one isn't one my profile page, cause you can only show one! Anywho, I'm making another soon as well. Remember to vote!

+----+

_**Chapter Fifteen: Kids don't come with instruction manuals.**_ [CH15}

+----+

((Just in case you are curious, the actual day for October 12th, 2003 was a Sunday. I'm one day off, not bad for something I was spontaneously just writing out of nowhere.))

Monday October 12th, 2003, 5:30 AM. Five the hell in the morning, and something is knocking on my door hard enough for me to actually hear it. How they accomplish that with a soundproofed door is a mystery to me, they must be banging hell of a hard. Someone seemed to be simultaneously trying to kill her bell too. Alice glanced at the clock again. 5:31. If it was one thing that Alice was, it was obsessed with time and dates, statistics. She needed to know where things were placed in life, and herself was no different. She knew every specification and percentage area she lay in in just about every area. Right now, she was one of about 39% of all residents in London awake at 5:00 in the morning, but she did not want to be. Groaning, she rolled off the bed and fell to the floor with a crash who's sound did not exit her room. Someone could _die_ in her apartment and no one would know. Getting up sleepily, she wrapped her sheet around herself, not caring to don her robe as she thought she was probably only going to blast the person at the door into next Monday at a more sensible time and go back to sleep. Staggering to the door, she undid the numerous locks and slowly pulled it slightly ajar.

She encountered the set face of a red-headed girl with bells in her hair. Alice, with her hand glowing with pent up magic, didn't think twice in trying to punch her dead in the face, but she missed by miles, the girl had suddenly left her field of vision. The next object that entered it was the tip of a staff pocking her in the chin. She looked down...and down...and saw a pile of auburn hair.

"Please do not try and punch my traveling companion, Madam Magi Swallowthorn. Otherwise you may find my staff being stuffed down your throat, and I assure, it does not taste very pleasant, or digest very well. I am not one for many words, I'm just here to pick up your evaluation student."

_Oh yeah, the girl leaves today, shame. I didn't get to play with her._

"You don't look like no social worker, midget."

Negi looked up at her face, revealing his own to her so she could get a good look at him. He smiled a false cheery one for her.

'I'm not, I'm your opponent who's come to pick up the kid for my evaluation period because the association is too lazy to do it themselves. Read."

He tossed up the envelope he had been given for her to catch. Surprised, she caught it...barely...on its way back down. While Asuna took her in, including the fact that she had no proper clothes on, being wrapped up in a sheet, Negi looked past the woman into a very dilapidated apartment. How she lived here was a real mystery to him. He also took the time to examine her door, which was thick, soundproofed and probably bullet proof too. Who the heck was she so afraid of, and why go through such trouble? He supposed his banging on her door had been useless then. He had been about to kick it down, but seeing it now, he realized it would have been a harder task than he had originally thought it would be...He turned back to see the woman's eyes still scanning the paper. Sometimes he wished people would just hurry up and read already. Negi began to tap his foot, and the woman looked up from the paper to scan him.

"You're shorter than you look on paper."

"You're taller, how's that? Who cares? We all know camera's ain't perfect in taking people shots."

She continued to examine him with a critical eye.

"You are one skinny dude. Who you calling a kid though? The girl must be older than you, by the looks of you..."

"Do you really care?"

"I'll squish you come December."

"That's nice."

She opened the door wide, revealing the dingy apartment in all its glory.

"You coming in?"

"Of course, if I must."

Negi didn't even hesitate at the threshold of the apartment, stepping past her and treading on an abandoned pair of pants with his dress shoes. Asuna was a bit more hesitant, avoiding articles of clothing at least. Negi turned around to look at the woman, who was closing the door behind her.

"Don't bother, I'm just here to pick her up and be gone from your life."

"You don't want anything to eat or drink?"

"I'm thin remember? I don't need much gas to keep me running, thanks anyway. Is she up?"

"I wasn't up. It's five in the morning, are you aware?"

"I'm aware, even though were I was it was one thirty in the afternoon, I'm aware of what time it is for you. Anya if you please."

"Anya huh?"

"The girl you are taking care of, don't tell me you don't know her name yet."

"I'm a bit slow with names, sorry. Yours is what Again?"

"Negi Springfield. Although you probably don't even care a frogs skinny, slimy leg do you?"

"Hmm...you're right about that. It's been a while since I've had a good fight. I hope you don't go splat on the first hit."

"I highly doubt that for some odd reason."

He watched as she walked over to one of the rooms, eyes slightly narrowed. He already didn't like her. It was such a dirty place, what kind of housekeeper was she? He watched as she took out a small key and unlocked it, pushing the heavy door open with an almost audible grunt. This further distanced her from Negi, for He did not approve of this woman keeping Anya...locked up. This was the alternative to him? Hell, he may not want to have to take care of someone around his own age, but if this was the alternative, he guessed he had no choice. He'd have to lay the smack down on Alice Swallowthorn, this stocky, brown haired and sharp eyed woman who fan fared her aura to anyone who cared to feel it. The woman stopped right at the door however, for Anya happened to have been pressed up right against it moments before. The two of them had a stare down. Negi decided to cut in.

"Hello! I'm over here!"

+--9--+

"Oooooh! She's so cute!"

"Cute my ass. Could you please let go of me now Anya?"

"No."

"Aww come on! You latched unto me an hour ago..."

"She's crazy glued herself to you Negi."

"I can see that!"

Negi was not having much of a fun time. After the confrontation with Swallowthorn, Anya had literally latched herself unto Negi, grabbing his around the waist, and as of yet, had not let go, much to his dismay. As much as he tried to convince her that the people here were different from the ones she had been dealing with for the past few months, the girl would simply not listen, and, as much as Konoka cooed, Anya would not let her come anywhere near. Neither did she let Asuna try and pry her off Negi. The kid had become a leech.

'Anya, I'm going to need to go take my shower. Speaking of which, how did you take yours in there?"

"S-shower?"

"...Oh god."

"What?"

Asuna looked at the girl.

"It's what I was initially afraid of when I first learned we had to take you in as a dorm mate."

"You mean the whole afraid of baths and peeing the bed thing?"

'Yep."

"Anya, you can't be afraid of baths...how did you take them all the time in the school?"

"...You have to come with me."

Negi's eyes widened at that. Even Asuna took a step back at that one/

"Oh hell no. Oh no no no no. You see that would just look so wrong. If someone caught you here, like that, I'd literally die. You can go with one of my roommates though."

"They scare me."

"How can you be scared of Konoka-san over there?!? She's practically fawning over you! How can I not scare you?!"

"You're my friend."

"..."

"Ooh. Difficult."

"Asuna, Konoka, please come with me, apparently, she won't go without me, but I am not going there alone with her."

"Afraid you won't be able to control yourself Negi?"

"Asuna, please, shut up and come."

Sighing, she shook her head before walking off to find a spare towel for the girl. Konoka still looked kinda frozen from Anya's earlier comment, so she moved a bit slowly after Asuna. Negi sighed and felt the girl tighten her grip. Oii. This was going to be a bit different that he first had hoped. She seems to have been reset to her baby days, Anya. Her stubborn fire needs to be rekindled. Hell...

+--10--+

The bathhouse was unusually quiet today...which was a good thing, for Negi and co were making quite a spectacle of themselves in the water.

".....OwOwOwOwowowowowowowowowowow....."

"Oh come on Anya-chan, it can't hurt that bad. I have to get you clean."

"Why can't Negi do it?!"

"He'd scrub harder than me, believe it or not, he's stronger."

"God, they really made a mess of her hair didn't they? Well, it's just a bit shorter than shoulder length by now, at least you look like a girl again. Negi, why don't you donate some of your hair to her?"

Negi rolled his eyes as he held out Anya's hair for Asuna. Donate his hair huh? Forgive him if he were wrong, but he didn't think she would appreciate a weave of his dead hair when she used to have her own real locks. It would just be an insult, and his face showed plainly this thought. He grabbed the scrubbing sponge from her almost irritably. He then used it, much to Asuna's surprise, gently, but firmly, on an area she had not noticed. How did he see that? Not only that, but, while Anya had been slightly wincing from Asuna's pulling, the girl showed no such sign of that now, even though Negi was getting the dirt out faster, he managed not to even make the girl's head pull back a centimeter.

"You're supposed to have more experience in this than I do, but I've seen you pass this patch of dirty hair about fifteen times without noticing it."

"Hey...I feel left out, there are three red-heads here, I'm the only dark haired one. You all look like sisters, especially with Negi-kun's hair down like that."

_Again with the hair!_

"Remind yourself that, if you ever need to pretend you have a little sister, to hit me up before I turn twelve. I, apparently, would do perfectly, Asuna-san. Konoka-san, you're forgetting to get in between the toes, don't you do that for yourself?"

"Don't hound me Negi-kun, I was getting there next. I'm surprised you even noticed I went past there, I wanted to do that last."

"Asuna are you going to stand there or help Konoka rinse her off?"

"I think I'm just going to stand here and let you do it, since when were you and expert on bathing?"

"I take one everyday just like you do don't I? You would expect the same care and attention to be used when bathing another person that you focus on yourself. No?"

"Well sure-"

"No buts, it's a common thing, when one person has to wash another, they tend to treat the person like an object being washed, not like another person, and they forget the attention that needs to be taken."

"Negi-kun, where do you get all this knowledge from? I pretty sure you can't find that stuff in a book."

"If you look hard enough I bet you could, but no, it comes from taking care of myself and observation, now where the heck is the bucket with the rinse water?"

"Asuna has it."

"No I don't, You had it last, look, it's over there, now it's floating in the damn pool. Why did you set it down in the water?"

"Nyah, I guess I was stupid and not paying attention. I'll get it."

"My my, where is Springfeild-sensei Asuna-san?"

"Ehh?"

Turning around, Asuna paled upon realizing the speaker was none other than Ayaka Yukihiro. The girl was looking at both Anya and Negi with interest.

"Where did those two girls come from?"

Oh god, how I hate this. I really should cut the stuff, but I can't...something about it just won't let me. It's like I'm Samson from the bible or something. My hair somehow has to do with my strength..it gives me comfort for some weird reason... I don't know why. Still, it gives me the advantage here, I don't want to be found out, and this give me a way out.

"Lincho! What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean Negi's not here...he's right there."

_Crap Anya...you just had to say something.._

Ehh? Ayaka turned around and looked more closely at Negi.

"Shit."

+--11--+

The bathhouse had been a fiasco. Ayaka it turns out, had not been the only one who had come into the bathhouse, and the discovery of Negi with a "girl friend" in the bath had made incredible waves. It took quite a while to straighten it out, but people could hardly buy the story of Negi trying out to be a potential parent either, so everyone went with visiting cousin. As for family, it was okay to give your family member a bath if they needed one, right...? Still, most of the girls didn't like the idea of sharing their sensei with this girl. Yet they felt quite happy to try and bombard her with questions about Negi, trying to pry into the mysterious Springfield-sensei's likes and dislikes through the unfortunate "family member". Negi had to save her from that, cutting short her terror with a quick bark to his students. Once more back in the dorm, the girl had once more latched onto him, and Negi found himself explaining again and again that the girl didn't know anybody but him, and was clingy and scared, to random students that came for study sessions so as not to assure suspicion _there_. Although it was kind of hard to get her to eat, Negi ended up having to feed her because she wouldn't let go, which was a pain to him, even though he pulled it off with a smile, and quite an entertainment to students who were present. Yet still, she couldn't stay latched onto him _forever_.

"Anya, I need to use the bathroom."

"Why don't you go?"

"You can't come in there with me, and you won't let go of me."

"There are too many people here..."

"No one is going to hurt you."

"How do you know?"

A bit sick and wanting solitude, Negi said the first thing that came to mind.

"I'd kill them if they did. They won't though, I know them too well."

This above all made Anya slowly detach, but only slowly, and she still tried to hold on while she did so by looking for an excuse. Yet the people here seemed so friendly. It was a complete change from the solitude of a cell with the occasional grumpy teacher coming to to sulk, or the punishments, or Swallowthorn's boring, disturbing solitude. This place was full of life...it was almost hard to make the people here even seem feral. Finally detaching fully, Negi smiled weakly at her.

"I'll be right back. If you get scared run to Konoka-san."

Negi walked to the bathroom and closed the door. Finally. Thank god she had finally let go! Shit. That was one leech like existence...and it was only the first flipping day! What about tomorrow? Or the next day? How the hell was he going to deal with all of this? Blowing out of his mouth, Negi hooped unto a footstool near the sink, then stepped up on its second level to reach the sink. Washing his face slowly, kneading the water in, he watched his reflection. Negi wasn't used to acting all nice, but the girl needed to be babied so she would get used to the place, she was currently scared as heck of anything that wasn't him. It made him wonder what he had really done to deserve this treatment. He can't have had that much of an effect on her in school. He must not have been her only outlet for affection. Yet she clung to him like this. He sighed and decided to do what he came here to do. He'd have to figure this all out later, when his mind was less taxed by the arrival of Anya.

Once Negi exited the bathroom, he entered the usual fray of students milling about the dorm room as if they owned the place, stopping every now and then to check up on their work. He absent mindedly swiped a magazine one of his students had been reading behind their textbook and rolled it up, smacking them lightly upside the head with it before tossing it in their lap.

"If you try and pull that trick in class, you'll get a detention from me to you as a present for the upcoming festival. You can read that in your own dorm room."

Negi continued on with his patrolling of the dorm, randomly pointing to a sentence on another student's page, which was missing a capital in the beginning, and earning an appreciative glance form the group of them that the student was situated in. It seemed nothing got by this teacher. As Negi approached the kitchen, he saw Anya having now latched onto Konoka's apron, something Asuna seemed to find hilarious for some odd reason.

"She's like a little kid begging their mommie for a cookie! It's so cute. Now that she's got Konoka, Negi, you had better run before she re-attaches herself to you."

Negi cast his eyes upward, and they conveniently rested upon the kitchen clock, which was about to strike nine in six minutes. Shaking his head, he took a deep breath, and then, making Anya jump about a foot and a half in the air, bellowed in the usual nightly broadcast:

"Okay everybody out!, nine o clock, you've got six minutes to get back to your dorms before lights out! No miss Zhou...you hand me that in the morning tomorrow, you should know that by now. Oii! Makie-san, don't tell me you are going to leave your coat in this dorm room for the fourth time this month, thank you! Chisame, it's nice to see you drop by, so please don't tell me that's your computer charger over there. I didn't think so. Oii, Miss Yuu, are you forgetting your laptop charger? Yes you are. Now can someone please come and get their history text book from on top of the bread box before I _throw_ it at its owner? I know exactly who's it is you know. Thank you Miss Todashiwaru. Miss Xu, please don't tell me _that_ is yours? It is isn't it? Leave your personal business at your personal dorm miss, I did not need to know that particular detail about your life...go while I try to forget it. Hey! EY! Miss Yurinashwa...just because I took your magazine from you doesn't mean I _want_ it! No Miss Satome, you don't have any other homework from me besides that report, which I want _done_ by tomorrow. You to Miss Ayase....and you..."

The room was just about empty now, except for Konoka, who was busy with Anya, and Asuna, who was looking at Negi. Negi was looking the other way though, at one particular spirit he knew was still around, although she had been pretty silent ever since making her first appearance. Negi spoke quietly, barely above a whisper, trying to prevent Konoka from catching wind.

"When the heck are you gonna cross-over or whatever it is you gotta do to go where you gotta go, the light or whatever it is?"

_"Cross Over?"_

"Oh don't you try your creepy ghost speak with me miss."

Sighing, Negi turned around to look at Asuna, who was giving him a stare Negi had already dubbed her "look".

"What is it now? Do I have egg on my face?"

"No. Just....oh forget it. You're weird."

"Tell me something I don't know please."

Konoka chose that time to walk in the room, dragging Anya with her. She seemed unaffected by the girls hold however, a testament to her nature, one Negi could not pull off with such style. Negi raised his eyebrows.

"You are, by far Konoka-san, the most natural maternal figure I have yet to see for your age. If it weren't for the fact that Anya has such a rare hair color, one could have thought she was your own child."

"Rare? there are three people out of a total of four in this room who have it. Rare's not the word. As for her, she won't get off, so I just handle it."

Disregarding the fact that the dorm room they all were residing in was currently breaking a worldwide average by at least seventy percent in excess of red headed occupant ratios, Negi waved the comment away. He, then, quite uncharacteristically, motioned to Anya and calmly asked her to detach herself from Konoka, something he got instant obedience for, causing a bit of surprise.

"Anya. I know that you probably aren't tired, but it _is_ time to go to bed. Konoka-san needs some sleep, the light's are already out."

"....It's early though."

"No, it's not, look outside, it's already dark. It's nine o' clock already. You've been having to much fun I guess. Time flies. You see that ladder over there?"

Anya looked over the red metal ladder, which was securely screwed to the banister on the platform above and bolted to the carpeted floor below. It shone slightly in the room light. She nodded.

"Go up that, that's where you'll sleep."

"What about you?"

"I'll be on this couch over here."

"Why can't you come up there too?"

_Does she have any idea what kinds of minds live around here? I suppose not. If she were just a few years older, there would be such an uproar at that statement.... _

"...I have to keep watch for monsters."

"Ehh?!"

"Don't worry, any come in and they'll get a hard knock over the head with a frying pan. Their magic can' work on me. Okay?"

Now, Anya may be nearly eight, but this was still a prime age for belief in such a thing. Not to mention the fact, that, as a mage, monsters took on a more real edge in the form of demons, many of which Negi had famously defeated during school trips, proving their existence many times over to those young students who did not believe in their presence. She doubted any "monster" could stand up to him even if all he had was a frying pan. Konoka looked at Negi with interest. Since when did he know to pull the monster and magic trick? Slowly nodding her head the girl pulled an uncomfortable face. Alright then, she'd let him be away if he had such an important job to do...he'd promised the other girls in the dorm weren't bad after all.

"....Okay."

Turning slowly, she walked a few steps before looking back. Negi had turned to try and punch a sofa cushion into something suitable to sleep on, so as when he tried to sleep on the sofa he wouldn't drown in its overstuffed length. Turning back around, she took to the ladder, which was reassuringly steady and cool in her hands. It didn't take her very long to reach the top, where the smell of fresh pine greeted her. Looking off to the side, she saw a picture of Negi standing next to a bunch of older people with a white, stone building in the background and a flower bed off to the side. Negi seemed to be holding a plaque almost carelessly in one hand, as if it were not worth much of his attention. He was caught in the picture turned around, talking to a person who had bent down to look at him. The person had a book bag on and a text book open. One of the other people standing around was pointing to Negi and his mouth was open as if he were laughing. Anya just managed to make out the inscription on it, although not all of its meaning was clear, she got the general idea.

Honor Hall 2002

Inductee:

Negi Springfield

Student's Choice Award

for

Most Knowledgeable Professor.

She looked to another area of the room and saw a bunch of boards with holes and wires running all over them. A few lights where hooked up here and there, blinking quietly away. A plug had been wired and was stuck in the outlet, and she could see a tiny fan running, blowing on something. A bunch of papers, neatly stacked, sat on a desk, there was even one was in the middle, a big red "B" written on it. "Check my notes for you on question eight" was written underneath. The bed was low and neatly made, and the sheets seemed to carry a slight, fresh-lemon smell to them. It was only after climbing into the bed and seeing the chamber pot with the neatly displayed vials, did Anya realize that this was Negi's bed, and his room...it suddenly struck her how different...how different it was from the rooms she was used to. Her own room was a bit messier, and not quite so active. Swallowthorns was a pig sty compared to here, and had no activity except for the dirty laundry on the floor, the cell was more strict than here, yet still more dirty.

+--12--+

Asuna looked back at Anya as she walked away. She then turned to Negi, a bit surprised.

"Wow, who knew you had it in you."

"Please."

"No really...you are one weird dude you know?"

"You already said that. I asked you to tell me something-"

"That you don't know, well, yeah. I don't think you know this...how really weird you are."

Negi stopped "mutilating" the couch cushion and turned to look at Asuna, his face slightly intrigued. He didn't say anything, but his entire being seemed to exude an "I'm waiting" for him.

"You're like some infinity-polar, multiple personality jacked up superhero child prodigy thingie."

Once again, Negi said nothing, just continued to look. He was still waiting for her to get to the point.

"One second, you're a teacher, tough but patient, rigid but understanding. The next, you're an ass...until someone gets used to you and understands where you're coming from, then everything you do as an ass makes perfect sense. The next, you're some freaky killing machine, who's got no remorse, no regret, something that can rip your guts out and not give a crap about what going to happen to you afterward...and then...You can just turn around and show the side of you that your just showed to Anya. The side that makes me think you'd make a hell of a good dad one day."

Now, if there was one thing Negi expected, it was certainly, and surprisingly, not that Asuna would think him capable of being a parent. His face actually slackened and eyes opened a tad bit wider, but Negi would never lose his control, or at least not let himself lose it, to the point of having his mouth hang open. Yet inside the closed lips, he knew his teeth weren't exactly touching either. Him? A good dad? Hell, he'd kill a kid. What kid could survive with a parent like him? He knew nothing about kids. He didn't know how to take care of them...

"Negi..."

Negi looked up to see Anya standing, gripping the banister for support. His voice once again adopting a softer tone, he answered her.

"Yes Anya?"

"I can't sleep..."

"Please don't tell me I have to read to you and tuck you in."

"That would be nice..."

"Anya, you're a big girl!"

"Please?"

Sighing, a bit frustrated, Negi quickly climbed up to do the bidding of an insomnia-stricken seven year old girl. His frustration seemed to disappear when he did the task though, something Asuna dutifully noted as she watched from afar. Once Anya was 'tucked in" Negi came back down after ten minutes, sliding down the railings of the ladder instead of taking the steps. He looked up at Asuna before shaking his head and walking to the couch.

"Hopefully, I can get some honest rest now."

"I'm serious about the good dad thing. Do you realize you just pulled off the act with flying colors?"

Negi turned to look at her again. His eyes had a kind of glassy look to them, and his voice was deadpan.

"It's not that I would, or could, make a good parent, I just know a golden rule of parenting that most parents, unfortunately, don't. That rule is that no matter what, once you have a kid, your life, and all your decisions, your goals and dreams, must include your child, and you must put that child before everything else, including, many times, your own self. It's no longer about you anymore. It's about them. If you are feeling angry, you have to drop that feeling for their sake. You feel depressed, you can't let that effect you for their sake. You can't drink or abuse substances if you were any more, for their sake. Once you have kids, that's your life right there. They should be your everything. Don't abandon them or neglect them, ever...and please, please, remember that they are people too, and have feelings and dreams of their own, and, unlike you, they can afford to think their life is about them, so don't expect gratification for everything you do, or get mad when you don't receive it. They'll thank you in time, if they have the heart for it."

A bit taken back, Asuna allowed Negi to turned back around and climb into the couch, watching as he curled himself up into a tight ball on the large cushion like a cat going for a nap. This kid....this kid was just...inhuman. That was all. Inhuman. Asuna thought back to the time when he had revealed his, and Evangeline-san's, suspicions for who his father was, and how Negi had felt about that. If that world savior was truly the father of this kid, the guy can't have been all that bad, he must have had a reason for everything he had done to make Negi so bitter. If Negi could just let go of all his burning, acidic, anger and demeanor, he'd probably be the nicest person Asuna ever knew, maybe the equal of Konoka, only without the occasionally dense head. Looking at the ball form of Negi, she suddenly, invariably, felt sorry for him. The name that seemed to start it all for this kid, once again flowed through her thoughts.

"Nagi..."

+--13--+

"Shhh...shhh...it's okay, it's okay. Shh...you'll wake up Asuna-san. Shh....they can't get you know, it was only a dream..."

Negi was glad Anya could not see his face as her own head was buried into one of his shoulders. Once again adopting a softer voice, his eyes were rolling fit to fall out of their sockets. How much could a little beating and a few days in a cell disturb this girl? Or being with Swallowthorn...he sure hoped the woman had not done anything inappropriate to her...although it might explain her actions.

"Sssshh ssshh sshh sssh....shush now. It was a bad dream, only a bad dream."

"He-he.. w-was chasing me with his w-wand.."

"Okay, okay, no one is chasing you now...come on...okay...okay..."

The tossing and turning had woken Negi up long ago. Negi was a very light sleeper, something that came from always being a bit to over alert. He knew just what kind of sleepers Asuna and Konoka were. Konoka hit the sack and was still for nearly the whole night. She'd only rock a bit back and forth somewhat. She was one of those lumps on a log peaceful sleepers. Asuna might toss around a bit at two o clock in the morning, but that was about it, on average she was more still than Konoka. Negi himself, he was a dead man sleeper. In other words, he would wake up in the same position he fell asleep in, not having even moved a single centimeter. So hearing a constant tossing and turning had woken Negi up. He might have gotten used to Asuna and Konoka's sleep style, but this was different. He had glanced up to where Anya was in his own bed and heard a tiny groan, like one might make from a sharp, unexpected pain to prevent themselves from yelling out, or the sound of a person muffled and experiencing discomfort.

It was the scream that make him fly out of bed.

Piercing his ears with its shrill tone, Negi had practically shot from under the covers and was already halfway up the ladder by the time three seconds had elapsed. By the time Anya had been awoken and had found a comfort shoulder, Asuna had been startled awake, and was, from her vantage point at the top bunk, looking over to where Negi's bed was, where she saw Negi's holding Anya as a father would their frightened child. He waved her off, mouthing "Go bad to sleep." at her. This was just something else he had to deal with. Asuna stared at him as he rocked a bit back and forth, like he knew he should at least try to do, as the motion was scientifically the comfort thing to do...Thankfully Konoka had not woken up.

"Come on, how many times have you had a bad dream before, this can't have been the first...it's over now...sssssshhh...."

Negi continued to shush her and rock as the noise quieted down. It was an utter pain, but he had to do what he had to. This wasn't about him. He glanced at the clock. It was one forty six in the morning, and as he continued to move back and forth, it turned to forty seven. By the time it was two o clock, Negi checked Anya for find she had fallen sleep against his shoulder. He laid her back on the bed and, tucking the sheets back in descended the ladder before crawling back to the couch, now looking for the rest of his needed sleep. He could tell this was going to be one long week. He even had to deal with the trip to Kyoto this Friday, meaning he would have to take Anya with him to come back on Sunday, a pain, as originally he had been scheduled to take care of her next week, where had no such distractions like a class trip to another city. He hoped he could get Anya settled enough by Friday to handle it, he didn't want another fiasco on his hands...

Negi listened the even breathing of three sets of lungs, marveling at the perfect harmony of the human body. It was this sound that he allowed to lull him to sleep, slowly allowing his eyes to close as his own systems slowed, and joined the ever present concerto of bodily functions. Above it all, only one soul looked over it and head how Negi's own systems added to the whole, and what part he played. Although, to that soul, it was a sound mainly disregarded and chalked up as silence. Aisaka Sayo, ever present, watched as Negi slept.

+--14--+

"Miss Todashiwaru, don't tell me you've given up on school altogether. It is not my fault your class ranked the bottom and was used as an example by the principal by being left back. As my class is now dubbed 3A, you should, as the new president of the new 4A, still try and uphold your manners and your fortitude. It's not the end of the world, just the end result of another test."

Negi stood in the front of the classroom behind his desk, once again occupying the chair not by sitting on it, but by standing on top of it. Anya had been installed in an extra desk pushed up next to his own. The red-headed boy looked through his tiny glasses with an arrow line of sight right into the girl's green eyes, making Todashiwaru flinch. She shrugged her coat over her shoulders and zipped it up, as per his instructions.

"I don't want to see such blatant disobedience of the dress code from you again, understood?"

"Yes Springfield-Sensei."

"Now, Miss Xu, please collect the homework. Everyone, please take it out and leave it on your desk with miss Xu can pick it up, take out your notebooks too, I am going to write on the board today..."

Business as usual, as always for Negi Springfield this early Tuesday morning. First Class 4A, then his own class, followed by a prep which would be consumed by a staff meeting, then Classes 3J and 2E before he'd take a quick lunch with his homeroom. Then the new 2A and finally 1B before he's have his homeroom at the very last period for dismissal. Then he'd go to the grocery store and get some tomatoes and lettuce, pick up some milk, maybe eggs..._maybe_. Anything else he needed, whatever that was, go home, put it all in the fridge, go back out with Asuna and Konoka to run some errands in the city, come back , change eat, go back, train a bit before bathing and preparing for bed...typical day...it were not for a few odd events that invariably happened in Negi's life.

The first of these "odd events" that Negi might as well give up and call them usual ones, happened after the staff meeting in the Dean's office. The Dean had asked Negi to stay, as he wanted to speak to him privately. That was never a good sign for Negi, but, as it _**was**_ his boss, he had to comply. He waited for the other teachers to file out, conversing about one random topic or another, one bringing up soccer, which sent them all into a debate, and as the door closed, Negi focused on the ever present silhouette of the Dean. Anya, who had come with him due to the simple fact that Negi could leave her nowhere else, had fallen asleep in the corner on a chair from sheer boredom.

"You know, one of these days, that "shadowy form superimposed upon a blindingly bright window" thing is going to get old, and you'll be out of style Dean."

"...You really know how to greet a person."

"Thank you, remind me to give you the flyer for my next performance. Now spill, what's it that you want from me?"

"You also are quite terrible at diplomatic discussion."

"If you mean I suck at beating around a bush uselessly, yeah, I suppose you can't be great at everything, oh well, boo hoo."

"I am canceling the trip to Kyoto."

"Whoo, don't go so fast, you'll make my head spin with your straight forwardness. Why the hell you canceling the trip?"

"It's too dangerous."

"Because of Anya? She wouldn't hurt a fly."

"....No."

"That what my grand Dean, is the matter? You overdraw your account and need to compensate?"

"Magical relations are bad between the east and west, Kansai mages may attack you."

"Whoo, and they call _**me**_ paranoid. What the hell would they do to a bunch of middle school girls anyway? Try and rape them? I assure, you, if any one mage tries they'll get my foot up thier behind so far, they'll have my toes for new teeth. Or is this about Konoka-san?"

The Dean's face told Negi he had struck a bullseye.

"You remember what I told you about my granddaughter?"

"That she's a mage? I don't care if you accidentally mentioned it over a month ago, hell yes I remember it. I also know that Sakurazaki-san calls her ojo-sama. Now I know she's her body guard, but, despite Konoka's steady dislike of the title, the girl continues to use it, so it makes me think there's more there. Then I think of you, an advisor to the mage society here, and her a mage who doesn't know it, and it clicks. You tried to marry your child to a representative of the Kansai organization in order to try and improve relations between the two, but failed. Now, the Father and mother are on two different sides, and she's stuck in the middle without any flipping idea. She's a heir to a magical association, a modern day princess, with enough magical juice to light up the country, and you're afraid that the critics of friendly relations between the east and west will steal her away and use her against you."

"...You are, as always, far too sharp for my liking."

"It's what you friggin get when you hit up Magus for a mage student to do your bidding. He'll put your request in the system and rank it the highest he can so that only the best student deemed by the scrolls will get it. You got his sharpest student, what you wanted. The hell is the matter is I'm sharper than you would have liked me to be? Would you rather some other dotting baby who can't do squat?"

"..."

"As I was saying. Any mage tries to lay a hand on my students, _**any**_ of my students, and they will feel my wrath."

"I have no doubt you can handle a Mage from the Kansai Organization."

"The hell is the problem then?"

"The problem is, I said _**A**_ mage."

"Oh so you don't think I can handle an ambush?"

"No, I don't think you can handle an ambush _alone_."

"Sakurazaki-san is protecting her. I am protecting her, there is a marksman, a Chinese kenpo master, a ninjitsu student, and I don't have time to list what else in this class, and you think I'm gonna be _fricken_ alone if some group comes and attacks my class? You're going senile old man."

"..."

"I'm waiting for the next point to tear into a million tiny pieces here."

"At least deliver this letter to my son-in-law then."

"The Dean pulled the yellow envelope from his sleeves and held it out to Negi. Negi looked at it a bit curiously before smiling.

"As always, and as I suspected anyway, you had no intention of cancelling that trip anyways, didn't you?"

"Oh no, I did, I was going to put this in the mail box on my way to lunch, but I think this is more discreet and personal, besides, I think I'm a bit to stiff to get up and walk all the way over there to the box. Guard it with your life...it contains sensitive information."

Taking the envelope from him, Negi shook his head as he slid into into his inner pocket.

"You're just so lazy it's beyond belief Dean. Really. I don't know where we all would be without such a dean."

Poking Anya lightly in the ribs, making her shift position and mumble, Negi rolled his eyes before dragging her from the couch. He was in no mood to carry her. It would arouse quite a scene anyway. Like it or not, he had somehow become a sex symbol in this school, despite his age, and no one would take to him carrying a girl in his arms like that. He opened the door, and, for once, to the Dean's relief, closed it behind him.

A second odd thing occurred later, during a kind of student's conference in the bathhouse, of which Negi was not present. During the bath, many of the girls scolded each other due to them mistakenly thinking that the other had touched them. It only became apparent later, thanks' to Makie, that a furry like animal was to blame, the said animal trying to make off or at least strip off most of their clothes. The screaming attracted Asuna, who had been walking by. Negi decided to continue on to the dorm with Konoka and Anya, for he was sure he would not be welcome in the bathhouse...correction, he might be welcome, but he didn't _want_ to go in there. Asuna managed to smack the offending animal with a wash pan, revealing the animal to be...a weasel?

No, an ermie. An ermie with a big mouth that Negi had to shut up instantly before it blabbed out his name. Negi tried to pass the animal off as his "lost pet" that seemed to have arrived in a late shipment of his things by accident. It mainly worked, to his relief, yet when they got back to the dorm, to prepare for bed, Konoka realized she had forgotten to buy something, and, rushing out, left to allow Negi's sparks to fly. Anya had left with her too, but only because she could nearly see the steam gushing from Negi's ears.

"WHAT. WHAT THE HELL were you thinking?!"

"Aniki...Aniki's mad, uh oh."

"Mad? Hell no, I'm pissed. What the hell were you thinking, stripping them in the bath, you perverted idiot?!"

"Uhhh...I was trying to measure them?"

"For what may I ask? Your diaries?!"

"For you!"

"...Of all the lame excuses. What would _**I**_ want with their measurements?"

"Isn't Aniki looking for a partner?"

Negi slapped his forehead and allowed the hand to travel down, distorting his face as it went.

"In. Case. You. Have. Not. Noticed. I. Am. Six. Years. Old. The. Hell. Am. I. Going. To. Do. With. A. Partner?!?"

"I just thought.."

"Chamo, you didn't think, that's all there is to it!"

Asuna looked on, mildly interested, as the verbal tennis game between the ermie and the boy continued. She kinda felt left out here a bit.

"Mind telling me who this is, Negi?"

"Albert Chamomile, my self proclaimed familiar ever since I rescued him from a trap and healed him. Magical detector, Pactio forming, panty thief extraordinaire."

"Panty thief?!"

"Aww Aniki, did you have to mention that part?"

+--E--+

*Sighs* Oh wow...I am kinda tired now. I feel kinda drained from that, but hey! I needed to make it up to you all by getting one in early. Well, actually, two. I hope the little changes to the cross pattern helps you all, it might be the most helpful feature now, the chapter one isn't all that important, it's only used twice. So, how do you like it? Drop me a line, tell me what I'm doing wrong, and watch for the potential bump in rating. I don't want people to be scared just because it's rated so high, but I feel I may need to rate it so high soon for...well, violence reasons. I can only continue to glaze over strong details only so much before it begins to effect the story, but I think I can keep it at T for quite a long while yet. Nothing is going to get to explicit for quite a while. I just wish they still have the "T+" rating It was so useful...

See ya'll next time. (This was 95K...yikes.)


	17. Chapter XVI: A lesson in humility?

I just finished the other one and put it in, but, like always, I'm already pushing on another one! I just don't know when to quit and give myself a break, don't I? Ahh, no one cares about that, they want the story, no? The only reason why they would be here. I drabble too much, people don't come for my drabble! Or do they? ...Nah! This might be another double, actually, I think It will be, so watch out. Oh wow, I just realized. I just destroyed the 100,000 word mark. Nice. Never did that before. May I also mention that I have gone past where the previous version of this story went? This once has blasted the other out of the water! Even though it doesn't have _quite_ as much popularity, I feel this one is far better...

One note. It is obvious, but when I accidentally typed in the last document "lives his life" I obviously meant "lives her life" I notice that, even if I did have a spell check, that it probably wouldn't matter much. My typos actually replace one word for another, like typing "of" instead of "or" because the r is so close to the f on a keyboard....or typing "he" instead of "the" because I somehow skipped the "t" A spell check wouldn't matter one diddly squat."You" instead of "Your" I'm both typing this chapter an looking over my last one and I don't see any misspellings, but typos that make another word instead? Yep, those exist. Grammar check anybody?

...odd I put and instead of any. That happens a lot to me, but I don't get HOW. the "d" is quite a distance from the "y"...how did I miss this stuff on my original two checks? Excuse the sketchiness here, during writing of this chapter, I was grabbing at straws for ideas. I think I'm trying to defeat writers block by powering through it.

Oi oi! I do not own Negima! Kapeesh?

I thought I would go insane. I misplaced my flash drive on Friday, and the entire day, plus the weekend, I was worrying myself into an oblivion. Would I have to buy an new one, what about what I had written so far, the other things on this flash drive...yaddah yaddah yaddah. Turns out, the thing only fell out of my coat in the morning when I was traveling to college in my father's truck. While I'm disappointed in myself, worrying for no reason at all, I'm glad to have it back. I was planning on using a CD-RW today if I didn't find it..and it would have been a pain getting it to go in the computer, who's tower is standing straight up when the disk drive is meant to load when the tower is flat down...However, the first part of this chapter was inspired by the weekend without my flash, when I was thinking about how to re-write a chapter I had "lost" After that, up to the part about being stupid is the work done on Thursday.

+----+

_**Chapter Sixteen: A lesson in humility.**_ [CH16]

"Sagitta Magica Unas Fulgurans Ingus!"

Anya made a face. Twirling the borrowed wand a bit between her fingers and dropping it, she scooped it up hastily before trying to incant the spell again.

"S-Sagitta Magica Unas Fulgurans Ingus!"

Once again, nothing sprang from the star wand, and Anya bent her head.

"It's broken Negi."

"It's not "broken" you are not calling the magic from it correctly. You are saying the words, but your ability to draw the magic has been compromised. Don't be scared of magic because of what people have done to you with it. Master it."

Negi took the wand from her and spun it quickly between his fingers before making it snap forward, straight in front of him. His mouth formed the words it didn't need to orate as he spoke aloud the spell for her, while Asuna watched from her vantage point. They were all behind the high school dorms again, and Negi was drilling himself on basic magic to prevent from breaking any rules and revealing any magic to Anya before he took command of her teaching.

"Sagitta Magica, Unas Fulgurans, Ingus!"

On command, a single arrow of fire sprang from the wand and shot up into the sky eagerly, sending Anya's face alight with its brief flash of a fiery hue. She watched it travel quickly upwards and out of sight. That was something she doubted she'll ever be able to do, commandeering magic with such an ease. He released the wand and placed it in her right hand, folding her fingers over the thin shaft.

"Again. You can do it, you just have to re-gain your confidence in it. I've seen you do it."

Anya watched as Negi, grabbing his staff, spun it in an arc before sending volleys of magic arrows spewing from the tip of his staff, shooting upwards into the sky like so many fireworks. How many had he just summoned? Without even a care in the world, Negi seemed to make hundreds of them dance from his staff tip. His power seemed to be so much more than before, when they had been in school, as if, in such a short time, he had increased so much. Or maybe it was that she had never noticed it before. Trying to compare him to Swallowthorn now, she was certain he could fight her, but she could not really tell who was more powerful, she just couldn't scope that high...

+---+

The rest of the week passed relatively quickly for Negi and co. After the hectic first day, Anya gradually settled into the routines of the place and fit surprisingly well into the community. Negi got some peaceful sleep again, for the first episode was thankfully her last, and after the third day he could breathe again, for she stopped latching on after then. She seemed to like Konoka more than Asuna, but there was nothing he could do about that, he only told her to be careful and not talk about magic to her. Above all, Negi found the days after the first to be pretty easy. Ana proved that she could, indeed, wash her own self, just that she had been frozen when first coming here. Fear could easily make a person turn invalid. Yet, as fear disappeared, confidence returned, and Negi's job became easier, especially when his homeroom took quite a liking to her after Negi had dubbed her a "cousin". It seemed like no time at all before Thursday rolled around, and a flurry of packing had commence from those who love to wait until the last minute to do their tasks. Negi had already long packed, Konoka had finished on Wednesday, but Asuna...ummm...

"Where the heck is my scissors!?"

"Asuna-san, if you are going to yell in English, at least say it properly. It's where _are_ my scissors, and why the heck are you yelling in English anyway? Your scissors are on the coffee table in the living room by the way."

Asuna, who literally hopped into the living room, the reason being that she was putting on a sock, nearly fell over on her way to the coffee table, earning her a gale of laughter from Anya.

"You're kinda clumsy you know."

"Shut it kid before I twist you into a pretzel. Negi, you kid is trying to harass me again."

Negi, who happened to be in the kitchen making dinner, for it was his turn, had his voice float out of the kitchen.

"Asuna...don't tell me you can't handle a little jibe from Anya without me."

Anya, who began to giggle at this, received her own comment from Negi.

"....And you miss, stop goading Asuna. The only reason she doesn't try and kill you is because I won't let her..."

At this she poked out her tongue at Asuna.

"...And your being here was originally her idea. You should thank her."

At this Anya stopped and Asuna stuck out her own tongue, which Konoka caught while coming in with some laundry.

"You two are such kids. You're great together, Asuna and Anya-chan."

Both girls turned and answered at the same time:

"Who, with her?!"

Asuna caught her here though, catching her with the old standby:

"Jinx!"

Anya may not like it, but she couldn't let herself talk now. She just pouted and stuck out her tongue again, making Konoka laugh.

"You to really are like five years olds. Asuna, you should switch ages with Negi-kun and go out and play with Anya-chan."

Negi came out, carrying a towel over his shoulder and a pan in his hands. His eyebrows were raised, for he had heard that comment. He made no comment of his own though, not originally. Konoka reached over and pulled a boiled egg from his pan though, earning a glare.

"Hey! Those are hot! You'll burn yourself! Oii!"

"They're not that hot...Hmmm... Don't you think these need a little salt?"

"...making us all get high blood pressure and die of heart attacks? The egg is hot, so you won't be able to taste the salt it has on it until it cools down, besides, I'm not done cooking! Speaking of which, where did you put the Lo Mein...or the Chow Mein for that matter, any one, they're all the same."

"Oh, sorry! You wouldn't have been able to find it, I put it up on one of the higher cupboard shelves...let me get it for you."

"Mind telling me why you did that?"

"Hmm...I was stupid and not thinking I guess."

Negi cast his eyes up to the heavens as Konoka reached and pulled down the bag of thick, dry, flat, spaghetti-like food stuff. He had been here long enough, he thought, to be in his roommates minds when they placed food supplies in the kitchen, at least, he hoped so. Taking the bag a bit more gently then he had meant to, Negi nodded to Konoka to show his thanks before Turning back to his pot of boiling water and ripping open the bag. Konoka watched at the noodles fell...and then looked down when she felt something pulling on her shirt. It was Anya, pointing at her mouth.

_Such a kid. She's really going to wait until someone says her name three times to speak huh?_

"Anya, Anya, Anya. Come on, go and pack now, or you'll be worse off than Asuna is come Friday morning."

+--1--+

Friday morning came quickly, and, as expected, everyone had finally managed, somehow to finish packing and get themselves properly set up to go. This time, the train was there waiting for them when the got there, which was a welcome relief for Negi, who had lost some faith in the trains from the last time he had tried to get on one, although, he had to admit, he suspected divine intervention for that time when Asuna had bowled him over. Negi, surrounded by his class as they all piled in, took a seat Next to Anya, who clutched a borrowed bag from Asuna filled with newly bought clothes and a couple toiletry necessities, and Chisame, who was balancing her laptop on her knees and already hooked up to the wireless network available on the train...and typing away. Negi , on the other hand, had left his laptop at home this time, wanting to just relax and enjoy the trip to Kyoto in peace, away from all the hustle and bustle of the city. This was a trip, a vacation, and Negi wanted to live it to the fullest for the time being...

Leaning back in his seat, Negi watched as Anya's eyes easily fluttered closed, the movement of the train seeming to have a hypnotic effect on her. Looking up to see the roof of the train shake and pitch as his own head moved about, Negi let his mind wander along the paths Evangeline had opened for him. In his mind's eye, he saw his supposed "father" and he compared himself to the man... just once more. Same hair, similar eyes, almost identical face structure, body and bearing being similar, Negi had to admit, he seemed like a younger clone of the man, physically. Yet, mentally? He was certain the man had some intelligence, but his idiocy prevailed over all. His actions were foolish, emotional, reckless. His power saved him at every turn, that and his teammates. Negi preferred to fight alone, plan out his moves, hold just a bit of his power back for insurance sakes... All the time, he tried to improve his own power so he could stand alone. He would not have to rely upon others, or endanger others. His own stupidity would ensnare no one but himself. That was the way it should be. Self sufficient. Negi could cook, clean and provide for himself financially, it was only the Dean's insistence that kept him bound to a dorm room with his students. He could keep up a fine level of personal hygiene, and his habits and bearing were clean. Magically, he was quite a powerhouse, and could handle himself pretty well for his age. Exceptionally well, some might say.

A thump on his lap interrupted his thoughts, and Negi looked down to see Anya had decided, in her sleep, to use Negi's lap for a pillow. Little nuisance... He turned to Chisame, who had a privacy screen up to prevent even him from seeing what she was doing, even if he was right next to her in seating. He tapped her shoulder after she did not respond to his call, apparently, she had some pretty loud music going on in those headphones of hers. The girl turned and looked at him, annoyed. She pulled out the headphones from her ears and addressed him.

"What is it Sensei? I'm not breaking any rules am I?"

"No, no. I just wanted to know what time it was, that's all, I didn't want to invade your privacy by taking a peek at your screen."

"Oh....it's 8:15."

"Already? Half an hour passes by like a second...thank you, you can continue...whatever it is that you are doing over there."

Raising an eyebrow, the girl simply plugged the headphones back in her ears. She really had no time to deal with the sensei after he had dismissed her, she had other things to do after all. She only spared the girl sleeping on his lap a single, two seconds worth of a glance. The sleeping girl was kind of cute...Must be a blessing of Springfield's family, being cute when young...but who cared anyway? She had business with her fans. As she returned back to her laptop, Konoka managed to swing over on one of the numerous poles available on the train. She glanced at Anya briefly, a small smile on her face.

"I think she's drooling on you Sensei."

Glancing down, Negi confirmed this statement with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Oh well. Lucky for him this was not one of his expensive suits., or one that had a hard time drying or getting something off it.

"Oh the joys of child care, I name these."

Shaking his head, he whipped a napkin from one of his pockets and wiped her mouth dutifully, then, folding the napkin, placed it under her mouth to catch and more of the oozing liquid that might come. Konoka watched him with a slight interest. To think that he could show such care, he either really liked this girl or was a whole lot softer than he first let on. Negi grimaced up at her almost jokingly.

"Pah, the slime ball. It's alright now. What did you come for anyway Konoka-san?"

"I came to relieve you of her, but should I leave you two alone instead?"

"Oh no, go ahead and take the bugger. I'm probably going to conk out and go for a drool myself."

+--2--+

The train pulled into a station very different than the one if had left from, but the train, quite frankly, didn't care very much, thank you. It was the people inside it, which would most likely give it a thumping headache if it had an actual head, that were interested in the change. Unlike the gleaming white stone and metal, this one was a wooden structure built near a kind of water fall. A couple of trees hung over the low roof of the open building, dropping its seeds and debris all along the wooden deck, giving the whole place a both neglected and nature tuned feel, which was a strange combination, but it was the combination nonetheless. Trees in full bloom, the whole area seemed to be time sealed in a bottle from an ancient and older age, a preservation of something pristine. Negi was, as he stepped out of the train, suddenly very glad he had left his laptop at home. Breathing in, he realized how technology can make one rush life, and forget the simple pleasures nature can hold. He only hoped he could relax like he thought he could here, and that there would be no interruptions.

Like hell Negi, you can weave a whole wall rug with the thin thread you trip over in interruptions..and I'm only talking about one week's worth of time here!

Negi walked to a cart selling little trinkets for tourists at insane prices, like they always are. Rolling his eyes at the prices, and at the smiling vendor, Negi picked up a camera and looked at him. He surprised the man by putting it down and taking out his wallet. He barely managed to make himself visible over the height of the cart by standing at a distance. He walked around to the side the man was to give him the money.

"The amount of profit a person can make off of tourist attractions is utterly insane, but that's one of the driving forces to an economy, isn't it? I'll take this. Girls, mind if you all gather together near the railing over there? You all wanted a picture as a memento on the train, I heard you all talking about it, so I'll give you one. Anya, don't you dare lean over anymore there, the railing is too short to prevent you from falling if you do. Ohh I'd like my change thank you very much sir, if you don't mind. You are so kind. Oi! Get together now. Anya, in front, Yue-san, in front, Ku-Fei-san, in front, Kaede-san, in back with Mana-san, Miss Sakurazaki, stop sulking around and get near Konoka-san please. No, you are not tall enough for the back, unfortunately...stand near Chisame-san then! Chisame-san, would you put down the laptop for at least one minute?! Your net ventures can wait, you're like an addict! Miss Satome, move closer in. Miss Yukihiro, a bit more in back, stand next to Asuna-san please. Asuna, please don't try to sneak and give your class president bunny ears. Miss Chizuru, a bit more in back. Closer together now, I can't see all of you in this thing."

"Negi-sensei, join us in the picture!"

"No I can't come in the picture with you all, I need to hold the camera! I can't put it on the stand, this thing doesn't have a timed flash feature."

A fellow tourist, who was walking by, saw the antics of the girls and decided to step in. The man smiled down at Negi.

"Need some help there?"

"Oh no, I'm just taking a picture."

"Why don't you let me do that for you, it seems like those girls want you in it with them."

He nodded at the waiting class, all piled up together. Some took the hint and began badgering Negi again for his participation in the group shot.

"Sensei!"

"You'll take the picture? That's…nice of you. Okay then..."

"Springfield-Sensei!"

"Oh I'm coming I'm coming, keep your clothes on will you, and don't you dare take that comment and run with it somewhere odd!"

Holding the tiny camera with a surprisingly steady grip for one hand, he waved them all in and down a bit until he got the whole class. He then quickly snapped the photo and asked Negi if he wanted more than one shot. He took three for them before handing it back to Negi. His hands were unusually cold to the touch, as if he had stuck them in a bucket of ice before handling the camera with such ease.

"I know your name is apparently Springfield, but you didn't get mind, did you?"

"Oh, that's fine, thanks. I'll just remember you as a nice guy."

Waving them all off, the man watched as they went.

"Hell if I understand why you like greeting tourists Yuuki."

The man turned to see another man leaning against one of the supporting beams in the trains station.

"One of these day's you'll learn the value of being a little nice Swallowthorn. How's your sister doing?"

"The hell should I know? The b!+©h never calls."

"Such language, my associate… If you must know, I am cheering for the other side. A mage I think I just helped with a photo shoot."

"That shrimp? She'll wipe the floor with it. No wonder I thought I saw the rule breaking kid trying to kill herself by jumping off the edge of the train station just now. As for my sis, you always were an ass like that, rooting for the other side."

"I just don't approve of you or your sister's style of doing things, my friendly associate. Like how you insist on waiting for the letter carrier here to mug them and try and steal their mail while they deliver to the train station to prevent improving relations between east and west. "

"Oh shut up mister nice guy."

"Of course, if you wish."

+--3--+

This place was just what Negi needed. As he held dutifully unto Anya's hand, making sure she did not wander, off, Negi drank in the complete peace of the area around him. This place was a Zen garden, preserved from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo City, it was a completely different and more old time based experience. Negi allowed himself to be pulled this way and that by one student or another, which showed his good mood as he took in insane and unlikely traditions and legends that his students were getting excited over and only nodded or smiled in response. Negi's mind was on another planet for all the attention he paid to where he was going or who he was with that day. He was, at once, at ease. Yet, the letter he cared with him pressed against his chest, and he knew he would have to, eventually, let loose from his students and go to give this to the one who needed to see it. Such a pain. Such an infernal pain. Negi's world was suddenly tilted to the left as Asuna pulled him, resulting in a yelping Anya, towards her and Konoka. Separating the two from each other dutifully, Asuna only explained to Negi that she thought Anya needed some "Girl time" with Konoka, and that she needed to ask him a question, something Negi's mind barely registered before he was whisked away by Asuna one way and Konoka joined the group with the others, in the opposite way. It was only when they got a safe enough distance away did she explain the abrupt parting of the young, red-headed sea.

"You two look like lovers, couldn't you tell she was hanging off your arm?"

"Who...Anya? She doesn't know right from left in this town, and I had a map, the hell else was she supposed to do? is that why you pulled me from my supervision duties?"

"No, not really...you seem distracted today. Something's up. Don't try to tell me I'm wrong either. Setsuna-san keeps dodging into the trees, which for some reason is upsetting Konoka more than looking weird, and Mana-san has a scary look in her eyes."

"Mana-san's a scary chick, and Sakurazaki-san is an over protective body guard, what else is new?"

"There is something magical going on here, I know it. You've got this spacey look in your eyes."

"Well that's ni- duck!"

"What?"

Negi didn't pause to explain, just pushed her out of the way and brought out, seemingly from nowhere, his short sword, which neatly cut a black bird that had been flying right at them. The bird fell, now just a piece of paper, something Negi hissed at. Chamo, who had happened to be in one of Negi's inner pockets all this time chilling out, sleeping, popped out to say hi and saw Negi's face.

"Whoa dude, what's with the fireworks Aniki?"

"Shikigami, that's what."

Asuna looked at him oddly. Her face plainly spoke that she had no idea what the heck he had just said, or why he had almost made her fall to slice a paper dove in half. Negi looked up at her, but Chamo beat him to the punch in explaining.

"Paper-golems, Ane-san. They use paper with magic to create beings to do someone's bidding. It's eastern magic, which is prime for this area...damn eastern mages, hiding behind origami!"

"...Okay....can someone please tell me why, every time I think Magic can't get any more complicated, it does?"

"Magic's always been that way Ane-san. People constantly find more ways to channel their power to do something."

Negi, still looking at Asuna, sighed.

"Girl, do you know how many times you break the rules and get dragged along with me on something stupid? Goddamn. Yeah, something's up, and hell be onto the person who magiced up this idiocy if I catch them."

Stepping onto the piece of paper and grinding it's length into the dirt, Negi looked down at the thing as if it were something disgusting from the depths of the pit. He spat at it almost dutifully before looking back to Asuna, his face set.

"I wanted to wait, but it looks like I can't. I've got to deliver something. Would you like to come wi-"

"Sensei, come look at this!"

"...Later."

+--4--+

"Wow sensei, you're really good at this. Are you sure this is your first time?"

"Of course, I've never played this game before."

"Hey, kid, you wanna play against me? In a real simulator?"

Negi glanced up from where he was to see a boy a bit older than him looking down from his vantage point of standing. Negi raised an eyebrow as he sat. It was true that Negi easily grasped the concept of this game, due to its similarity to actual magical battle, as close as a card game could come to that that it. However, this was a card game, what did he mean real simulator? Yet, one of his students seemed elated.

"There's a sim here?!"

The sim was large, and made for two people to stand in. It almost looked fictional, housing a place for the cards to be placed and simple remote control strap on objects for the hands and feet. It was a completely involved experience to add to the "Magic" card game. Negi slipped on one of them and flexed his fingers experimentally as the figure on the screen moved to flew their own fingers. Negi had chosen a classic "Mage" Model for an avatar. His opponent, a boy with a wool hat pulled to cover his hair and a simple shirt and jeans under an open over coat, smirked at him, sporting a "Warrior" avatar. The sim randomly scanned in his "deck" taking the codes from the magnetic stickers affixed on every card, and randomly gave him a hand of them on the screen to use. The two boys only spared each other one simple glance before commencing their battle. It was hectic from the start, as the older boy seemed to be experienced in such matters, and Negi, the newbie wonder, was quickly in trouble, although he was fighting tooth and claw not to die once he got the hang of it. The distance between the two combatants slowly narrowed as they raged at each other. Yet, in the end, Negi was denied victory against such an experienced foe, although he did nearly pull off an incredible upset. Smacking Negi down with an authority, the boy grinned at him while his figure lifted up his weapon in victory. He slipped off his gloves and gave a wicked smile, showing unusually feral teeth.

"You're pretty good for a newbie, and for using the western mage model, which sucks ass. See yah Negi!"

Speeding off and leaving Negi to take off his own gear and retrieve his own deck, which he handed to it's true owner, one Konoka, he frowned small frown. Asuna noticed it and poked him in the shoulder, earning herself a glare.

"Disappointed you lost?"

"No...tell me, when did I tell this guy my name?"

"...You didn't why?"

"He just called me Negi."

"...."

"This can't be good."

"No, I don't think it is, is it...was that one of your Eastern Mages?"

"If it was, I hope he's not as good in actual battle as he is in this damn game."

"Oh come on it was your first time, you were getting him good in the end, but you took to much damage in the beginning, so he got you."

"That's no excuse."

+--5--+

Negi sighed as he sank deeper into the steaming water of the springs. Friday had been a hectic day, hadn't it? Negi had been too preoccupied to really notice, but his whole body ached from being dragged around like a toy wheel barrow all day, dragging his charge right along with him. Chamo, the ever present Ermie, smoked a cigarette off to the side, on top of a rock, amusing himself by blowing smoke rings in the already steam-saturated air. Negi could only make a face at his familiar's antics. He called out to him.

"You know how much I friggin hate the smell of cigarette smoke?"

Chamo, shaken out of his daydreaming revere, which just happened to include several members of Negi's own homeroom class in the bathhouse, could only, all a bit reluctantly, stamp on the end of his smoke before tossing it off. He jumped off the rock and into the water bellow, hitting it with a faint yelp, for it was a lot hotter than he had originally thought it was, coming from the cooler outside air. A natural swimmer, the ermie sliced through the water like an otter, reaching Negi in nearly no time at all. The ermie resurfaced near him, making the boy sigh.

"I really don't know what to do with you, Chamo. I don't."

A panel sliding back interrupted Negi's sentiments. While the ermie dived down into the water, Negi himself slid down a bit to try and see through the fog at who had come. This was the men's bath, and, as far as he knew, his class was the only one on this trip, and he was the only male, (besides Chamo, but he didn't really count, no matter how much he valued his "manhood".) in it. It had to be another hotel guest, which meant it could possibly be someone hostile. His vantage point and the open door panel wafting cold air to dissipate some fog, allowed him to see someone he did not expect to lay eyes on. Short with cropped raven black hair, Setsuna Sakurazaki walked in the open air bath and walked to one of the walls, sticking on a paper charm upon the wall with characters Negi could not see at this distance. Her whole bearing seemed to emanate a feeling of doing something undercover, which piqued Negi's interest. Yet...a splash and a gulp Negi recognized caused the girl to spin on her heel and draw her blade in the same moment. Her sharp eyes peering into the darkness and her bearing seemed ready, at any moment, to snap and let all hell break loose. Negi sank further down the water.

_Stupid Chamo! _

"Who's there?!"

Another splash, and Negi felt like strangling the ermie, slowly squeezing it as its eyes would pop out like a frog's would until the pressure caused them to either explode outwards or bleed at the edges and let the guts spew. Just let him catch that damn ermie...couldn't he be quiet for a damn second in the water? Setsuna's eyes narrowed and seemed to lock unto the shadowy form or a rock, which Negi had decided to creep behind. Another splash, closer to the edge of the spring, made Negi realize, as Setsuna spun her head in the direction, that Chamo was being even more stupid that he first thought. He was peeking at her! It had finally dawned upon Negi that, through all the smoke, the girl wasn't wearing anything. Yet, while Negi paled at the thought of the girl trying to use the men's bath and cursed Chamo's stupidity, the still managed to wonder...why? Why the hell use this bath? Why not use the other one? While he thought, Chamo made another splash, and Setuna had had enough, rearing back her blade, she spoke three sharp syllables, the name of the famous "Rock Splitting Technique", slashing right at Negi's rock. He was lucky as hell she didn't behead him! Rushing at him after this technique, Negi's battle experience took hold, and neglected his common sense. Using the rock end he had almost received a crushed skull from when it came off, he bodily lugged it at the oncoming form. He knew she would either dodge or slice and dice it, but he didn't want to hurt her anyway. Lucky for him, she decided to try and slice it. Rushing at her, he used the rock as cover and grabbed her blade, wrenching it from her grasp as he sped off to the side, away from her, tossing the blade in the other direction. His hope was that she would go after her blade and let him escape in peace, but that wasn't that case. Water drastically slowed down his movements, and she caught him, slamming him up against a rock and grabbing him in an area he found quite delicate.

"Who are you?! Answer me or I crush it!"

Now, Negi might be in a bad place here, but that have never meant his tongue was any less sharp in comebacks. His famous tongue lashed out faithfully now, identifying him as one Negi Springfield to the core.

"Ahh go ahead and crush it if you want Sakurazaki-san, It's not like I have much use for it. I'm friggin six years old for god's sakes! Just do me a favor and cut it off before you crush it, I'd prefer not to feel the crushing part."

Now, this little remark originally would make someone like Setsuna pause for perhaps about two seconds before she actually continued to try and interrogate the caught man, however, this one man had a child's voice, and a child's voice she recognized. As the open door whisked away more steam, her eyes saw one red haired individual whose loose hair fell into the water and splayed around them like a flower, but the face was an unmistakable one. Disengaging, throwing her hands up in a disarming gesture, the girl allowed her brain to register three things. One, she had just attacked her teacher, two she had just tried to crush her Sensei's family jewels, and three, if her suspicions that this said Sensei was a mage were correct, than he had proved that he either had good control over it or no magic at all. As these three things spun she couldn't help take a glance at her hand and allow the actual implications of what she had done to sink in. Chamo decided to jump into the conversation by supplying a brilliant idea that neither person present particularly had in mind or was even glad to hear.

"You're a spy from the Kansai mage association aren't you Ane-san?!"

Setsuna seemed greatly offended by this comment, and seeming ready to send the ermie flying, Negi, regardless of the fact he himself wanted to kill the ermie, held it protectively. The little animal would get it's abuse from Negi himself later on...

"No, I would never! I am Sensei's ally!"

"Oh how you would love us to believe tha-"

A piercing shriek cut off Chamo in midsentence. That and Negi's finger, which had been stuffed in front of the animal's mouth with a hurried jab. Chamo nearly swallowed Negi's fingernails as Setsuna paled and turned in the direction of the scream. Her face said plainly what Negi's mind dawned upon when he heard the tone of the yell.

"Konoka-san.."

"Ojo-sama!"

+--6--+

"Damn monkey, let her go!"

"Asuna-san! Stand back!"

Asuna turned around to see that the door to their room had been blasted open, and that Negi was practically flying on the borrowed wings his momentum lent him as his hand reached... out and his bag jerked violently before allowing his staff to fly from it. Slapping him a high five in greeting in his palm, the thing glowed a blood red as Negi instantaneously let loose a single magic arrow of lightning he had quickly been composing in his head mentally. He cursed the fact he had not yet reapplied the inking for his tattoo. He had needed to get the ingredients and had neglected to do so today. Idiot. The arrows shot out straight for the "monkey" suited individual, extracting a yelp as they quickly tossed Konoka over their shoulder and tossed a shield charm, which was utterly destroyed on contact with the arrow but managed to do its job in blocking it. The mystery monkey jumped out the open window just as Sestsuna managed to slide into the dorm and lunge at it. Negi himself, grabbing his mages robe from his bag neglected to put anything else on as he too, jumped out of the window, there was simply no time. Setsuna gave chase just as a lone, loping ermie came through the door, yelling uselessly for his Aniki to wait.

"Get back here you ape!"

Asuna scooped up the ermie and grabbed a coat before taking the more sane, if longer route of the stairs and out the door. She managed to reach them when they were halfway down the street, catching up with Setsuna. The monkey sped towards the train station, which was curiously empty, but Negi, sending a blast into one of the supporting pillars of the place, causing no damage, answered the unasked question of where everyone had gone by shaking loose a warding charm. He stomped on it in passing, ripping it in half with his boot sole. The simian managed to get on the train and Negi nearly got himself cut in half by the doors, but for a good cause, for they sprung open and gave enough time for the two girls after him to shoot in before closing. Negi was already at the end of one of the train cars and opening to door to get to another, for the monkey was ahead in another car. Yelling all the way as he made it in to the second car, his obviously far from six year old average intelligence spoke for itself.

'You my hairy friend, are going to get a very pleasant taste of just what _**my**_ scorn can do to a simpering simian of your character, you rotten primate. Get back here with my student before I give you something you don't have! An opposable thumb! I'll break yours until it can move freely!"

"Charm-san, Charm-san, please facilitate my escape."

He almost caught the monkey, with one of his well placed lightning arrows, but it only just managed to get deflected by a sliding train car door. The monkey managed to place a charm on the door and, even as Asuna managed to get in and run to the halfway mark, a gush of water blasted Negi backwards, quickly filling the car with water. Damn it! Pooling his magic for about ten wind arrows to blast open the windows, Setsuna beat him to the punch in calling up one of her techniques to blast them open. Of all the annoyances! The train finally managed to get to its next stop and the monkey got off, Negi almost kicking the door open on his train to get it to move, but the door was slightly faster than him, his kick only barely met air instead of steel. He did not break his stride however, breaking into a run after the infernally costumed perp.

"Remind me the next time we get to a zoo to punch the first monkey I see dead in the face! I don't care it's a gorilla even! I'll still pound it to bits!"

Running full length along with his companions, he saw the monkey climb a set of stairs and turn around, flashing another charm.

"Charm-san Charm-san, please facilitate my escape."

Sending the charm flying, it activated, sending not water, but fire this time, spewing from itself, creating a huge figure in the general shape of a human to block their path, Negi was prepared for this kind of trick however, as he had already begun to chant for some arrows, he simply modified the spell to send about thirty of them flying at the object, of the element of water. Steering them close together, they literally became a giant, flying wave to slam into the fire figure, quenching it in an instant as the boy, still running to get where the other was, yelled out.

"Stop hiding behind your ripped out love notes you fool!"

_How did he manage to dissipate my fire guardian so easily?!_

Setsuna had her blade out, and, even as the other brought out several more charms, Negi chanted under his breath, a spell Asuna barely recognized but one that, at the end, heard her name.

"Pro unus quisnam est non a socius, socius in bellum, tribuo vox of pactum pro duos centum quod, seccentum secundus, Asuna Kagurazaka...hope to hell you're ready for this, activate!"

Asuna suddenly felt herslef being propelled forward at a speed her body had not been able to achieve before. she recognized the feeling, barely, from before, only now it's reappearance had slammed it's effects more solidly into her mind. The only one who looked more determined to get Konoka, or more dangerous, could have only been Setsuna. Despite Negi shooting off his mouth, his face was the least set of the bunch. Setsuna landed on the steps just before Asuna managed to halt at them to start up. Negi, who was once in front, held back, chanting another spell mentally for his little charm using monkey friend if they tried anything. All in all, three on one was good odds. Setsuna spoke for them all.

"You will release ojo-sama before I am forced to bloody my hands with the contents of your veins."

"Oh ho ho..I don't think so. You see, I need her, and I think she needs a bit of discipline, don't you? Gallavanting about without her bodyguard, a shame."

The monkey tossed off the whole lot of charms that she had held in her hands, sending them fluttering every direction with their activation line and, from them came...more monkeys?! This was new...Negi jumped in the fray just as Asuna was about to be overtaken by the things with a well placed tornado like spell, blowing all of them back. He then reared around his staff and delivered part two of a one two punch, letting loose a spell for banishing demons in a ring around him, sending it shooting outwards at the monkeys around them. The monkeys dissipated and Negi found it odd that Setsuna nearly got caught in the blast and carried some distance forward by it, towards the big monkey, which was fine by her but weird for him. Why was she effected by it? All hell, there was no time to think about that! He jumped at the big monkey too, holding HeartBreaker high.

_So this is the power of a western mage?! Son of the thousand master? Yikes!_

Just as Setsuna was about to reach the woman, an interruption took place that none of them really expected, in the form of a girl in pink, wielding two blades, who seemed elated to try and run Setsuna through...

+-FIN-+

Sorry, this is a bit short for you all, I know, but I'm kinda scraped for time here. I'll try to make it up in the next one, which is destined to have plenty of fighting action, obviously. I am also taking a little leap and editing the turn of events a little, I hope you don't mind. I am also taking out a license to change a couple of other things going on, that will make things more interesting and less redundant. Until next time, I leave you with a little cliff hanger!


	18. Chapter XVII: These Searing veins

I hate to keep you all waiting like this for the fight between Negi and Swallowthorn, yet that's all the way at Christmas, and it's only the middle of October! It makes me want to bend the rules...just a tad, to satisfy you all. Yet, one does say that the longer the wait only makes the eventual victory the sweeter the taste. Who's the victor though? No one knows...except me and the deities above that is, and that's no fun for the readers....or is it? I still only have two unique voters on my most recent poll. (At least, when I typed that it did, now it says six.) Know that I value your opinions highly my friends. You can very well make me bend a story to your will, if you try hard enough. I will say that, currently...none of you have chosen the option I have in mind, which is surprising to me. Maybe it's another surprise? Yet! I talk too much. Let's get it on! With this chapter, I have now left the last Young Negi in the dust not only in story line progression or word count, but in chapter count. The only thing left to do is bypass its review count! That my friends, is up to my skill and your diligence. I also notice something _else_ about my writing that annoys me and needs work...

I use the word "though" far too much. I have been trying to remedy that, it you have noticed, in these recent chapters, but still, the words comes up to often for my tastes. There are so many other words you can use MFT! USE them.

I mention a quick note to "dragon" the anonymous reviewer, named as "Alex" by yourself. While it is true Negi and other mages use a spell release, these spell releases are normally omitted during unincanted spell work, which is a staple of Negi's magic in this fan fiction. However, even so, I generally omit the spell release in Negi's work when he is actually speaking because one only needs to say it once in one "bout" of magic. You don't need to say it before every spell. It's there to release your magic for that whole bout. Normally after abstaining from magic use for a little while a mage will re-chant it as a precautionary measure. As for the spell, normally one does chant that way, Sagitta Magica, Unas for one, Spiritus and then the element, but this is not a normal technical spell Anya and Negi were playing at. Fulgurans can be used in a number of ways, and many times, the "Spiritus" is and can be, omitted. While I do, for now, seem to follow the original storyline of Negima closely, I have many "break offs" as a writers license in creativity will allow. As we progress, I will naturally further break off from the original line, for I have plans for Negi and co....

I mention this always. I do not own Negima. Thank you.

+---+

_**Chapter Seventeen: True Power Comes from Within. (These Searing Veins)**_

As Setsuna flashed out her own blade in a protective gesture to prevent from being sliced in half, Negi jumped into the fray, using HeartBreaker, which had been revealed as a rapier, to block the other blade. He yelled out to Setsuna, whose eyes widened as she vaguely recognized the face underneath the wide brimmed pink hat.

"Sakurazaki-san! Get after Konoka before the monkey escapes! I'll handle Pinky over here!"

Now, while the name was unoriginal and cheesy at best, Setsuna got the point and detached her blade quickly from the other girls before twisting to get after the monkey suited kidnapper. The girl in pink tried to give chase, but Negi quickly sidestepped in her way, blocking the path. She looked disappointed as she looked down at her new opponent. Negi decided to let his tongue have the first blood, but not before he had to respond to the girl's jibe.

"Aww...you're so cute! You want to play dress up?"

"Oh quite the contrary little Miss Muppet. I'm here to play, but not that kind of game."

Holding his blade out horizontally so his right hand could touch its tip, Negi gave a quick smile to his opponent.

"I hope you're on the same level as Sakurazaki-san, she may have gone easy on me, but we held a duel for well over an hour once. It will be really fun to try that again. Don't hold back, or you'll disappoint me, my pink Gumby friend."

Without any further ado, Negi launched forward, swinging HeartBreaker in a violent forward slash that the other blocked with one blade and then had to resort to two to keep it steady. Negi was one tiny package that had a huge amount of physical strength stuffed into it, and it showed in the way his one handed blade held off the other's two, regardless of how skinny the girl herself looked, sword fighting normally meant thin, flexible, fast and strong, not bulky. Yet, the girl was unfazed by the boy's strength. Detaching swiftly with a flourish in a spin, she came back around in time to jump off to the side to avoid a forward stab by Negi, and tried to get his right kidney, to no avail, as Negi jumped away and turned to her new position, leaping at her with abandon and making their blades crash against each other, throwing sparks into both of their speckled eyes.

Besides Negi's specks and his robe, he wore nothing else, which was a point of interest for the other girl, for she tried to use modesty to an advantage against Negi, trying to cut his only cover off and render him useless in battle, but to no avail, as the two continued to cross blades, Negi proved himself to be both adept in sword fighting and avoidance and he did not disappoint when it came to proving to this girl his worth to stand in the place of Setsuna. Negi had, in the time after fighting Setsuna, trained nearly every day to improve himself further so that next time, Setsuna would have no chance of going "easy" on him. Now, nearly a month afterward, he showed what he had gained. All the while, his mind played at strategies to employ, and his mouth twitched in to a feral little smile of his own. Just you wait.

_Just you wait Sakurazaki-san, I'll pay you back for going easy on me, one day._

Having his feet planted firmly on two different leveled of steps, Negi swiftly spun his blade around to deflect a hail of thrusts from the girl, yet, as much as the girl tried to thrust forward and gain ground, Negi still kept his feet planted firmly on the uneven land, fending her off even as all three blades began to approach the appearance of steamers comprised of steel. Meanwhile, on another area of the platform of steps, Setsuna was bust slashing apart a bunch of summoned monkey demons with Asuna's help. Perhaps it was her stupidity, or maybe her over confidence, but the woman in the monkey suit carrying Konoka was simply watching Asuna and Setsuna fight against her simian army with a laughter dancing in her eyes, but never reaching the grace of her lips. Yet, in the end, it was stupidity that it most likely proved to be, for Asuna managed to get close enough to punch a demon monkey straight in the face and send it flying, rushing, finally, at the big Donkey Kong of them all and catching her right in the gut with a well aimed kick. At that very same time, Setsuna managed to exit the fray and grab Konoka from the surprised woman, who had suddenly realized the folly of her enjoyment. Negi, who had managed to turn to she could see the three of them while still not compromising his fight with the pink clad girl, smiled all the wider.

"Sorry pinky, but I've got more important things to than continue playing with you, hmm? Go fight yourself. Aer ictus!"

Allowing his right palm to shoot out as he blocked another thrust from the girl, the magic pooled as his palm slammed into her gut, blasting her backwards with both his own strength and the power of the spell. He then shot forward, going towards the woman who now found herself in quite an unfavorable position, Tsukiyomi, the girl in pink, whose name I have neglected to mention till now, got up quickly from being blasted and cursed. Her glasses! They had been blown off! Muttering as she helplessly cast her hands around for them, the girl thought back to how the boy had caught her in a completely predictable and textbook classic counter. Block her blades and palm her in the gut. It was so simple, it made her head throb. How could she have gotten caught!? That child...was it possible that she could look to him as a suitable opponent in addition to Sempai? That would be...wait...gah! No! Her objective, her idolization, was Setsuna Sakurazaki alone! Sempai was the only worthy opponent! This child was nothing!

Finally managing to snatch her glasses, the girl instantly sprang after Negi, who had reared back HeartBreaker to slash at the woman. Yet, as his blade came down, she, even with a stricken face, seemed to melt away, literally, turning into water even as his blade was about to hit home. Negi make a sound halfway between a snarl and a growl and spun around to nearly slice the pink clad girl in two, if it were not for the fact she two turned into a puddle of water and dissipated away. Sparing the clean length of HeartBreaker's blade a token glance, he snarled again, earning a slightly nervous look from Asuna.

"God damn I _hate_ it when people run from a good fight! Now what the hell am I supposed to do with all this pent up energy!?!"

"At least we got Konoka back."

"At least."

+--1--+

"It took you long enough, New Kid! Another second and I would have been Deli meat! That child is far more skilled than any reports claim him to be!"

"...You expected anything different?"

"The power of Konoka Konoe should be greater than his by far, even more than the thousand masters. Mine is not though, so next time be more punctual! That child could have killed me!"

"Relax...the next attempt is my own. I'll show you how it's done."

\ \ \ (Follow the arrow, arrow, arrow. Follow the arrow. Bad pun.)

* * *

/ / / (Follow the arrow, arrow, arrow. Follow the arrow. Bad pun.)

The day was a brilliant one, and one that Negi well appreciated after a hectic night. Maybe, when he was older, he'd come and live here, or some other place like it. Being near nature and living life at a slow pace was something Negi found surprisingly enjoyable, considering he was always doing something in his usual life, rushing around on one errand or another. After the fight, Negi had trudged along with the others to the hotel, Parting with Setsuna at their room. (Together, Asuna and Konoka shared a room with Negi, Anya and Makie, for it was easier to rent rooms of higher quality when you had fewer rooms to rent.) Makie had been a deadbeat sleeper since seven, so she had seen none of the crazy antics with the monkeys, and even if she had, she might have chalked it all up as a dream, for her dreams normally had something or other to do with strange animals and the like. Anya had too, had hit the sack early. Negi, after getting back in the dorm and helping Asuna get her set up properly in her bed, had dressed more acceptably before back going outside in the back of the hotel with both his blades, to release pent up energy of course. From the vantage point of the room, Asuna could easily see him performing incredible feats in a flurry of training. There was no doubt that the kid had gotten even better than he was when he first got here. Something drove him to improve. Not just Eva and her crazy blood sucking schemes, or Ku Fei's challenge to fight him when he got taller, Or even his original anger at Setsuna for going easy on him. Something else seemed to drive the boy to try and stretch his skill beyond their previous limits and more. Maybe it was his upcoming fight with Swallowthron, the woman who didn't know how to keep a house clean. Still, Asuna had felt it was something..._else_ that drove the boy to nearly kill himself every night in training...

It was that same boy that she glanced down at now, as they both stood in front of a long case of stairs. Negi held in his hand HeartBreaker on one end and a yellowish envelope in the other. He stared up at the steps before glancing at her.

"Are you ready for this?"

Meanwhile, in another part of town, a certain swordswoman, or female swordsman, however you want to put it, was currently wondering how, _how_ on earth had she let her ojo-sama talk her into this. He was currently in the middle of town with her charge, yet, the twist was that her charge, one Princess Konoka, considered this to be a "date" with an old friend who had been avoiding her up until now. Setsuna was just trying to keep a close eye on her after last night, and the girl just had to go and pull out all or her endearing traits and push Setsuna over her comfortable edge. Konoka had taken the liberty to dress up in one of the available booths in this place, as a kind of princess figure, which, despite her actually being one anyway, was a sudden shock to the sword bearing girl, for Konoka never really did dress the part she had, mainly due to the fact she was oblivious of her position, but that was besides the point. Konoka had lightly steered Setsuna into the booths herself, to have "Set-chan" join in on the fun. Affronted on all sides by a disarmingly affectionate princess, Setsuna had had no choice but to don a male samurai's guise, something she fit in quite well...too well actually, many thought that actual actors for a princess and her knight were walking around. Which was not strange, considering where they were, in an area popular for actors to spontaneously start performances in the middle of the streets. It was here that Tsukiyomi implemented her part of the grand plan to ensnare and disable the party protecting the princess. Arriving on the scene in a classic horse drawn carriage and wielding her blade, she initiated an act to cover her actual purpose by theatrically exiting and throwing up a ring in challenge. Any movie go-er would know that was a sign of an ancient challenge, and one popular in old films. However, her statement was far from theatrical, or even remotely well thought out.

"Sempai, I challenge you for right's to your ojo's hands."

_What is she, high on meth?! What kind of statement is that?!_

Even as her fellow classmates eased up to check upon the "date" Tsukiyomi did not wait for an answer. Abandoning common sense and any kind on plan she might have had, her blade came out and she rushed at Setsuna with an abandon, forcing the other girl to push Konoka behind her and ready her own blade opt meet the other's two. Maybe Negi had knocked a couple of screws loose on the girl when he had blasted her away, or maybe she was just a cat in high heat attempting to make Setsuna the one and only target for that fire affection that came from battle, but Setsuna quickly sidestepped and slashed at the girl's shoulder, finding her attempt blocked by one thin blade as the other stabbed out. Setsuna maneuvered her blade to deflect it, releasing it from the other one. Spinning around with an un needed flourish, the speckled girl used the twirl as a device to add momentum to a slash to Setsuna's middle, blasting her backwards a bit when Setsuna blocked. Yet, she did not let the bodyguard gain any distance, for she rushed right after her to close the gap. Parrying a double thrust, Setsuna sent her free hand out to palm her in the gut, but this time, Tsukiyomi was ready for the simple trick Negi had pulled on her earlier and her knee came up to block it. This motion threw her a bit off balance however, for the strike was more powerful than the girl anticipated, and she nearly fell backwards, but turned it into a back flip in time to nearly receive a nick on her shoulder from Yunagi. While Setsuna had not originally initiated the fight, it was clear who was at a disadvantage here, and who lacked planning.

Setsuna now rushed forth, pressing an advantage with a quick series of slashes Tsukiyomi had difficulty blocking. One managed to get through and slash a neat memento from her sleeve, nearly ripping it clean off if not for Yunagi's sharp length. Then, in a quick act, Setsuna send her blade forward, trapping both of the other girls blade between the both of them, for Setsuna had come, by this time, alarmingly close. Here, Tsukiyomi hesitated, and Setsuna took advantage, sending her free arm's elbow into the other's face, knocking her glasses off and sending her reeling. Grabbing Konoka, Setsuna decided now was the time to high tail it out of there, and, surprising her by picking her clean off the ground, bridal style, and dashed off amid a quite happy crowd, who had thought it all a show...

Once again, we come back no to Negi and Asuna, who, to put their situation mildly, had a small problem. That problem being that these stairs they were climbing were far longer than they should be, or even could be. Negi shook his head as he looked around at his surroundings carefully, waiting for an ambush while Asuna dragged her feet alongside him.

"We must have gone at least three kilometers by now!"

Glancing up at her, he noticed an odd marking on one of the pillars of the gates around them. Originally shrugging it off, he shook his head at her.

"Can't be any more than half of one, Asuna-san."

"We should have gotten to the top by now..."

Taking a glance at his watch, he was surprised to see it had been an hour since they had started walking. His eyes nearly bugged out of his skull then. How could have been an hour, and what were they still doing walking up these stairs?! Pausing where he was he looked around almost frantically and then sighed. Asuna allowed her knees to collapse under her.

"Shit. Shit, Shit, Shit."

"What's with all that for...?"

'I'm a frickin fool, that's what it's all for. I've been looking around for an ambush, I should have been looking around for a trap."

"Meaning...?"

"This is a spell. Okay, look. I'm going to run ahead, and you look to see if I come from the back of you."

"...That makes no sense."

"It will if I'm right."

Breaking out into a run, Negi sped off in to the distance ahead, and as Asuna watched him grow smaller and smaller until he disappeared, she wondered what he was trying to get at...until she saw him almost drop right on top of her from behind that was. He only just missed her coming around, as he performed a handstand on the ground to avoid slamming into her and skidded to a halt a few feet away. She glared at him from her position, which was still on the ground.

"The hell was that for!?"

"It's proves I'm right. We've walked into a trap."

"A trap?"

"This is an infinite loop world...someone put a seal on the steps, if you go far enough, you get trapped in an infinite loop. Walk a certain distance and you are instantly transported back to the beginning of the loop, so you never reach the end. Comprende? It's called the "Thousand Gates" enchantment of entrapment. "

"So this is more magic. Then tell me then my mage friend, how do we get out? I have to use the bathroom here...."

Before Negi had broken into a run, a familiar figure of a woman had stood up and yawned. Smiling down at the captives, she turned to her companion in the trees, who looked utterly bored and miserable. Unlike her, who was happy to let these two rot where they were while they tied to escape from the infinite, thousand gates spell, this boy had a fire that made him prefer a good, clean battle to the winner. He had no class or strategy in him, only brute force. Yet, as much as she thought this, she was utterly wrong about the boy of the side of her, one Kotarou Inugami, he had quite a bit of strategy and common sense, but he had honor too, and this is what made him miserable.

"Watch them until they fall asleep or something will you? I have more important matters to attend to, like preparing to steal away the ojo-sama from her guard. To think such a powerful fighting mage could be so stupid to just keep on walking like that, without a care in the world. This must have been the thirtieth or more time I've seen him pass."

"I don't like this. It's stupid and no fun."

"Oh hush boy. It's strategy."

"Go and fix your hair if that's what you're going to do, leave me alone to guard them, I know you're to bored to do it yourself."

+--2--+

When the other woman had left, Kotarou had grown tired of seeing the two walk around and around and around...and when he finally saw the girl fall to her knees, he gave up. Preparing to jump down and join them in a little fight, he cast about for his summoning charms. He had heard that the kid was pretty strong, as he had completely whooped the woman who was his temporary partner when she tried to steal the princess last time, and he wanted to test him out...especially if he could fight in a similar way to how he played the battle game near the end.

"There is a bathroom, go in there. At least they cast the spell to include that and a vending machine. The least they could do is give us a semblance of hope and survival so they can watch us run around like headless chickens looking for the exit."

"You know, have I ever told you that you are a real good source of hope and encouragement?"

"Oh wow, you finally tell me something I don't know. Congratulations, somebody give the girl a medal! Sit here while I go and inspect how big this place actually is."

Shaking his head as he watched her go into the bathroom, Negi turned around and set off walking, paying close attention to how long it took for him to get back to the bathroom. By the time he got back, Asuna had already gotten out of the bathroom and was grumbling, looking at the vending machine,

"What's the matter, the thing requires deeper pockets than you've got?"

"No, it ate my yen and doesn't give the food. At least coin return give it all back."

"Thanks for small favors. I'd estimate this place is about fifty meters on either side of this bathroom. How nice for it to be the dead center, huh?"

Now, Negi might have continued his little conversational tirade if not for something very heavy seeming to drop out of the sky right behind him, making quite an audible crash and causing him to turn around and survey the scene. Asuna, famous bells making a tell tale jingle, turned around from the machine to stare. It was...a giant spider. A frickin spider. An eight legged multi-sectioned arachnid arthropod ballooned up to mammoth proportions.

Woah Negi, in English please.

Atop the spider was the boy Negi saw earlier, smiling a wicked grin and burning with eyes that screamed a bloody murder. Negi returned that grin with one of his own patented ones and lifted up one of his feet, tugging an dagger from the boot dutifully. He eyed the eight legged insect with mild interest as he tossed the dagger back at Asuna.

"Oh I really need to get you a weapon of your own, girl, this is getting annoying, I'm used to going all out, fighting with abandon on sword, rapier, daggers, knives, stars, guns, tooth and claws. As for _**you**_, mister warrior lover, don't make me show you just what _**this**_ mage model can do in real life, this ain't any game."

Kotarou grinned, and launched off the spider without a word, landing lightly on the floor. Negi didn't turn around, but nonetheless addressed Asuna.

"You handle the spider, I have a feeling it's nothing but a big softee."

"That thing?!"

"Magic is never what it initially may seem unless otherwise stated."

+--3--+

((I'm taking a break to update you on Swallowthorn, who seems to be doing something that finally looks like magic.))

"Per vas , per vas , iunctura est validus."

Standing over an old style cauldron, the light from the concoction in the pot played upon her face. It was here, in this form of magic, that Swallowthorn excelled. Unlike her brother, who was a failure in magic and had only barely managed to pass his schooling, but failed the test to become a magister, she had a power and an imagination to use it. While others brandished wands to let loose pointless arrows, she used her grand gift of power to create things both venomous and powerful. It was one reason her release was such as it was. Through the vessel was how she used her magic, but it always came out as the most powerful, the combination of arts. Potion making cannot succeed without magic to back it up after all, not in truth.

"Per Gramyre , per condita , partum vestri a venenum ut custodis."

This was a simple one, one that she could construct in a heartbeat, but she reveled in the slow, deliberate process she was taking. This was a simple pool, in which all the world's actions to play across in the tides of a mini sea. It was, in essence, a form of scrying, and her target had given her ample memories to seek him out. Pooling magic into the liquid was as easy as breathing, and it thanked her with it's light and slight aroma, hinting at its hidden potential. She only really wanted a peek anyway. Just a peek at the boy, to see where he was. Uncorking a bottle full of yet another substance, she poured it dutifully into the mix. This was the essence of what she wanted to accomplish, for this would allow her to see and feel what he felt, and allow her to feel his magic through her veins...only as a feeling, not to use of course. She wanted to feel his power, access him, analyze him. She would, in a way, become him for a short period of time as she gazed upon the now calming surface of the liquid. She only needed to tell it what she wanted to see, and the murky brown waters would become a crystal clear panel who's definition still would defeat even the best resolution T.V out there.

"Animadverto mihi. Unus Negi Springfield!"

Of course, what she saw, and what she felt was nothing of what she expected...

Considering his age, and the small amount of what she could see, she thought she might feat her eyes upon a little boys fragile mind, grabbing at straws of intelligence he had no foundation for, a top heavy mind who instability would defeat itself. He would be, in other words, simply a sponge for the knowledge he held, with no understanding whatsoever of what he knew, only a container. He would only have a driving force, a child's desire, to win in a competition he didn't know he could not. She would feel a drastic decrease in her power levels most likely, in fact, she would, considering his age, feel no magical power of her own, only the amount of magic his wand would put from the outside, only the strain of concentration. Her mind might flit from one thing to another, a child's mind could not focus well, but it was incredibly fast at learning, due to its brand new systems. Understanding lacked. This is what she expected. She thought she might catch him lazing in front of a T.V, or maybe doing some kind of activity, maybe the boy was playing with his blocks amiably.

She did not expect to be inserted into the heat of battle...

Tiny fingers clutched a staff that was as tall as her as she blocked with a free hand an incoming punch, and her vision spun wildly, locking on a face of a young boy just before the staffed hand shot out and knocked him back. Only for a little, but her borrowed body was prepared, as it quickly spun a spell, unincanted nonetheless and shot it out, lightning arrows, thirty five of them, made horizontal rain as the shot at the boy, but the boy lunged at him, holding paper charms. All of them were destroyed in a single shot, yet the boy came out unharmed and almost, _almost_ knocked her over, yet her vision shifted to his side as the body leaped out of the way.

"Not bad kid! You got rid of my charms!"

The staff came down and landing on the boy's back, hard. Even in the momentum of his lunge, he went sprawling straight down and her vision suddenly saw the floor racing up to her as "her" free arm came down in an elbow right to the small of the downed boy's back. It never reached its target however, as the boy rolled out of the way and grabbed the offending arm, planting his feet and using his strength to throw her away off to the side...

The power!

Perhaps equal to hers, maybe a bit weaker, yet it flowed too quickly for her to be sure, so too did her mind flow to quickly. She realized that her conscience was suddenly huge. Instantly she was aware of things and able to grasp things she never even had before _considered_ in her wildest dreams. Yet, it all spun to quickly for her to grasp and absorb. The mind she was borrowing was moving to fast, spinning ideas, thoughts, memories and tactics all along with quirky side comments at a speed she could barely register. It was like sitting in the passenger seat of a fighter jet, the cockpit window pulled back, when the fastest thing you've even been on before was an old merry-go-round. Once again, the boy launched arrows, raining them own upon his opponent, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty arrows. Even as he did so, his body charged with magic as he charged at the boy, who's hat had come off to reveal stand up ears. Shooting past him at a speed that made her nearly dizzy, he sent more arrows shooting at him in a running technique. The staff flashed out, glowing a brilliant red as it swung and missed by a centimeter. Off to the side, she was suddenly aware of a victorious yell, as a girl with long red hair entered her vision, appearing to come right through a giant spider, which dispelled behind her. She recognized the girl from before, she had come with him, and now, twirling her weapon and rushing at the eared boy with a speed she could only pin down to a pactio boost, she entered the fray, taking her opponent from her and locking horns with the wolf like boy, yet, the boy easily threw her off.

"What kind of man are you? Western mages, always hiding behind their partners!"

Her body seemed to respond, the voice echoing oddly in her head, as one's own voice tends to do, distorting it so as one can never really know what their own voice sounds like without listening to a recording.

"Eastern Mages, hiding behind old note paper! Who says I'm hiding, Asuna-san, step aside!"

"Oh no, let her fight, I've got some friends she can fight with!"

Standing up fully, a dark pool swirled around the boy as misshapen figures began to form fro it's depths.

"The hell!?"

"He's a dog-demon, a hanyo."

"A what? Negi, you're not making much sense here!"

"It's more magic you don't want to get involved with, Asuna-san...he is one who runs with the dogs, who serves the dog god and can call dog demons to do his bidding, watch out...they might bite..."

As the dogs leaped at her, she managed to yell at Negi before turning around to kick one of the incoming dogs. Negi didn't answer her jibe, but simply tossed her his staff.

"The hell kind of encouragement is that?!"

Leaping at the main show, the boy blocked a kick the dog demon sent for his gut with his funny bone, allowing a tell tale shock to be send up its length, but one the boy seemed to be unaffected by. Pushing the other off, she pressed her talent, watching this fight from Negi's point of view as he dodged, blocked, parried and both sent and was sent sprawling. The two boys were locked in a ferocious battle of fists and feet and even as she realized her body still had a dagger in one of his boots and a short sword sheathed near his chest, plus a few stars tied in a pack on his left thigh, the two still fought with just their bodies, and Swallowthorn could only pull from the speeding runway that was Negi's mind a sense of honor that prevented him from drawing his weapons. A sense of testing one's self to achieve a higher power by putting himself in situations that made it harder for him. She was appalled. Why bother with that when you can just win? Yet she felt some kind of duty from him, he did not want to simply defeat this boy, he wanted to send a kind of message, besides that, she got the feeling he thought this boy could be swayed...somehow, but to what and for what means? The mind was moving too fast for her to tell. Yet, finally in the end, the boy managed to punch the dog up in the air and jump up after him, slamming him down on the ground and sending his nerves ablaze with crackling lightning, Immobilizing him. It was here that his mind, no longer preoccupied with battle, sped up even further, practically throwing Swallowthron bodily away from her potion to sit down on the floor a few feet away, shaking. His mind was his asset, that was for sure, but that had nothing to do with his power. He relied on speed, but in the upcoming battle, one could not use magic to boost their physical performance, and you can't make physical contact anyway. It was a purely magic duel, no partners, a place where Swallowthorn, for what she had seen, reigned supreme in. It cut out just about all of this boy's arsenal. Yet, if this were a street fight, Swallowthorn had to admit, she might be worried for her safety, those punches and kicks looked pretty vicious, and he didn't seem to shy about hitting that boy. Getting up, she took a glance at her potion and slightly paled. It's contents had become completely crystal clear, a sign of its power being utterly drained. She had made a whole damn cauldron, and just using that boy as a vessel for a few moments had drained it completely. She might as well use the thing for bath water now, all its power was gone. This boy was an interesting individual indeed, and the more she thought about it, the more she shook, but for some curious reason...it made her wish time would fly just a _little_ faster. Maybe she had caught her brother's idiotic disease, wishing for good competition and combat, of maybe it was just her body acting up to lack of exercise.

Maybe she should just have a Twinkie and chill awhile....

+--4--+

"Crap!!!!!! They locked me in here instead!!!"

After laying the law down upon Kotarou, Negi had used some "shock thearapy" to try and wrench the escape terms out of Kotarou, to no avail, the boy had held strong, and Negi had stormed off to the edge of the area he had scoped to look for it himself. After about two minutes he had gotten tired of searching however, and sent a hail of thunder spears, no arrows, careening to smash all the gates around him, breaking the spell wide open and letting them escape. Kotarou havd been drawn to the noise _just _in time to see them reseal the rift, putting him inside. Now the half demon was lamenting to no-one in particular has he hunted for the new way out. Meanwhile, Negi had to deal with some new visitors, those being one Setsuna, carrying one Konoka, and much of the rest of his class, following not to close behind. A horses carriage was rumbling along not too far off as well. Negi addressed Setsuna as he pulled out his blade.

"Oii girl, can't you two get a room and get it over with already!? Here, up the damn steps, get up there all of yah, You too Asuna, I'll deal with the damn horse and carriage."

"But it's part of a film Sensei!"

"Well then consider me one of the damn actors! Get up there girls!"

Negi shot off, leaving his class at the bottom of the steps leading to Konoka's home. While they climbed up, he sped off and managed to reach the carriage in record time, holding out his hand for the horse to stop as a crossing guard might the oncoming traffic. Key difference was that the horse stopped due to force and not willingly putting the brakes on. Tsukiyomi jumped out to meet one pissed off Springfield wielding his blade and giving a trademark smirk.

"Oh, hello again, my little pink playmate. Shall I have this dance in the midday sun with thee? My blade is thirsty for blood."

Allowing his blade to catch the sun light, Negi smiled. Tsukiyomi might not like it, but once more her battle lust had a hold of her, even if this was just a boy, she readied her blade, only thinking of the upcoming fight with Setsuna. Yet, Negi quickly blasted her mind out of the water and that wishful thinking, for he sped and ran past her guard, knocking her glasses off with the blunt edge of HeartBreaker and sending her sprawling backwards. Yet, this time, Negi did not run.

"Pay attention you fool, you look like a friggin cat in high heat. This ain't mating season. You don't pay attention to _ME_, and you're going to find your eyes stabbed out."

Picking up her glasses he tossed them into her probing hands, sparing only a token smirk at her suddenly downed form, and her constant muttering of "Glasses." Did she expect them to fly into her hands when she called them?! He waited for her to jam them back on her face before he bowed low, blade out to his side like a conductor's wand.

"Shall we continue this dance?"

Without waiting for a response, he launched at her, allowing his rapier to meet her blade in a flurry of sparks that nearly blinded them both in the midday sun. Oh it was on. It was very on. Twisting away from the locking of blade, he slashed at her waist, only to find one of her thin blades blocking the contact while the other flashed out, but with a bend and a backwards jump, Negi avoided this and unsheathed his other blade, drawing a surprised look from the girl, one that quickly turned into something he could only describe as joy. She seemed to love battle, and lusted after Setsuna as the only one to sate that thirst. Well, he had two blades now, and he was right at home with them as he plunged into the fray, throwing rays of light and sparks everywhere as they both battled against each other on an equal ground weapon wise. Negi found that, the longer the battle lasted, the faster and more powerful the girl seemed to come, until they both were fighting on a plane that gave no parry. While Setsuna might have gone easy on him, this girl was his match. He could knock of her glasses, but were was the fun in that? Speaking of flying glasses...Tsukiyomi knocked off _his_ with her elbow, but Negi simply ducked a thrust and smiled.

"HA! You think I have the same weakness as you?! En garde you fool!"

Rushing her with both blade held like pikes to run her through with, he pushed her back and began the dance of flashing blades with her again. Aim at her shoulder with his left blade to her right, while his right blade tried to stab at her gut, and her right came down to knock his stab away, while her left clashed with his slice to the shoulder. She may try to push him away, using the advantage of weight and size, but he always jumped right back into the fray, he didn't let her rush him. Yet, all the while, Negi had no idea he was being watched, and Yet, Asuna had stayed back, and then, eventually, Setsuna and Konoka came back down, for Eishun had been wondering who was watching these children. Eventually, the man himself came down as well, to see the continuation of the fight. Still, the fight was timeless, and Setsuna, about to interfere, had her arm grabbed by Asuna.

"Wait. Let the twerp finish it. I have a feeling he needs something like this."

Eishun shook his head.

"Which one is your teacher?"

"The boy daddy."

"....Fights like hell he does. Makes me want to test his mettle."

"Daddy! I thought you gave all that up!"

"Sword fighting is a way of life, it teaches discipline. You don't just "give it up" like that. Although I have tried..."

+--5--+

"Negi, would you just give it a rest and go relax or something? You're scaring your friend Anya."

Negi paused in mid punch. After nearly two hours of banging swords against Tsukiyomi, the girl had tripped over her own tired feet from trying to move to quickly, and had begun to accumulate damage from numerous small wounds. Negi had finally simply sent her skidding backwards, making her fall into a sitting position and knocked her out with a quick, blunt blow to the forehead with HeartBreaker's golden shaft piece. He had then insisted on carrying the girl to the nearest bus stop bench at least, to lay her to rest there, hell if he cared where she went when she woke up. Asuna had found that, while she was right, that Negi had needed to good fight to finish off his episode with the dog demon and the earlier crossing of blades, that even the two hour long show down had not been enough to put a damper on the boy's energy. He was still up in the room they were sharing with Anya, shadowboxing. (Konoka was in a different room with her family.) Negi had delivered his letter from the Dean and thus had absolved himself from all duty on this trip, yet here he was, after a hectic day, still training his butt off and making Anya go dizzy with his movements. While the poor girl nursed her head, Asuna picked up a towel and asked Negi is he was going to stop for the day to take his shower at least. This above all seemed to jar Negi out of his little world, the one he went in during training. Picking up his own towel, he followed her, leaving Anya to scramble as she got her own things together to follow. She still didn't like to be left alone in a room after all, never did.

The bath was a chance for all of them to relax a bit, the water was hotter than the hotel's anyway. Something Anya wasn't too happy with, but she could deal with. Negi went to a separate place to do his own business. sinking low in the water, submerging himself completely as he held his breath in the searing water near the pump. He managed to spend nearly three minutes at a time under there, simply thinking, he also, defeating Asuna's mention of the bath for relaxation, water boxed. Hell, he had energy to spare, and he was going to use it, god dammit! His mind dredged up an image of himself, being a skeleton when he was older due to overexertion. This calmed him down. Sometimes he had to listen to common sense, once and awhile...

Once Ngei got out of the bath and redressed though, meeting up with Asuna, he realized that common sense was not, or at least, should not, be a part of his daily routine if one was talking about _his_ life. Anya had been faster than Asuna, and had left her to burn in the waters while she went back to her room, yet, as Negi conversed with Asuna on their way back to the room, Setsuna approached them, and yet another scream echoed out in the night, reminding Negi of the previous night. Shit, don't these people ever give up?! Springing off into a run, Setsuna was not far behind as Negi headed in the direction of their room, which was where the sound seemed to originate from. Throwing the door open, Negi actually fell back on his behind as he came face to face with a stone Anya, making him shake all over as Asuna and Setsuna came rushing up, but Negi paid them no mind. His brain was reliving something neither of them could relate with at the time, and, despite Asuna coming up to grab his shoulder, Negi made no move to stop shaking as he stared at the stone face in front of him.

_A burning plain, it's hard to believe it's snowing out, the snow blankets everything, makes it hard to breathe quickly, burns your throat while you run...houses, burning, people screaming running this way and that, demons laughing. A flash and three people are turned to stone and then smashed to bits before his eyes, through the door, as he watches. A figure runs up and scoops him in a blankets, he struggles, but they hold tight as the building around him collapses...a sinister laugh echoes in his head, encompassing all his senses..he believes he can actually taste that sinister laugh. Stone, stone and more stone. People, warm, loving, alive and whole people, transformed into broken, shattered and cold stone right before his eyes, screams silenced, lives snuffed out like so many candles in the cold wind, yet, the biggest candle, the all consuming fire, burns on on the fuel of former people's homes and pride...AND HE IS HELPLESS! He can do nothing for them! He wants to scream, to cry, to let loose an unnamed fury upon the world that he had bottled inside him, and, at that moment, something is unleashed inside him, Magic, raw, untamed, magic. The ability to do something was his..._

"NEGI! THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?! SETSUNA! I think he's affected too!"

_It's over Negi._

_NO! No, it's come back! all those years of building up walls, and for nothing, it's back and I'm still not strong enough to save anyone! I'm still not strong enough to stop it from happening, still not powerful enough to brush off the effect it has on people as if it were nothing! I'm weak, you hear me?! Weak! I'm..._

_**"WEAK!!!"**_

That last word nearly made Asuna go deaf, and shook Negi out of his revere, although he still shook like a child who had been pulled from the freezing waters. His head snapped up to see Asuna frankly holding him like a baby and he almost disdainfully tried to push her off, standing up for himself to stare at Anya, who did not turn back into a human but laughed at him as a stone figure. He felt like smashing it...he really did. Yet that would accomplish nothing. Asuna's voice floated to his ears, slightly concerned.

"Negi, what was that...?"

"That was nothing. This is a petrifaction spell. Is she the only one affected?"

Even as Negi asked, he knew the question was foolish. He knew without even having to check that he, Setsuna and Asuna were probably the only ones unaffected by this petrifaction, because they had been out of range from the spell. There might have been others, but he could not bank on that.

"No, everyone..."

"As I expected. Konoka-san must be missing right?"

"How did you...."

"Believe me, this is old news, and I had a feeling that's what this is about. Get Setsuna, we're going monkey hunting. I told you to remind me the next time we go to a zoo to punch the first monkey I see, and I have a feeling I'm about to enter the biggest zoo I've ever seen."

"Fine, then go punch the mokey if you want, but save some for me, will yah?"

"...With pleasure."

+--FIN--+

Once again, I cut a chapter a bit short. Yet, I'm waiting for a big pay off in the next one. Be prepared, this next one it going to either make a huge display or fail miserably. Take your pick. Review, look at the poll, tell me what you want for which ever, talk to me. I'm bored out of my mind and in need of inspiration. Yet, I still try to power through my obvious writers block by just writing...and writing and writing. Hopefully I can make a good next chapter that can satisfy all. Oh, a quick note, I am still rusty with battle scenes, so I kinda glaze over them a bit, Yet, I want to practice with them a bit, so I created "Chronicles of the Fallen One." Someone tell me if those scenes are okay. If they are, I will take the advice and add that kind of battle detail here....be seeing you. If anyone can tell where the bad pun is from, they get a virtual cookie.


	19. Chapter XVIII: Seared Soul

One thing I hate is not being able to think. It draws upon my energy and puts me down...I rely so _heavily_ upon my mind. For writing, for school work, for understanding, for responsibility. It really takes a person who was once insane to appreciate daily what you mind does for you. Yes insane. Of the many rare people who climb back from the realm of insanity to grasp at the straws of coherent thought, I am one. Legally insane yet I am back in proper society. I have reclaimed my mind from the demons that plagued it, yet sometimes I still think it was but a marginal victory in a single battle of this fully fledged war. There is, as one once said, no true "cure" for madness. Yet, I take up your precious time with my sentiments. Shall we continue the story?

Did I mention that I don't own Negima?

Ahh, yes, about that review on chapter five about Negi being a "Mary Sue" you should keep reading, and you see that, indeed, Negi is balanced with his own flaws. In no way Is Negi my..."pet" I don't think he could possibly be anyone's...he'd kill them, Negi roams alone, a lone wolf. Yet, he had his problems. Last chapter showed you all that I think. This one too, I have a feeling, will...actually; I've just seen your new review, never mind.

(This just goes to show how I dynamically write and read reviews. Never think I don't listen to you people.)

Speaking of which...you people seem to really be pushing for an Eva and Negi hook up huh? True, the only one who could effectively handle Negi and still make it a walking sitcom would be Eva, yet I find it funny how most of you zeroed in on her sniper like. Some have finally chosen the one I originally had in mind though, so I'm wondering what's gonna happen...and the idea I'm getting is quite...dark, yet epic in it's own way, which fits...I'll see what you all continue to say though.

+---+

_**Chapter Eighteen: Seared Soul**_

Negi clenched his fists as he ran, HeartBreaker strapped to his waist and his face painted bloody murder. His nails dug into the soft flesh of his palms but he paid no mind, not even as a single drop of blood began to flow from a cut and decorate his nails with its natural polish. Negi didn't care that his tattoo was worn either, he had HeartBreaker, and in his state, he might not even need to use magic anyway. All he saw as he ran was fire, lots and lots of hellfire, everywhere, torn buildings and statues of people he once knew. Like it or not, Negi was still inside a living nightmare, only this time...this time he would make sure he could do something, even as he passed, for the third time in this monster world his mind had created, his shattered stone foster sister in the nonexistent snow. He ran with all the speed his magically enhanced body would give him, meaning he left his two companions in the proverbial dust so to speak. Speeding along, Negi was drawn to a lone running figure in white, next to a trademark monkey that brought back several sharp curses to the tip of his tongue. Along for the ride was a boy who looked a few years older than he, with a head full of white hair. This party of three was carrying someone with them, a person Negi highly doubted was some random girl they had picked up on the street. Truth be told, while Negi diligently and constantly claimed he did not care about anyone other than himself outside of school, he constantly proved himself wrong by rushing into the fray to same someone, and, in the end, proved his bark to be far worse than his bite, Negi was a real softee at heart, just don't try to make him admit it.

He did, after all, have a hero's blood running through his veins.

He easily managed to catch up to them when they hit a dead end in the road though, forcing them to turn around and face him, bringing Negi to a screeching halt right next to a mental image of a stone statue he presumed was a man named Stan...Negi's mind was doing loop-de-loops. Yet, his voice was quite steady as he addressed the three in front of him.

_Take an "a" from Satan and you get Stan, don't you?_

_Shut the hell up you._

_They say it's okay to talk to yourself, the problem arises when you __**answer**__ yourself. Do __**you**__ have a problem, little man?_

_I said...__shut__...__up__._

"Please, unhand my student before I blast you and your monkey friend into next Tuesday."

Laughing, the woman in white stepped a bit forward, allowing the three opposing figures in front of her to see Konoka, who was bound up tightly and gagged. Setsuna gripped her sheathed blade with a hand than had flown there at the sight of her bound charge. A single drop of blood fell from Negi's fist, plopping on the ground with a nearly inaudible plunk liquid tends to make, a sound generally ignored or unnoticed.

'Oh you should have stayed in your precious headquarters, shivering in fear from the power that managed to break the set up barriers. Ojo-sama, I'm sorry, but I'm going to need to borrow your power a little bit...

Her head turned slightly to the side to address Konoka, the fingers of her right hand came out, holding a paper charm as the free fingers of the same hand snapped together, making a small sound not unlike that of a castanet. A single syllable escaped from her mouth, and Konoka was enveloped in a soft light, one that seemed to cause her great pain. At the same time, in front of the woman, several glowing circles of light appeared, and Negi took a step back despite himself, staring at the interruption to his mental snow wasteland. Setsuna stepped in closed to him and Asuna, creating a three person protective triangle as they all stood back to back, for the light had popped up all around them. Then, as the woman laughed, Negi's worst nightmares care up from the grave to haunt him.

"Here's just a little taste of Konoka, Ojo-sama's power. Have fun fighting a demon army, my babies!"

Demons.

Negi had fought then before, numerous times, but never like this. Not when he was in such a state of mind, so close to insanity, so close to snapping. Something about seeing people turned to stone made Negi relive his worst memories, even now, and here, demons, an army of them, where rising up from the ground even as the woman and her two friends vanished from sight in a puddle of water with Konoka in tow. Demons, like the ones who had destroyed his village, demons like the ones who had turned the people into stone, Demons like the ones who had tried to kill him so many times before...It always seemed to come back to them, demons. Negi felt his blood rise and his breath quickened, now the snowy landscape was complete. In the nearly blinding light, the ground was white, people were incased in stone, and demons where everywhere in his sight. Negi rose HeartBreaker, which was unsheathed, like a banner flag for his army, or which when he flagged it down they would charge... and it sprung to life with a blood red as a roar not yet heard by those of Mahora from him escaped his lips, and Negi let loose, his rage, his power, and he took leave of his sanity. Sorry, but it's time to hang up your hat for the day, coherent thought!

Rushing in before some demons even finished rising, a few of them looked at Setsuna and Asuna and sighed. Asuna held Negi's short sword, and even as she stood, she felt the power boost from the ally contract activate, for Negi had put that forth before he lost all care for those around him.

"We wait for ten thousand years and get summons for this? Two little girlies?"

Hello! Are you all forgetting someone?

Not that their forgetfulness was long lived however, for one of them suddenly grabbed his head in agony, as HeartBreaker slammed home on his knees and it's sinister effect took hold, feeding on Negi's feelings and drawing upon the Demon's worst memories. Negi dispelled the demon with a few vicious slashes before it even had time to realize it had fallen to the ground in its agony... Setsuna leaped up and neatly cut both of the arms from another one of them, making him vanish in a puff of smoke that covered for Asuna, who spun the short sword with more abandon that one would a baton. This got their attention at the fact that, no, they were not here to fight two little girlies. They were fighting one angry bird demon, one pissed off princess and one diminutive mage that had currently taken a leave of his sanity for the day. Negi continued to slash and hack, and he really did not care who he hit, for he almost got Asuna when she had been thrown by one of the stronger demons. He missed her by inches, yet he was unfazed, for all he saw was blinding white puffy stuff and demons, lots and lots of demons. He spun and nearly slashed through one of their legs, cutting the rough flesh with a powerful slash that ordinarily would have required some momentum from Negi as backup...

After all, they say a madman had the strength of twenty sane men.

Yet, even madness was not enough to save them, as the demons kept coming and kept getting bigger and badder. Soon it wasn't so easy to dispel them, or so easy to cut into their rubbery skin, and yet, even as Setsuna and Asuna fought separate demons one at a time now, Negi still randomly jumped and slashed, jumping unto one of their shoulders when he relieved another one of their feet, using him as a stepladder to get there. He preceded to stab at the demon's eyes, making his life miserable as he fought to get Negi off him. Once that one was done with he jumped from shoulder to shoulder making the demon's bodies his personal runway, stabbing at neck flesh here, an eye there, and ear next to him. A couple managed to grab him but his tiny form slipped between their fingers like melted butter through a grater. Negi, laughing all the way, was cut off from his tiring body as he continued his assault on the reams and reams of demonic mass in front of him. He would not stop, his crazed mind told him, unless he died or he took a thousand demons for every one life in his village and an additional hundred for every second of his life without them. Still, finally, he found himself stomped down by one of them, who, in a quite exhausted tone, told him that he had fought the good fight, but it was time to die now. The last thing any one of the three demons holding him expected was for a laugh to escape his lips and an eager nod.

"Oh sure, send me to hell! I'll just go on slaughtering the already dead! I'll be waiting for you there, you know!"

Negi's eyes were wide, and such wide eyes allowed him to see that the snow was fading, and that his tired body was grasping at his sanity and trying desperately to battle with him and overthrow the crazy from its current throne. He was suddenly aware that he was in Japan, not Wales, that this was the middle of autumn, not winter, and that it rarely snowed here, if at all, and certainly did not bring down blizzards. He was aware that he was not a baby any more, as young as he was, and that he was about to die. He was also aware of a very large, very fast shuriken slamming home into the main demon who held him captive, and a nearly deafening round of shots being fired on the others, making their grip slacken. Seized not by madness but by the will to survive this time, Negi squirmed like hell until he managed to get free, feasting his eyes on one Ku Fei, who managed to knock over one of the demons with enough force to shatter a five ton boulder. Mana and Keade made their appearance here as well, getting Asuna and Setsuna out of some sticky situations that were, admittedly, better than the one Negi had been in due to his foolishness.

"Sensei, you go, Mana-dono and Ku Fei will handle this, you chase after our remaining classmate."

How did they?

"Sakurazaki-san, remind Springfield-sensei that I intend to bill him in full for this service!!"

Oh who cares. Running a good distance away, Negi stopped when he saw a brilliant flash of light pop up along the horizon, filling his soul with molten lead. He did not, _did not_, have a good feeling about that light...he stopped short and stared...if he was too late...Negi cast his eyes to the ground then. The hell had happened to him? He had gotten so caught up in the similarities to his own memories he had let the past control him! Again, he proved himself to be too weak to face the memory. He had to live it and lose his sanity, nearly getting them all killed! It was either he was immobilized by his past or he was swallowed by it. Come one Negi, witnessing a burning village can be _that_ bad.

...Okay, it is, but you get the point! Don't lose yourself to your emotions you fool! What was it that you had trained so damn long and hard for? Not for this, that was for certain. Asuna came up to Negi, obviously pissed. Well, he had to admit, he deserved whatever she decided to throw at him for this one, he had no idea what he had just did, but from her face, he guess it must have been some kind of deep, deep, deeeeeeep poop.

"The hell was that you just pulled!? You nearly killed us! You almost cut Setsuna in half when you charged a demon she was fighting and you almost beheaded me twice with that thing! I know you can do better than that, were you _**trying**_ to murder me?! You were just running around slashing random demons like you didn't know where the hell you were or what the heck you were doing, and the whole time you have this sick smile on your face like some crazy dude who's found a cookie in a dumpster!! The fact that you almost killed either one of us while we were trying to stop demons from killing us-"

Taking a deep breath while Asuna continued to slander his battle performance, Negi mentally twiddle his thumbs and whittled away at an imaginary block of wood, formulating a probable explanation in a mere matter of seconds, and coming up with a biting statement that would guarantee to stop her dead. Yet, even as this only took a microcosm of time, he still did not launch his statement forward, and when it came time to explain himself, he only sighed in defeat.

"You're right, I lost my self in the battle. I wasn't even thinking. I only saw a whole lot of snow and a bunch of demons, from what I remember. Stone statues of people everywhere I looked."

"...Snow....?"

"...Sorry, I'll explain later...it's an old memory that came back to haunt me, and when it took hold, I literally lost it, I didn't know right from left anymore. Let's just go...I lost my mind there, and now I've got it back, and we've got a monkey and an overly protective mother figure and her kid brat to beat the crap out of..."

So affronted, Asuna held peace. Fine, just for this once, she'd let him slide, but she'd hold him to his promise. He would explain later, he _**had**_ to.

+--1--+

((Wow, all that, and I'm still only up to one? I feel like I've just passed a test or something. The fog has lifted...the inspiration had returned. I celebrate!))

After a little run in with Kotarou, in which Negi sped ahead along with the other two when Keade, almost magically, seemed to appear and relieve them of him, Negi finally reached a lake and ran across the pier to get to an odd platform he could not get to through the trees on the other side of the pool. Situated on the platform were his targets, one monkey and one woman who had Konoka laying down on a stone tablet of sorts, and protected under a magical field. He didn't see her white haired boyfriend however, not that he cared much as he rushed up, yet, he had to diverge from his beaten path to dodge an incoming punch to the face. He skidded to a stop at the very edge to the pier as Asuna came up with Setsuna. The boy cast them a token glance before Negi saw an odd glow in the water, and could only make a small squawk before hands that seemed to be made of gel arose from the water and wrapped around Asuna, making her loose Negi's short sword. Setsuna managed to escape these gripping abominations by cutting a clear path with Yunagi, and was about to rush the white haired youth when Negi's yell cut her off and made her change course without stopping.

"How many times do I have to tell you to get a room and get it over with your friend Konoka?! Leave Silver to me and get after her already before they do whatever they are trying to do you noob!!"

((Wait did he just...?))

Spinning his staff in an ever increasing tempo, Negi charged his new opponent with an abandon very different from the one he had used with the demons. All the while, his mind played with the options, and with the current situation.

"Okay Greyfield, let's get going."

"My name is Fate."

"Oh, nice name, I suppose you're going to tell my fortune next?"

"It's...very...bleak, if you intend on fighting me that is..."

"Oh. Clever."

_Apparently, Konoka-san has more magic at her smallest fingertip than I do in my entire body, and apparently has more than even the thousand master would have to offer. A direct descendant of the "Sun God" in traditional eastern culture, her magic was kept secret from her in an attempt to give her a normal life. She was given a great amount of protection, all done perfectly as to avoid her own detection. She was so heavily guarded and yet she did not even suspect it. Yet, on this trip, the guarding had slackened, and as a result, this happened. One could say it was not Negi's fault, and technically it wasn't, as he had done his part and had left her in the hands of her own father and the Kansai association, hands that had been considered capable, yet, he still found himself kicking his own arse over it. He should have kept a closer eye. This was someone who could easily be bent to anyone's will with a simple spell, but who's power would nearly impossible to stop once turned. It was the ideal target for someone seeking leverage in a war, regardless if it was a fighting one or a cold one. Now, it's my duty to __**Get. Her. Back. **_

Jumping off to the side to avoid some more "gel hands", Negi cut the ones that bound Asuna in place, releasing her and he, as he turned back around to re-launch himself at the silver haired boy, kicked up his short sword from the ground so she could catch it. Rushing the boy, he was surprised to see the speed at which he dodged, and felt a painful elbow in his back that sent him sprawling into the deck. He spun back up and sent a hail of arrows at him, every single one of them missing their target as the boy sent a hard fist right into Negi's gut, one he did not even see. The silver haired boy seemed to just teleport in front of him, yet Negi knew better, for he did see a blur of motion at least. Gaining distance, Negi sent a hail of fire arrows into the water to kick up steam and then came at him, yet the boy caught his staff...and got caught by a bunch of binding wind arrows, locking him dead onto the deck floor. Negi panted a bit before grabbing his staff where it had fallen from the other's grasp and looked at the silver haired boy.

"Good job. You managed to catch me. I suggest you go before these arrows of yours dispel however... You don't want to keep your friend waiting after all..."

As if he needed prompting from the enemy. Negi high tailed it across the pier, leaving the boy to ponder the mysteries of human life, which seemed to be what his face predominantly portrayed him doing. Meanwhile, the arrows binding him slowly, ever so slowly, began to lose their brilliant hue. Fate just stood there, waiting it out...

Negi managed to slide up next to Setsuna to see the bodyguard was heaving and preparing to throw herself, once again, at the shield around Konoka. The girl herself did not look to happy about Setsuna doing it either, for Setsuna was not looking too good after having thrown herself forward at least three times and getting severely shocked each time. The woman Negi had seen earlier only silently laughed at her attempts, shaking as she struggled to complete her spell, not from the difficulty of the words, but from trying to keep from screwing it all up and belting out a few guffaws. The spell itself was rather easy, actually. Negi grabbed Setsuna to prevent her from throwing herself against the field again, and was almost carried along for the ride, so much conviction the girl had behind her leap. He strained to try and alleviate the concern that seemed to radiate from the trapped girl. How like her, worry about someone else when you're sitting there bound and gagged. Negi, surprising her, dropped all pretense and charged up a powerful spear of lightning to throw at the force field, but it dissipated on contact. The thing was hooked up directly to Konoka's power, which meant _he_ had no chance in breaking it. Yet, he had bigger fish to fry, as the woman in white, with a final victorious word, released the spell that seemed to send an incredible wave of pain through the bound girl, and Negi could only wrench his eyes from his captive student to lock them on a huge, glowing circle of summoning magic in the middle of the huge, natural basin of water in his sight, as something glowing an odd, variant pink began to rise up from the depths.

Now, many might think pink a "flowery" color, but this thing knew how to make it varying shades of pink sinister. A huge, horned head with ice blue eyes that stared into the soul was followed by a powerful body with huge arms. Negi couldn't tell what else this mastodon was packing it was in the water and thus it's lower half was covered, but what he saw was enough to send his entire graduating class in the magical academy running blind, and for himself to piss his pants.

Not that he actually relieved his bladder, he thankfully had quite an iron grip for his age in that department, thank you very much.

"Ryomen Sukuna no Kami, The Great Demon God of Hida, sealed sixteen hundred years previously, now returned thanks to the power of Konoka-ojo-sama. Without the power of all of the Thousand Master's comrades and himself, no one can defeat him now, and he is completely under MY command!"

The thing must have been eighty feet tall or something, it filled Negi's visual scope and his head looked like it was about to fall off, so far he had to look up. If there was one thing that made Asuna's heart go cold, it was seeing that at this very moment, and seeing Negi's utterly helpless and...did she dare think she saw fear in it too? A scared Negi was the worst thing for her right now, for it meant that their star power house was useless. He had proven himself this day to be very fallible indeed, but please, let it not be that he would prove himself ultimately useless _now,_ when it mattered most. Yet, even as she thought this, she saw magic gathering in those ever ready hands, as his face melted from helpless fear to pure, unadulterated, determination and anger.

_So, that's it huh? More history lessons for me. It took my father and all of his comrades to beat this thing back and seal it, and yet, this woman releases it and look who has to come and reseal it again...oh hell Negi, who the heck are you joking?! It took all of them, and it's just you now. How the hell can you beat thins thing?!_

"This...This?! This is what you are so excited about?! This thing could just as soon kill you as it would kill everyone else! Summoning it just proves your own damn folly!"

Gathering magic in his hands, the boy did not instantly blast forward a spell, but instead just continued to let the magic gather, the spheres in both hands becoming steadily brighter. Asuna was reminded of a video game character charging their shot until they began to glow, showing a full charge. Almost stupidly, she wondered if he too would begin to glow to show..."full charge" After all, magic was weird that way, right? Yet, the magic continued to come, and Asuna began to feel slightly nervous as the amount of light and space Negi's magic was taking up began to increase, the woman in white, (One Chigusa, who's name I have not mentioned as of yet, but I will because I grow tired of typing "the woman in white".)began to finally stop her planning and laughing to take an interest in what the boy was up to. By now, his hands where not only glowing with light, but they were circulating with fire and sparks were flying from them everywhere. Along the backs of his hands, it appeared as if the veins under the skin were glowing slightly, a sign of the concentration of magic he was putting in them. This didn't bode well...

"Rastel Mascir Magister.."

Grimacing, Negi thought of just how much training he had put himself through. It wasn't enough, not for this spell. Yet, still, he had to try.

"I never, ever, thought I would have to use this spell of mine, yet it's been increasingly apparent that my original spells are the only things that seem to work around here anymore. Asuna, stand back, further than you already are...Chamo, get the hell out of my pocket before you get electrocuted."

"What...?"

"Aestuo continuo in nox noctis meus flamma..."

"Aniki...?"

" Incidere per obscurum valde levitas, convenio..."

Negi held both of his glowing hands in front of him, bringing the two spheres together to bear into one form. Chamo caught a glance at the back of Negi's hands and, regardless of the face he had no idea what spell Negi was casting, yelled out to the boy.

"Aniki, no! You can't put so much magic into one place, your body can't take it, you'll rip your hands off, or die!"

"Wait, rip his hands off?!"

Ahh Chamo, since when did Negi listen to the ramblings of a perverted ermie?

"Ego sum vestri famulatus rip continuo, Abyssus...Levitas!!!"

From both of Negi's hands, came the largest beam Asuna had seen from him yet, and his entire body light up with a glow that answered her question of "full charge" Unlike the other beams of nondescript energy that came from him before however, this one sped forth with an incredible speed, showing plainly with its red flame hue and it's constant sparking what elements it was made of. A beam wider than perhaps two of Negi's height in diameter, it sped at the demon and slammed home right into its chest, yet, even at the electricity coursed down its entire body and set the lake a fire with steam and sparks, the demon stood strong, and Negi collapsed on the deck, on one knee, after about ten seconds of holding the beam steady. His hands were red as if they had been scrubbed raw, or held over a stove fire by force for an extended period of time. The visible veins stood out, livid, yet still he was alive, but, perhaps more importantly, so was the beast, which looked as if it had not even noticed the impressive blast Negi had sent its way. Chigusa, who had drawn back from the incredible display, started to regain her compose enough to laugh again.

_Failure._

"Is that all the son of the Thousand Master can do? Is that all you got to throw at us?! Pitiful!"

Panting, Negi tried to get up, instinctively reaching for the nub of internal magic that always had served him before, and found the reserve empty, as expected. He had thrown all he had at it, and it had not even so much as grunted. His hands shook as they tried to force himself off the deck and even as his strength failed him, he still tried. He would not go down, not yet. He refused to! The boy so named as Fate came up to him, grabbing him by the shirt collar and hoisting him up to eye level. His fist glowed a cheery red, surrounded by an aura of what Negi assumed was fire.

"You are physically and magically exhausted, am I right?"

Negi could only close his eyes, yet the expression his face held showed all the stubbornness and brashness he had. He couldn't speak, his tongue wouldn't work, yet still, he forced his mouth to open and, turning his head to the side, spit into the water. Fate made no notion he even had registered the action.

"You've done well...."

The free, glowing hand, now turned into a fist, rapidly approached Negi's face, even as Negi saw Asuna and Setsuna both bound by the jelly like hands this boy was capable of summoning. Negi's own hands reacted with a mind of their own, coming up just as the other boy uttered the same statement again, in a different tone.

"...You've done....well..."

At that moment, three things happened at once. One, Fate felt a hand grab his arm and, glancing down, saw a shadowy figure in the pier deck, flashing him a quick, feral grin. At the same time, Negi's hand grabbed Fate's glowing one and his other free hand came up in a straight jab that, if it had not been for Fate's resilient face, would have knocked a few teeth loose. Third, a robot flew unto the scene and shot off a volley of missiles that went far and wide all around the summoned demon god, but none of them touched him. What did touch him was the barrier that activated from them, slamming up around it and making it bend down slightly in what might be described as pain. This distracted Fate, and allowed the shadowy form to emerge fully, blasting him away with a hail of darkness arrows.

Well, well, lookie lookie who's come to save the day. Having been let go by Fate, Negi slumped slightly where he had fallen. His body had reacted on its own accord. Instinct was the only thing that had directed that powerful punch to the face. Evangeline turned around and gave the fallen Negi a smirk.

"Consider this pay back for beating me boy, we're even now."

Negi, managing to get his tongue unstuck from the roof of his mouth, only croaked.

"...Whatever..."

Inside the school grounds, Eva's power was bound unless the barrier was brought down, like she had demonstrated during the time she had fought Negi last, but this time, outside of the school grounds completely, it mattered not if the barrier was up or down, Eva had full reign of her power here, and she aimed to use it, she need the exercise after all. Giving a trademark feral grin that showed off fangs, she leapt into the air to deal with the demon god, but was nearly run through by a quick stone spear from Fate, which she only just managed to shatter with a well placed darkness arrow.

"The hell did you come from squirt? Stay down there where you belong."

Blasting him easily away with a few dozen arrows of darkness into the pool, Eva didn't need to ask if the planned barrier was set up around the demon, she could see it, for once, she could see it! It was nice to fly again too, but enough of that, she had business to attend to, and that was one demon god which, upon glancing up, seemed to show a small amount of recognition in it's icy eyes, yet, it could just her imagination.

"Oh, recognize me, big boy? I love you too baby, but it's time for you to go back to bed for a couple hundred years."

Negi managed to glance up as Eva began to chant, for he recognized the spell she was trying to chant, the one that the school barrier had interrupted her from performing last time. Even in his downed position, Negi cast about for Fate, but he was nowhere to be found, and Chigusa was being held by "gun point" in front of Chachamaru. Asuna and Setsuna had been released, and Chamo was slowly approaching Negi, as if afraid the boy might blow up if he wasn't careful. In a way, he was right for caution but...

Negi glanced up again to hear the final words activating the spell that had been meant for him all that time before, had it really only been a couple of weeks? He was appalled to see the spell only whispered about in the most high profile of books he could find in action, an "End of the World, Elemental Monarch Invocation type." Eternal Glacier froze the entire lake and the beat with it, and Negi had a feeling that it would have had a much larger effect if the barrier around the beast had not been in effect. Carelessly turning her back to the thing, Eva ended it with a simple Latin word, which could literally be translated two different ways. "Shatter" or "Catastrophe" but basically meaning the same thing, and the entire glacier behind her shattered into a million pieces, dousing them all in freezing hail...

+--2--+

((All this and I'm still only up to number two? Blame it on the absence of my writers block, which had up and disappeared.))

"...and that is my story Asuna and Konoka-san. Simply put."

It was Sunday night and everybody had, somehow managed to get all their things together and packed for the early train ride back to Mahora tomorrow, a feat Negi commended and greatly appreciated. After the demon had been sealed, Eva had joined the party for that Saturday night, and, (All a bit while trying to act reluctant in doing so.) joined in on the final day's activities and joys. Eva had defeated the demon, but the Kansai magic association still had to seal it, something they did dutifully after having been restored when Fate vanished. Negi suspected he was responsible for the water teleportation tricks, and, seeing as how he was knocked into water by Eva, it wouldn't have been hard for him to make an easy, undetectable escape. Konoka had been released from her captivity, and, in a sudden burst of power, had accessed her magic to heal Setsuna, who had really taken a true beating trying to save her. Of course, afterwards, she had no idea how she did it, prompting her to assault Negi with questions, for he had revealed, in trying to defeat the demon and break her shield, that he had magic. This had lead to Negi spending the entire day with Konoka and Asuna, along with Setsuna, walking around Kyoto to finally do some proper sightseeing, and explain magic to Konoka more properly while bringing Asuna up to speed. He had then make good on his promise to Asuna and explained what the heck had come over him the night before during the fight with the demons. Around midday, they were joined by Mana and Ku Fei, the former of which presented Negi with a bill that he gawked at for a couple seconds before shaking his head and tossing it in the garbage, assured he she'd get her payment when they got back to the dorm and he had access to his wallet and the recited the exact amount she wanted to show her he did not need the paper to know. The later joined them for their little tour around Kyoto, only breaking off to visit a local dojo, where Ku Fei smacked down the competition, and Negi declined joining in on the fun, claiming he was taking some wise advice and giving himself a rest for today. Currently, Negi had just finished telling the rest of his story to Asuna and Konoka, all the while Anya listened along with quite a depressed face. She had been with Eishun the whole day, trying to get to know Konoka's father a bit more and delighting in the way he treated her, yet Negi's story sobered her quickly. To think he went through all that, and she broke down from getting hit by a mage lash...Konoka blinked.

"To think, I've been around mages my whole life and I never knew, I must be a real dunce."

Negi raised his eyebrows at that statement and quickly responded, not with a sharp retort, but with a simple, matter of fact statement of his own.

"Mages had had years to perfect their camouflage from the mundane world. Don't think yourself a dunce, one normally only sees what they expect to see anyway. Asuna wasn't always a mage..well, physically she was, but she only learned of the existence, or, as I am growing to suspect, only _remembered_ it's existence when I came around. I have a feeling someone sealed her memories off for some reason...especially since she can cancel magic, which is not an ability you see in everyone, or every day. Anya is a magic student, but I make sure she doesn't use magic in public."

Konoka, surprised, looked at Anya sidelong.

"Anya-chan too? Well of course, you're related..."

"Well, that's another thing, we are not exactly related..."

At this point, a knock on the door interrupted them, and who else but one Eishun stuck his head in, calling out Negi to come with him. Following the man, Negi internally rolled his eyes, for he had a feeling what the man wanted from him, and indeed, he was proved correct when the man began to spill reams of information on Konoka's heritage and line as soon as they were out of earshot of the dorm. Information Negi had already correctly guessed or gathered. Information he did not want to hear again, and he told the man so. However, what Negi did not expect was for the man to reach into his sleeves and pull out...a photo. A photo of himself and a collection of other individuals, one of which was a young man with flaming red hair. Negi stared at the picture in his hands, and the frame shook slightly. He had no idea if he wanted to break it, smash it, cherish it or chuck it back in Eishun's face, and honestly, Negi was to tired in spirit to currently even care what he did. He mutely put the thing under his arm and thanked the man, listening as he was told how Nagi had left a house here and that he had a few sparse things in there, one of which was this picture.

There wasn't much else, as it had mostly been confiscated or held in protection and the house left in Eishun's name as a temporary supervisor of the place, and how he could take the deeds to the place and the things into his own custody if he so wished. Negi shook his head. Later, that was for later. For now, it meant that any money his father had left in the banks, which, while no small sum, had been no large sum either, was added to his own, with the accumulated interest it had picked up in the years he had gone missing, and Negi had another property to look over. For now, he wanted no part in the personal belongings of his family. It seemed that, everywhere he looked, he found more pieces of his life scattered along the ground for all to see, here in Japan, and he was quickly finding that this jigsaw puzzle was constructing itself into a picture Negi was not sure whether he liked or hated anymore...all he knew was that, after this hectic weekend, he only wanted to sleep. Sleep and wake up back in his normal routine of teaching. He'd figure the rest out later, if time and fate allowed it.

Eishun invited Negi into a private room for some tea, but Negi declined, saying he should get back to his room before the others missed him. Yet, once free of Eishun, he did not make a bee line for his room. Instead, he headed to a deck leading outside, and, standing on the empty deck, gazed up at a crescent moon. The sky was free of clouds tonight and a few stars winked at him as he watched. He allowed the light wind to play with the hair in front of his eyes a bit and he just stood there and breathed. He was trying to take in the air around him, just one last time, to give this vacation a good ending, but he failed miserably. His mind drifted back to Evangeline.

He had failed. She had come to save his sorry arse. In the end, he had been to weak, yet, who knew how much training he would have to put himself through till he could single handedly put down a demon god with the practiced ease Eva had? She had made it seem like a laughable task, the vampire had. Negi clenched his fist, which had been bandaged up and brought it up to look at it. He inspected every valley and mountain his knuckles created, all the while, the spell Eva had used repeated in his head, over, and over, and over. Her voice mesmerized him here, as he recalled the definition of the words spoken and the context, cryptic as it had been, of what that spell was capable of. If there was one way for him to get stronger that was it. Train until he could cast _that_ spell and it's fellows. Negi recalled them as he looked up into the sky. Eternal Glacier, Primal Prominence...the one that struck his village, performed by several demons at once, Everlasting Petrifaction...Unending Tempest, the list was quite long. All of them Negi knew the incantations for, yet lacked the magical power and experience to cast...well, no more of that. He'd force himself to gain it. It was the only way.

Making his fist all the tighter, so that a slight creak could be heard from the bandages around it, Negi frowned down at it. Yesterday he had nearly killed himself by trying to force more magic than his body was used to taking in one area, yet he had not, and now he knew, his body was trying to repair that and shirk it's magical channels back down to a normal size...but what if he didn't let them? What if he continued to pull large amounts of magic into different areas of his body, for the purpose of expanding those magical channels? He could, in essence, increase the speed of which he could draw his power and the amount of power he could put into one spell by a dramatically amount, as well as decrease the time it would take for his body to "recharge" the lost magic due to larger channels. He could even work on how he naturally drew in magic by forcing the process. Theoretically, he could condition himself in such a way that, even with his large arsenal, he could belt out all of his power in one shot, and yet still be okay, for he could quickly regain all that lost power, meaning he did not have to become incredibly powerful and magic leaden, he would simply appear to be so anyway due to his fast recovery time.

Looking up from his fist back at the stars, Negi's face lightened again into its usual at ease smirk. He would get rid of this weakness too, and he would hit Swallowthorn will all he had. He was a rolling stone, and they gathered no moss, only momentum on a steep hill like the one he was on. Swallowthorn was just an annoying wooden gate in the way. He would smash her...he **would** smash her.

+--3--+

"Anya, do you have your toothbrush?"

"Yes Negi."

"Anything you've left behind?"

"...No...I don't want to go though."

"You know I have no control over this Anya, now come one, I have only just enough time to drop you off at the airport for these guys and then I've got work..."

No matter how much Anya wheedled, Negi was firm, and she took the train with him, clutching tight on a duffel bag she had not come with and looking imploringly at him from time to time. Yet, she knew Negi could do nothing about this. This was the law, and he couldn't fight it just like that. He could only wait until Christmas to get her back, right? She had enjoyed her stay with Negi and his roommates, but now it was time to return to her place and wait. She had heard Negi's own story, and she felt that, if she kept his in mind, she could take whatever hers threw at her. When they finally got off the train and walked to the airport however, they were met with quite a surprise, which changed the course of Negi's plans for his life quite drastically. Two things accomplished this feat, and one of them Negi did not even notice, so much so he was paying attention to the first.

The first event was that, upon arriving at the airport and meeting up with the representative, he received a letter from the indifferent man while he looked over Anya as if to see if the goods had been "damaged" in any way. He should have seen her with Swallowthron, then he wouldn't be worried about how Negi took care of her, yet Negi had a funny feeling they already knew how well Swallowthorn took care of her charges, and had sent Negi not out of laziness, but on purpose so that they could examine how well he fixed "damaged goods." Negi ripped open the letter and, a few seconds later the whole thing caught on fire. Literally, it caught on fire and burned right as Negi stared at the man, a growing look of mixed anger and horror on his face.

_**To one Negi Springfield:**_

_**This is a notice showing your new appointment in London for your legal battle against Alice Swallowthorn for custody of Anya Cocolove:**_

_**Wednesday, October 21st, London, England 5:00. **_

_**Reservations have already been made for you for Tuesday the 20th at The Royal Horseguards, located at: 2 Whitehall Court, Westminster, SW1A 2EJ London. You are booked for a one double room, you are allowed to bring along one guest. Please be aware that no pets are allowed in this hotel. Please also be aware of the current type of battle selected by the panel:**_

_**DEATHMATCH**_

_**A one on one pure magister battle, no partners, no physical contact between combatants. Match ends only when one combatant is unable to continue and is beyond the help of medical attention. This type of battle is usually reserved for the most potent and delicate cases of the magical law. A predetermined ring will be chosen with the appropriate size, of which you cannot exit for any reason until the match is decided.**_

_**-No usage of magic meant to improve one's physical capabilities.**_

_**-No Chi, Physical contact of any kind, or weapons other than the staff can be used. Staff cannot be used to bring physical harm to opposing combatant.**_

_**-No ministra partners.**_

_**-The use of magical artifacts is forbidden.**_

Negi watched as the wind took the charred pieces of paper from his hands. The man who he had handed over Anya to was holding out two plane tickets for a different plane, one that left in one hour. His clearance was equal to that of a presidents with this kind of urgency, and his ticket was first class. He swallowed. A death match, not a simple battle against two magisters. No physical contact, no magical artifacts, which meant no HeartBreaker, no Chi, no weapons, no help, a limited movable space...Negi watched as the mental bricks were stacked up, placing Swallowthorn on a higher and higher pedestal against him. This match was in two day, or , as one might say, it was set for tomorrow at fricken 1:00 in the morning in Japan. He had to scoot, now. Yet, he had a feeling going it alone would destroy him, and yet, they had purposely cut it so close so that he would have to go it alone, be insulted by the double room, be tired after a weeklong session of trying to "heal" Anya, be at an extreme disadvantage, have little to no sleep, and lose. Negi had a feeling whoever the main people were in this panel, they either hated his father or hated his quick ascension to the title of a full magister and wanted to punish him. Swallowthorn most likely knew of this already, hell, she probably was already sleeping, having been already prepared.

Digging into his pocket, Negi brought out something he rarely used, his cell phone. Prepaid and a single slab of plastic with exposed buttons, not a flip, he only used it for inbound calls anyway, setting up study appointments and the like. He took a glance at the unflattering screen, which proclaimed to him in a businesslike and unfeeling way:

You have 58 service days left.

23.00 minutes remaining.

7:45 AM

A two thirds full battery and a three bar signal was what he had but he paid it no mind. He dialed a number, and, in the dorm, the land line began to ring, just as Konoka managed to get Asuna to finally get out of bed and get ready to go for school, which they would be late for again it seemed. Konoka picked up the phone and was about to cheerfully greet the person on the other end, but Negi cut her off with a curt question.

"Yeah Hi, no time. Tell me, which one of your, between Asuna and yourself, have less absences in school?"

While he spoke, he pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled on it a note to the Dean, giving an explanation as to where he would be for the next three days and a blank upon a student he was taking with him. Business it was, at least, that's what he wrote. He instantly filled in the blank with the answer he already knew was coming when Konoka took a breath though.

"Asuna. I keep having to go to Grandpa's stupid omais...."

"Next question, one I already know the answer too, has Asuna unpacked?"

"No."

"As I expected. Next one, Is she behind in any work?"

"She's as up to date as she'll ever be..."

"As expected there too. Does she have a passport?"

"...Huh? Uhh..I think so...I don't think she's ever had to leave the country though...Asuna, do you have a passport?"

Asuna, hopping around to get the famous sock on, paused, giving Konoka a weird look.

"The hell are you asking me that for...? Yeah...somewhere..."

"She says "somewhere" sensei."

"Does she know where the airport I took Anya is?"

"Yeah, I think so...why?"

"Tell her there are three trains. The earliest one is in...ten minutes. It's a local and takes about thirty minutes to get to the airport. The next one is ten minutes after that one, and is another local. The last is another ten minutes after the second, and it's an express, it takes about seven minutes to get to the airport. Tell her to try to get the second or first, don't try to get the last even if it is the fastest, save it for a last resort. Get her passport and get her ass over here. She's got to be here before nine o clock. I've got a plane to catch, to London, and, unfortunately, I've got an extra ticket waiting around. She wanted to see London? She's got an hour before she misses her chance for a three day visit, also tell her it's got to do with our little friends Anya, and that I'll meet her at the entrance. It's 7:47 now. Remember the four minute mile, four minute mile, and don't let her forget that damn passport!"

Ending the call with a punch to the end button that was decidedly harder than it needed to be, Negi took out a second piece of paper and wrote a note to Takahata before making both notes spin and disappear in a simple pop of decompressed air. He turned to the man, who had been looking at Negi with a slight interest while Anya looked on, utterly stricken.

"Tell your friends I'm coming, and get them prepared, because all hells gonna break loose when I get a hold of them after I fight Swallowthorn to the death, and If I die, let them because I'll be one helluva pissed ghost."

+--FIN--+

Oh my. I had to. I simply had to. You see, I at first, thought of the Christmas battle on a whim, kind of like a little present, but the battle quickly evolved and gained more trepidation until I, very early on, realized that the battle was not going to match up to the hype. So I began thinking of how to make it fit the story...finally, in this chapter, as Negi snapped, so did I. this is the result. You're getting Swallowthorn Vs. Negi....now! Well, next chapter that is, or the one after, depends on how much time it'll take to explain the "second" thing that rocks Negi's world...worse than even a 15 in the Richter scale could hope to do. Enjoy!


	20. Chapter XIX: Bitter Acceptance

Hmph. So now, here we are, speeding and moving on a much faster schedule. The Mahora Festival is just around the corner, and you can imagine, with the kind of personality Negi has and the kind of imagination I possess, what kind of chaos _that_ will be. Yet, I've got craziness coming out of my ears right now, I only hope no one gets lost in the insanity that is about to follow. I was moving so slow before but like I said, the snail has grown rockets...Look how far we've come. I keep noticing that the scroll bar keeps getting slowly smaller and smaller....Also, in this chapter, I'll put some more things out there that make it apparent that this story takes place in 2002, not in the present, which means there are plenty to things that may seem outdated a mere eight years later, but trust me, the world dealt with them then.

Another note. I glaze over a few more things here, and mainly, I do use a bit of "code" speak here to get a point across. Yet, don't get nervous, I only do this once...at least, as I'm typing this I only did it once...Storms of the Fire Crystal, I _almost_ typed that whole thing in one sitting, almost. A small portion of it was in a different day. No, Negi doesn't have any partners, a testament to his lone wolf attitude, yet he goes as far to activate a spell for an ally contract with Asuna every time she participates in a battle with him, so he does lose something in not having her there...

As always, I do not own Negima.

+----+

_**Chapter Nineteen: Bitter Acceptance**_

Negi glanced at his watch. It was eight thirty. He checked his phone, it said eight thirty. He checked the flashing display affixed to the airport building. It said eight thirty. He called up a spell under the cover of his jacket to see what time it was, it said eight thirty and forty two seconds, plus the quickly changing display of the passing nano seconds. I think we all know what time it is, thank you very much Negi. About twenty seconds later, Negi repeated this process again, and everything said it was eight thirty one now. At least we can have faith that time is moving properly. The diminutive mage checked his pockets. Passport that he took with him everywhere around his neck, with his school ID and such? Check. Wallet? Check, it had about one hundred and sixty pounds in it, plus about three thousand yen. He had a debit card that was wired to his bank account too. Besides that, he had his old college ID and, incidentally, his club member's card for the local supermarket. A small object fell from one of his pockets. Random 16 MB flash drive? Apparently that was a check. No laptop though, shame. As he bent to pick up the flash, something in one of his pockets jabbed him, and when he straightened up to check what it was, was not to surprised to find it was a loose transformer and a bunch of resistors. Mumbling, he stuck them back in his pocket. His glasses slipped down his nose a bit, lending his a magnified view of the oh-so-wonderful cobble stone the airport used for its pressed roadway. He jabbed his glasses back up with an irritated gesture. Time? Eight thirty three. He proceeded to check if he had other things with him that he might need. He had his star wand, which was conveniently stuffed up one of his sleeves, and he reached into one of his inner pockets and pulled out a bottle that made him grin. This was...useful...

By the time it was eight forty, Asuna, looking pissed, flustered, rushed and affronted, ran up to him, her travel bag bouncing along. Negi nodded at her. She must have taken the last train, predictable to say the least, but he was glad she had gotten here quickly, as he was about to jump out of his skin. He turned around, but she grabbed him by the shoulder to still his movement.

"The hell is this with this short notice huh?! What happened with Anya?"

Negi turned around and looked at her. His face plainly told her to walk while she talked, and she did so, but she still kept a firm grip on the boy's shoulder. Negi stopped near the entrance of the airport to study a map of the place. His left hand slid down and, with a shake, his star wand slipped into his hand. He turned around to glance at Asuna sidelong.

"I'd show you what happened, but I lost my temper and burnt the evidence. Our friends at the mage society have changed the date of my custody battle with Anya. It's scheduled for Wednesday now...THIS Wednesday. Not only that, but it's scheduled for Wednesday _over there_ at five o clock, which means Tuesday, at one o clock in the friggin morning in Tokyo, which means we have about...what, sixteen or seventeen hours to get my ass over there and prepare for battle. Alone. They gave me two tickets and a double room, but the battle rules say I have to fight alone. I brought you along because you always wanted to go traveling away somewhere, always harping that you felt you didn't belong in Tokyo, right?"

He did not pause for Asuna to gather the needed words to speak though, for he had finished his analysis of the map in front of him.

"The nearest bathroom is about forty feet. There are about twelve fire alarms in this place, situated all over this building, making me think the main controls are...here. From there, the breaker should be underground, approximately here, and this circuit and building of this size should have about thirty active cameras, all hooked up on a parallel circuit, who's main power source should be here.."

"...Woah, woah, hold on there boy genius, what are you casing the joint for? What you gonna rob?"

"I'm not planning on "robbing" anything. I want to knock out all the cameras at once so we can get to the bathroom and change our appearances so we don't arise suspicion."

"Suspicion? This some kinda spy movie?"

"I'm a six year old English teacher, and you are a fifteen year old middle school girl. We should not be here at all right now, besides, who the heck is going to believe in a six year old English teacher to begin with? We need to have a good disguise, despite our clearance...got it."

"Got what?"

"The circuit silly. If I just locate it with my magic, and put about fifteen volts in with a current of about...ohh....two hundred amps, the result should be..."

The result was that, about twenty feet away, a camera affixed to a wall sent out a large spark and started to smoke. Negi smiled and grabbed Asuna's hand, breaking into a quick trot, but not exactly a run as he forced them both into the suddenly backed up crowd of flight bound people.

"The result should be an overloaded circuit and a reaction from the main current source, which I targeted, causing all the branches of the circuit to overload and give out. Of course, the side effect is that all the camera's will need replacing, something I can't help. Who told them to make the place a parallel circuit? True, it's better in the way that, if one camera goes out, the others stay, but if the current source is affected here...oh never mind, no matter what, they were doomed. In here, now."

Pushing Asuna into the unisex bathroom, Negi followed her and pointed to a stall, which she, reluctantly, went in, allowing him to come after and lock the door.

"Okay, where the hell is that Passport of yours?"

Producing the tiny booklet and handing it to him, Asuna watched in interest as Negi held it up to the light and, before her very eyes, the picture began to change, as did all the information. Dates zoomed backwards, as her picture took on a more mature and older look until he handed the book back to her, allowing her to stare at a picture that might have looked like her if she were twenty two or something, although, according to the dates, she should be twenty five, the passport claimed the picture was taken about two years ago... which was perfect, for how many people actually update their passports every year anyway? Negi took out his teacher's ID and it too changed, assuming Asuna's own, changed picture and claiming her to be a "Para Professional - Probationary." He handed the thing to her and took out his wallet, handing that to her too. He took his own passport then and stared at it, holding it down so he could bend over it a bit. When he looked up, a picture of a near infant was there. Negi quirked a smile and looked up at her.

"Now for the final piece to the puzzle..."

Out of one of his numerous pockets, he pulled out a bottle of odd pills. Some of them where pink and blue, while others were green and red. They all seemed to come in different sizes, Negi tossed a couple in his hand and picked out one of the thicker red and green ones, handing it to Asuna so she could stare at it. Inscribed in tiny numbers, as pills tend to have to put little codes on them, was a number one thousand. Negi picked out a thinner red and green one, one that had a number five hundred marked on it.

"These are age changing pills. Pop one in your mouth and it provides the illusion of you being either older or younger than you are by the amount of years labeled on the pill. The first two numbers are the years, the last two are the months. Yours has a one thousand, so it will age you ten years either way. Mine has a five hundred. Notice the zero in front of the five? Five years either way. Green is forward, red is backwards. Simple. I'll take a red side, you take a green side. It will make you look like you are twenty five, and it'll make me seem like I'm one year old. The illusions are perfect, so you don't have to worry about anyone bumping into you and seeing through them. Only thing is they only last forty eight hours, but we don't even need them to last that long, so it doesn't matter. Of course, before you take it, give it to me for a bit..."

Asuna gladly surrendered the pill to him, for this kind of stuff made her a bit nervous. Magic was steadily becoming something that made more and more sense, for it kept on becoming a part of everything. It did not just dominate one part of your life, it was everywhere. Yet, the more it made sense, the more it scared her. The things you could do with it...you could be anyone with this kind of stuff. Any age, any person with a simple spell to change your passport and a pill to pop in your mouth. She looked at the other pilled Negi had stuffed back in the bottle so that he only held the two they were going to use. Not all of them had numbers, only the green and red ones. The pink and blue ones had symbols; the blue side had a circle with an arrow sticking out, off to the side the pick side, a circle on top of a plus, almost like a stick figure with not legs. Asuna pointed this out to Negi as he stared down at the two pills, seeming to concentrate on them with all his might. He nodded as the pills glowed a light pink and then faded.

"Alright, I added an extra effect to the pills, this one to change the clothes we are wearing because obviously the ones we current have aren't going to fit...I also added a couple months to mine...the blue and pink ones are gender change pills. Blue for male, pink for female. The symbols are the universal signs for male or female...crap."

Tossing a pill to Asuna as they both heard the door open to the bathroom, Negi spoke in a voice that Asuna found surprising coming from him, but one that perfectly fitted his visage, being a child.

"Mommie..I don't wanna go...."

+--1--+

She just could not believe it. Asuna adjusted the strap on her duffel bag and handed the inspector her tickets. The man smiled at her and rolled his eyes at the kid she held.

"So damn cute when they're asleep, yet hell when they are awake, huh?"

She still had to get used to that too. Nodding at the man as he waved her through, he held a hand in front of her to block her from the metal detector.

"You can take the test if you want, but your clearance says you skip it lady."

"Oh..oh right...I keep forgetting that..."

Asuna wore what seemed to be a silk white button up work shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. A brown overcoat made of some soft material was open and flapping loosely where it could get past her duffel bag. A long navy blue skirt that reached her ankles was held up by a sensible belt about her waist, and she had on what seemed to be black loafers with blue stockings. Nothing to flattering, but she looked like some traveling business woman with her hair back in a single pony tail...especially with the ID around her neck. The thing that caught her was the fact she was carrying Negi in one arm, who looked like a baby, sound asleep...she tried to stare down and see if she could spot any of the patented characteristics that told her of the caustic boy, but none of them showed up, he looked like a perfectly innocent child sleeping away in her single arm while her other one kept her duffel bag close. She sat down on one of the provided chairs and waited for her flight number to be called. Nervously, she smoothed her skirt a bit. Her own illusion was no picnic either. She had to admit, it was a perfect disguise, the only thing was that she herself wasn't used to her new look. Everything looked just a _bit_ higher than usual, her legs a bit longer and awkward, she didn't quite know her own speed, or sense of balance...

"Aww...isn't he cute. It's hard to see one with so much character when their that young...how old is he?"

Glancing up, Asuna saw another woman, who was carting along a kid in a stroller. She had a kind of world weary look, and she plopped down on the seat next to Asuna with a sigh that made her think the other woman depressed. She looked down at Negi with a practiced eye. Short and tied back brown hair show cased a set face, and brown eyes scanned the child Asuna held with a kind of duty that made her a bit uncomfortable.

"If I had to guess, I would say he's no more than six months, but he's a bit small for that."

Asuna recalled the picture on the passport Negi had "changed" for himself. The date he had changed it to would probably make him around that age...

"Y-you seem to know your stuff..."

"Ha ha, although, I'm pretty surprised, you got back into shape a hell of a fast, you have a secret?"

"...Not really...you seem to talk like you..."

"Oh please, it's only because I've had more than I wanted myself. To tell you the truth I think I just can't help myself sometimes..."

_Oh boy..._

Leaning in the woman seemed to act like she was sharing a trade secret with Asuna and as she spoke, Asuna's face flushed just a bit, making the other woman laugh.

"In all honesty, My husband can't fit in any jacket we've tried..."

Oh boy, she did not like where this conversation was going...squirming a bit, she let out a quiet grunt, as if she were clearing her throat, and pulled on her collar a bit. This only made the other woman laugh all the harder.

"Girl, you're acting like a little kid! It can't be all _that_ embarrassing. I have a feeling that, even though you don't look it, this little guy's your first, ain't he? You keep yourself together more than most first timers. Other's have their hair all in a mess and their clothes looking like they just came out of a cafeteria war zone. Still, the kid's bogging you down, You mind if I hold him for a bit? You can go do what you have too; I won't take him from you!"

True, Asuna did want to get some water and use the bathroom, as well as do a few other things to calm herself down and get used to this new body, yet still, she was hesitant to hand over Negi to this woman. She didn't even know her, besides the fact she seemed pretty flippant about things normally saved for closed doors. It seemed silly, but being in a different body, and pretending to be someone else to this extent, made Asuna really feel the part, and a maternal instinct made her real nervous about leaving the kid under her supervision in the hands of another she knew nothing about. Yet still...hesitantly, she relinquished Negi to her, and the woman held him like one would a...well, a baby! She's not going to hold the thing like you would a skunk or a ticking bomb after all!

"My god, I wish my kids were this still when they had been this small, would have made things a heck of a lot easier. He's like a doll! Is he alive down there? Oh, never mind, false alarm, he's breathing."

True to the words, Negi was, of course, breathing, a pace that had quickened when he had changed hands, for, to tell you the truth, he had never really been sleeping, much as the body he was in begged him for it. His mind flitted from one thing to the next, and it was a jumble of sounds and smells he struggled to make sense of. This transformation of body was perfect, which meant his brain was a true babies, one reason why these pills warned mages of trying to reduce their age to an extreme point. One could lose themselves and be trapped until it wore off. Yet, Negi had Asuna to keep him in check, and his mind was not an average one, even as it struggled to reign in the wishy washy way the brain convicted effort into coherent thought. The woman bent down to coo at him, and Negi snapped open his eyes to look at her, startling her a tiny bit.

"Oooh. Mister's awake, isn't he? That's some killer eyes you've got there. Remind me of your mother's they do. Little rubies. You'd better be careful with those things little man, you could start a fire with them!"

\\\

--------

///

Slowly, the water dripped from her face. Asuna stared at the image the mirror was reflecting back at her. Was this really what she was going to look like when she reached her twenties? It was a scary though, how magic allowed her to take a peek at the future like this, yet it was exciting in its own way too. She checked her "watch". It was almost nine o clock, which meant she should get going back to her seat, before her plane got called. Exiting the bathroom, she walked back to where she had left the woman with Negi and was greeted with the sight of her dangling fingers in front of his face, one of which Negi reached out and quickly grabbed before she could snatch them away.

"Hey, you caught me! Ahh, you've got a strong grip too, little bugger. Ha ha...hey let go! Ahh there, see, you can't beat me! Ha! Ooh, you're fast! Spunky little kid."

+--2--+

One hectic plane ride later, Negi shook himself awake. He had managed to communicate to Asuna on the plane, through writing on her palm with his finger, that she could simply feed him the other half of the pill when the plane ride was over and they were out of the airport to change him back. Something she seemed a bit reluctant to do, but had to do eventually, because they had arrived in London at three o clock Wednesday, forget about the hotel, he never had a chance to be in it. Still, when she fed him the pill and canceled his illusion, she decided to keep hers for a bit longer, which was fine by him. She followed him through the streets on London, drinking in the sights and sounds of a place with a drastically slower pace than Tokyo. Still, Mahora City was a place of near boundless energy, further distancing London, which, despite being active in its own way, was quite a large deal calmer than her usual residence. It was here that Negi reigned, for, despite her long and hard practice with English and Negi's teaching, she still was realized for a foreigner, and there were some words that she just did not know. Yet, the caustic boy was at home, and it showed, for he was quite a bit more relaxed than usual. It made her realize just how guarded the boy was in Japan, how, regardless of his skill in the language, the fact he was not speaking in his native tongue provided a barrier. A barrier that had been broken down a tiny bit with the presence of Anya, who had jabbered in English to him and whom only spoke to Asuna and Konoka in it. So absorbed in thought, she did not see where she was going, and knocked someone with their grocery bags over, almost causing a great mess if it had not been for a more alert Negi, who grabbed the woman's bags before the fell but failed to get the woman herself, hey, his hands were full of her produce. Asuna, flustered, bent down to lend a hand, clumsily spouting apologies in English. The blonde woman looked up and shook her head to clear it of some spider webs before grabbing the offered hand and shooing off Asuna's apologies. She accepted her bags from Negi, yet, when she saw his young face, she paused, for just a second...long enough for her not to hear his query of her status. Once again, she shook her head to rid it of its unneeded air.

_He's so young...so much like someone..._

"Oh sorry, I'm an air head. I'm fine, thank you for asking."

Negi, nodding, asked her if she knew where the Crown Magistrates Court House was. She looked a bit surprised, but directed him to the correct area, and Negi sped off, Asuna not far behind, shouting back his thanks. The woman could only shake her head. Indeed, he was so much like someone she used to know. Sighing, she adjusted the bags in her arms slightly before turning around to walk off, but something hit her again, not physically, but mentally. What if...no, it couldn't be...it was too much of a coincidence...

"Crown Magistrates Court House? How the hell can anyone miss that kind of name? What are they, stupid?"

"There are a lot of courts with the name "Magi" in them around the world; no one suspects a damn thing."

Finally, finally, they reached the court house, and Negi had glanced at his time to see it was only three forty two. He went inside and presently fell asleep on the bench, asking Asuna to wake him up at four thirty. While she sat, she saw dozens of people file by, and, with a practiced eye, saw many of them hastily shoving wands back into pockets, or pulling up hoods over their odd, character filled faces. One man in particular came in directing two other men who, between them, where holding a large cage, one of which had a black silk cover thrown over it, as if the animal inside were particularly unpleasant, or did not like bright light. The man scolded one of the movers when he stumbled, and his wand flashed out, making the cage hold steady for a few second before he had quickly grabbed it, making his wand easily disappear, but he sighed, for his head had turned to both sides and he did not see anyone but Asuna, whom, after seeing that she was not surprised by his show, sighed. How many people lived in constant fear like this? Afraid of letting loose the secret of their power to the mundanes of this world?

By the time it reached four thirty and Asuna had woken Negi, another man had walked in, this one a person whom, upon seeing Negi, allowed his eyes to light up, just a little. The old man approached the boy, and Negi, who had been staring at his star wand, glanced up at him and gave him a slightly sick smile.

"Headmaster Magus..."

"You don't need to call me that anymore, Mr. Springfield. As of September, when you passed your final test, you became a full Magister, did you not? Even if you are a still solely acting one, or am I wrong about that?"

"No, you are not wrong. I have no partners. Not any pactio ones anyway."

"Then you at least can gain some comfort in knowing Swallowthorn is without the benefit of her own partner here. In all honesty, this is an insane punishment. This battle should not have ranked so high. In all honesty, this should have been a completely legal battle, which a judge and attorneys and what not, but the panel wants blood, and has not seen blood in a long time. Unfortunately, it has to be blood that is either yours or caused by your hand."

"I know Magus."

"I feel for you boy. Swallowthorn has many tricks up her sleeve, and not all of them are pretty. Did you see a cage come in here by any chance?"

"..Cage?"

"I saw one."

Magus looked sidelong at Asuna then, taking her in.

"Ahh, brought along a friend I see. Well madam, that cage doesn't have an animal in it. It has a person in it. I tiny, frightened and desperate little girl."

"Anya's in there?!?"

"She will watch the battle from a cage. It's supposed to motivate those who are fighting."

+--3--+

((For sanities sake, Swallowthorn's chanting shall be **bolded**. please take note.))

The stage was set. An inside ring, circular in shape, and about twenty meters in radius, was engraved in the middle of a large, open hall. The whole area was enclosed, and the circle had seen better days, that was for sure. But right now, it was alive with a purple fire, it's light being cast up and forming a circular bubble, a barrier erected to make sure whatever went on inside would not affect the outside. Off to the side, a table housed five chairs, as if this were a talent show in which the panel of judges sat behind it and spoke their mind. A pedestal housed a cage, as if the person inside it were some kind of angry bird to be put upon display. Cruel in its manner all the way through, Negi could only narrow his eyes as he walked into the chamber, allowing the silence to penetrate all. Without a second thought, he stepped into the circle, the barrier fizzing about him before accepting him and becoming solid once more. He walked a good distance, all the way to the other side of the circle, to stare at Anya in her cage. He didn't say anything or even do anything, but he just gave her that odd stare. They both knew he was not to confident here, yet his face showed nothing but a morbid calm. He gave a token glance to each of the judges. Four of the five seated shivered a bit. The other, Magus, looked interested. Negi tossed off his coat and pounded both of his fists together, cracking knuckles. He was waiting for the bomb to fall, even as the minutes ticked down. What else could he do after all, but wait? Swallowthorn approached quite slowly herself, and, at the last second, tossed off some kind of odd vial she had been drinking from with a flourish. It rebounded off the barrier and almost hit her partner in the face. Almost. The woman did not even notice however, and Swallowthorn made no comment. Stepping into the barrier, Negi was suddenly aware that, unless he was mistaken, her magical power was far stronger than he remembered it to be. Maybe it was that vial? Yet, such things are....

His thought was cut off by the barrier, having received it's to combatants, turned green and all the more brilliant, locking the two of them in. Negi punched the air and his star wand flew from inside his sleeve to his fingers. Swallowthorn herself brought out a long thin wand of what appeared to be oak, with no decorative tip. A simple, "serious business" wand. She couldn't help but laugh at his kiddie one. Yet still, as much as she had focused her magical power into her potions to be consumed later on, using saved power from previous days to super saturate her veins now, she could not help but notice that the boy too, seemed to have gained a small amount of power from when she had scoped him last in the potion. Or what it the simple fact that he was actually standing in front of her now? Still, she could not let her mind wander from that. Smiling lightly, she arched her wand out. It was customary for both mages to begin their chant to together in this kind of battle.

**"Per vas, Per vas."**

"Rastel Mascir.."

**"Iunctura est validus."**

"Magister."

Negi's spell release was naturally faster and less wordy, but he slowed his chant so he would end at the same time. He had to tread carefully when he was dealing with matters like this, and his brain was dizzy with the extra aura signals he was getting from the woman in front of him. Still, it was time to unleash what he had practiced. There would be no punching and kicking here, his physical speed would be used only for avoidance. His physical strength only for endurance. He was not useless here. He had long practiced the art of being "double minded" the ability needed to cast two spells at once, and he was certain, no matter how powerful his opponent boosted themselves to be, that this skill would be a quite devastating tactic that tossed weight unto his side of the scale. That, coupled with his un-determined theory of expansion of magical channels, and his work in original spells, gave him confidence in his place on this platform. He had passed his test to become a Magister Magi, now he would prove he was worthy of the seed. Either that or die, and this time, it was literal.

**"Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes..."**

Oh hell no, she is _**not**_ going for the same spell Evangeline tried on him. What was up with people and their darkness and ice? Negi remembered his work on the higher arch of this type of spell, the "second generation" if you will, one of which being the spell he had tried to use against Sukuna, his "Hellfire Lightning" spell, so to speak. Still, using that spell now would be stupid. True, before it had drained him dry, after all the spell work he had already done, and now he was fully recovered, but still, using that would drain quite a large amount of his reserves per second. Still, Negi was in no mood to chant the same type of spell and wind up in a power play battle, in which this woman would obviously overthrow him...

_Sagitta Magica_

**"Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!"**

"Deflexio!"

_Undecim_

When the woman let loose the beam of darkness and ice, Negi nimbly avoided it, jumping out of the way and letting the spell slam up against the barrier, which did not even budge an inch or show and indication the spell strained it, bolstering Negi's confidence of how effectively trapped the two of them were in here. His deflexio spell bubbled up around him, a kind of reserve for him, as he put minimal power into it. He came at Swallowthorn from the side, rushing her, not to hit her of course, but to lose distance. She turned with him, canceling her first spell to show it had made a wall of ice and chanting another, thrusting her hand towards him.

"Elementa Aeriales, Venti Spriantes."

**"Iaculation Grandinis!"**

"Cito Adieuntes Ab Inimicus Meis Me Defendant."

_Spiritus _

"Limes Aeriales! Sagitta Magica, Undecim Spiritus..."

As the spears of ice from Swallowthorn raked at Negi, they shattered his Delfexio, and pummeled his wind barrier, but this was all part of his plan, for he was closing the distance between them all the time, and, as he jumped up, he did a double release on her, showing aggression for the first time in this battle as he stopped short less than a yard from her.

_Lucis_

"Ingus!"

**"Deflexio!...Deflexio!"**

While Swallowthorn had put enough power behind her barrier for the eleven arrows of fire to meet and be cancelled by it, she had not originally expected the ones of light, and had to quickly call up a second deflexio spell for it while managing to surprise Negi by nimbly dodging a few arrows with her own rarely shown speed. She stopped and stared at him. Two spells at once? How could he cast two spells at once? That would require an insane amount of concentration..not to mention he would have to do one _unincanted_, which was worse...she had abandoned that magical art as a bad job, for it decreased the power and versatility she could use for her spells, she only saved it for emergencies when and if her mouth ever got bound, but for him to pull it off in actual combat like this! Negi met her stare with a dip of his head to the side and a small smirk. He had her, or at least, that was what his face said. The hell if she would let him think that. Quickly bringing forth her magic for a second round, she ran off to the side to create distance, just as Negi, seeing this, jumped and ran to catch up with her.

**"Veniant Spiritus Terreteres Florentes!"**

_Crap, not this spell! Deflexio! Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach!_

**"Cum Flore Somniali Sub Caelo Percurrant..."**

_In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum..._

Jumping up and rollling, Negi started a chant for a spell on the same level.

"Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes."

_Daemonium Cum Spinis Triginta!_

_Oh, so he does know hits level of spell work. This will be even more fun then, he plans to challenge me to a test of power? Perfect! This is where I will win!_

**" Una Tempestas! Veris Tempestas Florens!"**

"Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!"

Yet, when Swallowthorn stood ground and let loose her spell, Negi did not, instead, he ducked off to the side, holding the spell in reserve for a split second before letting it loose, right at Swallowthorn, who had to disengage her own spell and dodge, for she had been unprotected. Yet, even as she dodged, Negi let loose his other, unincanted spell, right at her while she was in mid dodge.

_Iaculatio Fulgoris!_

Spears of lightning rained down upon her, prompting the woman to let out a few very potent curses and slam up several deflexio spells while she attempted to dodge or deflect them. All the while, three out of five judges sat with their mouths hanging loosely open. One was sitting there, grinding his teeth into powder, and another was paying keen attention to the battle being fought, this judge being Magus. He had never seen Negi cast anything beyond the three spells taught in school, and to see him now, he knew that the boy most likely either always knew these spells, meaning he had snuck into the now burnt libraries like his friend Anya had been caught doing and never been caught, something Magus would not put past him...or he was an incredibly fast learner, which Magus did not put past him either. No matter how one looked at it, his suspicions that the boy was more than one originally saw at eye value had been satisfied. This battle, once thought by him to be extremely stacked, and his participation in it his thought of witnessing an early funeral for a young boy, now turned into an assurance that maybe, just maybe, the underdog had a couple of tricks up his sleeve that made this a dead Even Steven. Yet, it was not over, and Magus could not help but silently laugh at the look Anya had on her face as she watched Negi fight, he doubted Negi had broken any rules and showed her what he could really do during his time caring for her, and as a result, she had a complete look of awe as the two combatants raged. This was a battle of Magisters, and only one would survive. Yet, Swallowthorn had effectively dodged and blocked all of his spears, even if all her deflexios had been used, it was she who rushed him now, pulling out, of all things, a Sagitta Magica.

**"Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonaginta novem..."**

_Pulling out the big guns are we now? A hundred and ninety nine huh? Well, I can do that too..Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonaginta novem..._

**"Spiritus Terra!"**

"Deflixio, Deflexio, Delfexio!"

_Spiritus..._

It was his trained bodily speed against an assault of one hundred and ninety nine arrows, and he only had three free shots. He was using his deflexio spells in this battle like false hits. He would purposely put a small amount of effort into them so that, when they shattered, they had enough to absorb the impact, but not enough to drain him much, meaning that they disappeared, but so did the arrow. Glass shields only meant for one time blocks, distractions. Negi tried to get closer at every dodge, yet, when he ran out of shields, he released his spell to counter the rest and set some at her.

_Lucis!_

Negi had done well to dodge many of the arrows as the remaining ones were pummeled and Swallowthorn had to slam up more Deflexio spells to block them. By now, the extra energy Swallowthorn had saved up in potions to saturate her blood had dissipated, and she was left with her own reserve against Negi, making them now both seem on a much more even playing field, and yet, Negi knew his reserves would not last as long as her's would, as she had had some extra saved juice. Still, he could now try to engage her in more direct power plays. Deciding to test out a theory, he tried to "reach" for magic outside himself, like young mages are taught to do through their wands when they have no magical reserves of their own. Only here and now, he was trying to expand upon that, using his body, which could hold magic as a vessel and naturally drew magic towards it to fill it, and speed the process. Theoretically, it should work, and grant him a faster recovery time, but still, he had other things to attend to. Putting his mind to the test, he tried to focus on both an unincanted spell and the drawing of magic while he spoke aloud another spell to counter Swallowthorn's next bout of magic. She could feel that he was weakening, just like he knew she had used up her extra reserves.

**"Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes, Cum Obscuratione.."**

_The same spell again? You have no imagination! Or is that all you have in your arsenal? Not surprising if it is, most mages only have about three to five. Magi's have around seven to nine... twelve tops._

**"Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!"**

"Deflexio!"

Even as the fight raged on and the judges present saw a degradation in the magic Negi was using, it became clear that his magical reserves alone were not going to stand up to the initial power boost and extra reserves Swallowthrown had come with, yet still, little by little, he chipped away at her resolve, a quick Sagitta Magica here and there, Negi even began using his Delflexio spells to make a kind of "return fire" spell, something Magus had seen him do before in school. As the magical battle continued, Negi continued to get more and more defensive, and Swallowthorn became more on the attack, almost to the point of being desperate.

**"...Ingus! Iaculation Grandinis! Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes, Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis, Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!" **

Bobbing and weaving like an otter in a river, Negi attempted to go this trio of spells "solo" without any magical barriers, using all of the available arena space to get out of the numerous spells that were sent flying his way. It was then that, a voice came off from the side a bit weak and concerned, not out of lack of strength but out of lack of conviction into the words, for what they were seeing.

"Negi..."

The single name seemed to spark something inside Swallowthorn, for she turned to see Anya, and in those eyes, she saw a way to finally beat this kid. Recalling her magical lessons from the bygone days, she pointed a harsh finger at Anya's cage, and with a single Latin syllable, lifted it from its perch on top of the pedestal to the top of the barrier, where she let it fall, on one of the barred sides, on the barrier. The said barrier instantly began to fizz as it sizzled away at the bars, and Anya had to try and hold herself to the other side. Once the barrier was up, very little could get past it, and anything encountering it that wasn't supposed to be there would be repelled, unless it was simply placed there like Swallowthorn had done, then it burnt away at it...Negi's eyes grew wide as the woman smiled at him in her own wicked way.

"The hell!! What are you trying to do?! Aren't you fighting _**for**_ her?"

"What little girl is worth more than my life? Ehh boy? Tell you what. You want her? You want to save her? Okay then mister hero. Sacrifice yourself and let me win."

Negi couldn't believe his ears. The hell. The flipping hell. This was supposed to be a battle...he cast his eyes at the panel of judges, four of which were actually quite happy with this development, while Magus squawked at them. Yet plainly Negi heard one of them say that what Swallowthorn was doing was: "Not..._**against**_ the rules." Negi had not magic to lift the girl up, cage and all, off the barrier, and he knew if he tried, it would wind up a power battle. His anger at the situation made his veins sear. That same anger seemed to make it click for him. Reaching into his nearly depleted reserves, he reached past them to his wand itself, using it in the way he used to, drawing magic from his surroundings, yet, at the same time, Negi tried to expand his field of concentration, if he could cast magic from his arms and hands from his tattoo, what was stopping him from using his entire body as a faucet for drawing power back into himself? Using it as a way to regain what he had lost? Even as Swallowthron taunted him that he didn't have all day for his decision, and even as Anya yelped when he had slipped a bit and the edge of her shoe caught on the barrier for a few seconds, Negi could feel his magical reserves rise, but it was not fast enough, he needed more, more of it...he needed to put this all away, and his anger rose again. Once more he was going to fail, but he would not let himself. He forced his magical channels open drawing upon his stubborn will and chi to over flow those pathways and force them to open further. He did not even notice that Swallowthorn was slowly starting to cease her laughter, as she felt his aura spring back, alive. The veins on the back of his hands had lit up before, but this time, the risen passage ways extended up to his exposed elbows and were glowing faintly, even as he began drawing upon more from his surroundings. In his mind a spell surfaced, one he had not let loose from his mind ever since that night against Sukuna. The original speaker of the spell said it with him in his head as he recited it with his mouth, even as the magical glow traveled further up his arms. He spoke it in English, making them all wonder what he was doing, or if he had lost his mind...

_To Sumbolaion Diakon__ē__t__ō__ Moi..._

"Heed the Contract and Serve Me..."

Swallowthorn looked at him oddly. He was speaking in English, what was he doing? She caught sight of his glowing veins and paled just a tad. His magical concentration, his aura, soared higher with every second...

_...h__ē__ Krustallin__ē__ Basileia! Epigen__ē__th__ē__t__ō__, Tai__ō__nion Erebos... _

"Queen of Ice... Come, Unending Darkness..."

_Holy crap..he looks like he's about to go boom!_

_Hai__ō__nie Krustalle! Pasais Z__ō__ais ton Ison Thanaton, _

"Eternal Glacier... Bring Death to All That Has Life..."

Indeed, Negi looked like he was about to explode. Ths light had become a shine now, and just about every available patch of skin visible was afire with those searing veins. Yet, Negi ignored it, for once he was committed to a spell, once he was putting a theory to the test, once he was angry enough to bring out his worst, he cared not about anything else. Even now, there was an extreme pressure, an unbearable pain, that coursed through him, yet he ignored it, even as the blood rose in his eyes and he saw red...

_hos Ataraxia! Kosmik__ē__ Katastroph__ē__!" _

"Eternal Rest! END OF THE WORLD!!"

Indeed, for Swallowthron, it seemed the world had ended right then and there, for Negi extended out his arm, his skin the dark, deep blood red color of dried lava, and his veins flowing with the color of that same lava lit to a fire where it still coursed through the world as a liquid, and from it erupted an incredible blast of frozen air and ice, She barely had time to breathe, let alone react or dodge. The entire area filled up and the barrier shattered, sending the cage that had been on it flying and crashing into a wall, yet Anya had managed to stay in it and the cage itself took the brunt of the fall as a mammoth dome of ice formed in the place of where the barrier once was, and, even though none could see through it, they heard a heart wrenching scream of pain from inside it, even as that same voice spoke out a final word.

"Catastrophe!"

For Negi, all went blissfully black as all around him the world of ice he had created shattered into a trillion pieces, dousing the entire hall in new fallen, frozen snow, and he did not hear the strangled yell that was issued from Magus as he fell to his knees and then face first unto the ground.

+--FIN--+

Well. I had planned to put more in this chapter, but I guess not. It's long enough without adding what I wanted too, and I know If I do add what I want too, this thing will be extremely long, so I might as well save it for next chapter. I'm adding another note here telling you all that intersession period is coming to a close for most colleges, including mine. (Yes, this idiot author actually managed to get into college.) Meaning I will have far less time to write, but fear not, I managed to get once a week or so updates during last semester, so I can do it again! No one managed to snag the virtual cookie from a few chapters back from the bad pun...oh well. I may also add that I normally underline my chapter titles, but Fan Fiction, curiously, does not add that detail. I have to go back and change it... Shame. I also notice that some designs I make on the page turn into simple page separating lines, which is annoying, but ehh, what can I do? I hope the battle between Negi and Swallowthorn did not disappoint, I was planning on putting more into it, but as I said, this chapter was getting long and my time was drawing to a close, for the day, and I so badly wanted to update, soo...I cut it a bit short, don't worry though, I did not leave out much, nothing really important, just some useless dialogue I had in my head. Or not useless but a tad uninteresting for readers. What was it else I wanted to say? Oh yes, I know most of you have done so anyway, but disregard the last message about Chronicles of the fallen one, it is not the battle scene story I was talking about, although it does have a few battled scenes in it. Speaking of battle scenes, how am I doing with them? I want to know your opinion, because frankly, I still think I suck at them.

Okay, I've talked enough. I'll see you next time, if there is one... *Silence* Okay, obviously there will be a next time. Unless I die...

Speaking of which...

"Would you just shut up already!?!"

Okay. Bye.


	21. Chapter XX: Bitter Memories

My chapters are approximately twelve pages long. It makes me wonder why I can do that with one of my chapters, and yet I know if I were asked to construct a twelve page report, I would be hard pressed to do so. Even if you take into account all the spaces for speech, you would still get...perhaps...seven pages. It appalls me, the power one's imagination has upon them. If only writing reports was this entertaining, huh? Ahh well, I'm taking up your precious time, once again! Let us speed to the story, which is begging to be told! I'm wondering if you all are wondering what I've done this time to our favorite little red-headed boy...I also reveal the second thing that twists Negi's life around into a pretzel in this chapter, so watch out.

Negi almost killed himself! Oi you fool, be more darn careful! You've only got one life yah know!

Must I mention it again? I do not own Negima. If you thought I did, you must have a very vivid and active imagination.

+---+

_**Chapter Twenty: Bitter Memories**_

It had been nearly twenty four hours, four minutes short of it in fact, before a groan was issued from a fallen figure on the floor, yet that single sign of life was all Magus needed to punch one of the men next to him dead in the face and point to the downed figure. Even though Magus was an old man, his punch still had quite a bit of weight behind it, and it nearly bowled the other man over. It certainly made a few teeth fall out, not the Magus didn't think he was justified in his action in decking the other one in the face, mind you. Pointing to the downed figure amidst all the crushed ice, his voice nearly made the other men present all go blissfully deaf, yet, unfortunately for them, this was not the case.

"You see! There! He is alive and has now officially won, now would you help me in healing him?!?"

Rules and regulations his foot. These people just did not want to admit that Negi had won. If both of them died, it would have been a tie, and the matter would have been solved in their way, to how they saw fit. Still, unless one of them was alive and the other dead, the fight would continue, and as such, there could be no "assisting" any member of either party. Which meant that for twenty four hours, Magus and Asuna, plus Anya, had worried themselves down to a quick, waiting and watching for some kind of tell tale sign of life from the downed boy. Magus and Asuna had made a deal. Whoever saw Negi move first would get to punch one of the judges and beat the crap out of any one of them they chose. The other would get to pummel Negi when he got a bit better. Magus, needless to say, was happy to relinquish the pummeling Negi part to the woman. Yet, he had more pressing matters to attend to, like the fact that Negi was pushing himself up off the ground, or at least, he was attempting that feat, or Magus _thought_ that was what he had been trying to do. His arms were shaking slightly, and he made another soft groan, but nothing of his body actually moved much. Magus bent and scooped the boy up. He was incredibly light, and yet, all that magical power had come from him. It made Magus secretly marvel, as he relished in the fact that none of those present tried to stop him from carrying the boy out, how magic, how energy, can exist in such a way. Weightless and free, no gravity to bog it down.

A few dozen healing spells later and a gentle clean up at the hands of Asuna saw Negi in a bed at the hotel that had been booked for him, not for the one day it had been advertised to him, but for an entire week. Not that the boy planned on staying that long, just that it was there for him. After trying to move and being picked up by Magus, Negi had become deathly still in his arms, and still was, even as Anya, having been forced to go clean up herself by Asuna, now sat at the side of the bed, watching him with all the more concern coming from her. Asuna came up to her, her illusion having been dissipated by herself a couple of hours ago. Following her was a nurse, who, coincidentally, happened to be the woman they had bumped into earlier. This nurse was the one who had done all the physical healing, and who put Anya on edge, and Asuna too for that matter, as she wasn't sure if this woman knew anything about magic, and assumed it best to keep it under wraps. The only person who seemed to know how to tell was Negi, at least, among the people she knew that were with her. Anya couldn't tell, and she didn't have the training for it. The nurse put a cool hand upon Anya's shoulder.

"Now now, I have no idea what your brother here did to get himself like this, but I can assure you, he'll be alright, it's late, and you should get to bed missy."

"But, I don't wanna leave.."

"Don't worry, if he wakes up, I'll tell you, okay? Now scoot."

Even as Anya left, Asuna plopped down into the seat she had vacated, yet, the nurse placed a hand on her shoulder too. Glancing up, she looked at the blonde woman's face. It had a bit of a pout to it, and she had a bit for Asuna too. Did she think that the little girl was the only one who was over working themselves over this child? Hardly. Not only that, but she knew that this girl was already tightly wound, trying to hide magic from her. She guessed this was the "woman" she had seen earlier. Yet still the nurse did not feel like telling her she knew about magic just yet...

"Oh no you don't I told her to scoot and you come to take her place? Ain't gonna happen. Skedaddle. I'll watch him."

Even as Asuna got up and Left the nurse glanced around, still not comfortable with where she was. Yet still, it was obvious that these girls were wound up, and that, to further the case, they were mages. Oh, it was an obvious thing. A quick stuff of a wand here by the older girl, hiding a staff behind her back like a guilty cookie thief might their captive cookie, the fact that they all had slight auras...well, the older girls was actually quite powerful, and she also reminded her of someone she had seen before...

Then there was the boy.

For some reason, he captivated her. He looked almost exactly like a man she had once known, in fact, he just about matched him to a "t" She grinned at that, but it made her think. It really made her think. How could this boy look so much like him, and yet be just a coincidence. Not even that, but the name, the name was his too. They say that every person has a triple in this world. Was this Negi Springfield number two? It was something that completely stumped her.

Arika Anarichia Ethiofushia? Stumped? It was beyond comprehension for most, yet quite simple for others... She couldn't help but smile at the boy, as much as it made her pine. Hadn't her own son perished in a village fire along with her in laws when he was just a few years old? Yet, if she would imagine her son, no if she were to imagine Nagi's son, this is what he would look like...minus all the enlarged and magically overdriven channels he was displaying. What kind of spell had this kid tried to pull and somehow manage to still survive? A lower mid level storm spell?

Oh the irony of it all...

((Ohh boy.))

+--1--+

"Negi, you're alive!"

"...Well...sure Anya... You expected anything to be any damn different, Asuna-san?"

"I am going to _**kill**_you for making us worry like that!"

"As if Swallowthorn didn't try hard enough in that department already, Asuna-san... Give your damn sentiments a rest for once."

He even sounded like him a little bit. All a bit higher pitched do to his youth and a far harsher. His eyes, which she had not seen before, shined with his hue. He was a perfect tiny replica, and it ripped her heart in two to see it. Something made her want to grab him and hold him, but she restrained herself. She had lost her chance of that when she had run away from the village to try and follow Nagi on his hare brained scheme, his mercenary job. By the time she had gotten to London, she had to wait a few months for the gate to the magical world to be fixed, for it had been acting up. Then she had to wait longer, then the price rose. By the time that she had collected enough money for it, word that the entire village where her in laws and son had been living had been burnt to a crisp, and there had been no reported survivors. She had rushed back to the place to have her heart ache at the sight of it. Her son had been one of them, and he was just a baby! If only she had taken him with her instead of thinking him more safe with her in laws! Stone statues of people had littered the entire area, telling her plainly who was responsible. It ate her. After that she had gone back to London, there was nowhere else to go. Rumors had been spreading about Nagi too, being dead, but she could not bring herself to go to the magical world and confirm them. She had to stay away from there. Not because people though her dead, she could easily disguise herself, but because she could not bear to find out it was true. She was already grieving for her lost son. Now this boy showed up to tear down the walls again. She wanted to go somewhere and cry. She had to get out of here, but something stilled her, kept her here. The final piece to the puzzle was added when a cell phone rang, and Negi picked it up.

"Hello."

_"Is this Professor Springfield?"_

"Yes, this is Professor Springfield. How can I help you?"

_No...It can't be! He can't have the same __**name**__ too! That was an impossibility, the probability of it happening was near nil! Unless...unless it was actually him, not some other person, unless this boy really was....but no, he had died in the flames, don't try and make this look like something you want, look at the facts!...But I __**am**__ looking at the facts, and what I'm seeing doesn't add up to him being dead, what I see is someone who can only be my son talking on the telephone after nearly getting himself killed by over drawing his magic! Not only that, but he goes by the title "Professor"!_

"The hell do you mean I come to London and don't drop in for a visit, I came here on business, not for a picnic!...No, I don't want to see your new girlfriend, it must be the thirtieth one this month for all I remember about you....Oh, so it's only the sixth one since I left, that's an improvement, aren't you proud of yourself now?...What?! Can't you guys teach you own students for once? God damn!"

_Although, if he really is my son, he must be what, six years old? How can he speak the way he is? He sounds like he's thirty! Not only that, but he has an aura! A powerful one at that, although nothing like Nagi's... but it's still pretty impressive, Nagi would be proud of his son..._

"Excuse me one second."

Negi looked over at Arika, his face a bit perplexed. True that she had disguised herself and changed her appearance well over the years, yet still, the bond between a mother and their child is one that seems to superseded all logic. Yet, Negi was not looking at this woman like that, he was wondering why she was staring at _him_ the way she was. He cleared his throat and her head snapped up to his eyes.

"Hello there. I never got you name. Mind telling it to me?"

_A child asking their mother for their name, it's so formal seeming now. Yet, I can't say anything...not yet anyway, not until I am one hundred percent sure._

"It's Arika...just Arika..."

Negi had hung up by now and tilted his head a bit to the side to examine her. His next statement was not a question.

"You are a mage."

So caught, she could only nod. It figured that he would know that much. Asuna and Anya though, seemed to let loose an internal guard, and she knew the two would be more relaxed around her from now on, knowing they did not have to hide the existence of magic from her. It made her wonder why they could not have told themselves. If Negi could, why couldn't they?

"Well Miss Arika...."

"It's just Arika."

"Okay then, Miss Just Arika then if you want....Arika. I am, as you probably already know from my companions over here, Negi Springfield. I'd say thanks for the care you've given me, but I have a feeling you want something, or know something, by the way you keep staring at me."

_Sharp. Unbelievably sharp. Almost like what some used to call me. Well, I can't let him shatter my hope, so I can't let him tell me where his real mother is just yet. Two can play at this game for now..._

"Nothing. I just want to make sure you are still okay. Do you mind if I tag along with you all where you all are going? I was under the impression from that phone call of yours that you were going to visit somewhere...as for my knowing something...you look kinda like someone I used to know, what can I say?"

"...I have a feeling that's not all. Ehh, who the heck cared anyway. I could eat a whole bloody cow right about now...oh, bullocks… didn't mean to startle you there, but that's my mouth, shooting off the way it does, you'll get used to it by tomorrow..."

+--2--+

_He looks just like him, but he's so different...and now that I think about it, he has my eyes, or at least, the same general shape. He has Nagi's color all the way however... _

Arika was torn. After the trip to Negi's old stomping grounds, where the four of them feasted eyes upon a bronze statue that had been erected at the front in his image, something Negi did not much appreciate, for the simple fact that he was not dead yet and his service not yet fulfilled, and something he took the mickey out of several teachers for, I might add, they had visited the labs, in which an overly affectionate woman had lifted Negi up, and was scolded by Negi, as he was _not_ a baby but a former co-worker. negi had stood around educating a couple students and returning fire on several jibes from people wit barbs of his own. He was right at home here, and Asuna, along with the others, felt a bit left out as they saw Negi integrate seamlessly into a community he seemed to have hardly left, throwing insults and jibes like they were pieces of candy, and having them accepted like gifts from a god. These people obviously were used to Negi's jibes, although they did compliment him on "new material" he spontaneously picked up...some were a bit concerned about his exposed veins, but Negi waved it off, saying he been bitten by some odd Japanese bug just before he left for England...The more she saw of him, the more she wanted to believe herself...Still, as much as Arika wished it true, she could not let herself honestly think that this boy was her child. He was too...perfect. A powerful mage, intelligent, already a magister...he was a grown man in a six year old's body, with a respectable career and all...

Yet, during lunch hours, She saw him sitting alone, staring up at the sky, one hand massaging the other. She approached him and saw, to her surprise, a small, sad smile on his face as he watched the little girl who was with them playing around with other children brought by the people of the campus. It made her wonder if he to, still wanted to laugh and play like they were. How much had he lost, growing up so fast? What kind of things would he never have, now that he was already so deep into the human world of knowledge? Then she heard a floating, mental voice invade her thoughts, mirroring them in a voice that was certainly not her own.

_How many days do I do this, internally crying at things I'll never have?_

Arika froze and he gaze locked on the boy all the tighter. The ability to read minds was a royal magic, one that she possessed, and had trained, one that she kept locked up to prevent her from going insane, dipping into the minds of others...yet, in order for her to read this boy's mind, just out of the blue like that, he had to be broadcasting pretty strongly. Either that or he could read minds too, but he couldn't...well, if he was her son, of course he could...she hated to eavesdrop, but, she cautiously opened her mind, and accepted the broadcast coming from him.

_These kids, they have mothers and fathers, people I teach and work with. They can play while I work, they can think about nothing, do nonsense, ask silly questions, just be...kids. They can be happy for no reason, happy just because they have a mom and dad who loves them and life in their own veins. They hardly have lost anything...except Anya, her father has disowned her after the incident, and her mother was one of those turned to stone that day...She's my responsibility now. I suppose I can try to give her what I never had, to the best of my ability. _

An image surfaced in his mind, one that allowed Arika to see the village she had once known. The memory was a powerful one, and it radiated from Negi's min with an overwhelming strength, as if it could swallow a lesser mind whole into the abyss of insanity. Negi's mental fingers came and gripped the edge of that memory, throwing the burning buildings from his mind. It was not a time for him to think about that, why did he keep coming back to it anyway? The past was the past; he should get over it after all, the present, the here and now, was this. His mind replayed the events of the recent battle, allowing an incredibly surprised Arika to see just what spell had nearly killed Negi, not a lower mid level like she had originally thought, but one of the Dark Evagel's favorites, one of the highest single target ice spells in existence. To think he not only had magical power at such a young age, but he could summon a spell of that magnitude, even if it had almost destroyed him! Yet, even as her own thoughts turned to the vampire woman, Negi's mind brought up an image of the same vampire, only in her diminutive form. She could cast that spell with no problem; she didn't nearly explode while chanting it.

Another image was called up; one that caught her heart, for it was Nagi, standing tall and heroic-like, as if posing for a picture. Another picture superimposed upon it, one of Nagi standing with Ala Ruba. Yet, Negi, thinking of these pictures, radiated a fierce, surprising hate.

_You... I will surpass you, a person who has little sense and an even smaller sense of responsibility. I still don't know who my mother is, but if she abandoned me the way she did, I can only think she was chasing after you. You, who left her and did not even think of the family you were leaving behind, you who went and probably got yourself killed like they all say. Fool! You led every one of your friends into danger, gaining fame all the way. You let your head get so damn big it couldn't fit through the entrance of a grand ball! In the end, you couldn't even think far enough to protect your own family from destruction. I'm all that's left of your damn "legacy". After this, I'll go talk to the judges for that battle, I still need to collect all the paper work from them. I'll beat their asses while I'm at it to. I'll let Asuna beat my ass if she wants when we get home. In and out, that's all. I'll go back to MY life. I don't need you. I'll say thanks for all the fish to you, only you never even gave me so much as that. Just a microscopic little swimming object that suicidal dive-bombed into a sphere so it's head could explode and die, leaving the genes to mix with the ones inside the sphere. Kamikaze all the way, no wonder humans are so violent, they are born from violence...Oh I wonder what she's doing here..._

Arika had not noticed it, but she had been steadily approaching Negi's position ever since she started eavesdropping. She had not done this in a while, and apparently, it showed. To give herself an excuse for coming, she sat down opposite him and engaged in conversation with him, fishing about for something to say quickly and catching a bite quite effortlessly.

"What's with you sitting here all by yourself? You don't feel well?'

"No, I feel fine. I just prefer my solitude, thank you very much."

"That's not very healthy for someone your age."

"Okay. Your point being?"

"Well...I think you'd be a bit happier if you went to play with the other children over there, you look like you are longing to join them."

"...And may I ask who you are for suggesting this? My mother? Mam, I've grown out of such child's play. If I joined them, I would not know what to do with myself. A child's logic is so simple, I wouldn't know how to play, I'm incompatible."

Ignoring the jibe about being his mother or not, Arika tried a different tack. From what she had glanced in her mind, she had no doubts now, now reservations, but he still did, and she could not shatter his world and destroy his trust so soon, she had to gain it, and act like it was a surprise for herself too when Negi discovered the fact. Yet this child was unbelievably sharp, and it was hard to hide anything from him, speaking of which...

"You are, once again, trying to think of a way to say something so that you can continue hiding something from me. The hell is it that you don't want me to find out about you? Or is it that you have so many secrets, it doesn't matter who you talk to, you have to hide something?"

This child was like her father, or herself for that matter, in her prime, debating something. He read people's faces clear as day, and he was as harsh as she had been, on the outside. What must he have gone through, to erect that kind of shield? She had had to kill her own father and rule an entire land...what had he done? It seemed that, while he had all of Nagi's looks, with a small grace of her own, he had all of her inner, more bitter traits, with a small grace of Nagi's. Sighing, she cast her own eyes to settle upon the statue of Negi in the distance, by the campus entrance. He must have done a whole lot for them to put that there, regardless of how much he acted upset in seeing it. Even if he had made a comment the Einstein or the chairperson should be their instead of him, and threatened to kick down the statue, she knew, and had a feeling they all knew, he was only joking, and actually was quite well honored to have it there. Not that it was going anywhere now that it was, not anytime soon anyway. Negi followed her gaze and, quite suddenly, he thought he could see someone else in her, someone he had studied during his quest to learn of his father. Yet, it was gone in a flash, and that woman that had come to mind was long dead. The blonde woman in front of him was not her, and did not look like her, not really. Her head turned a bit back along the way towards facing him, but not all the way, and spoke to him while still gazing at the statue.

"You shouldn't act like that. No matter what kind of pain you've been through, you shouldn't let it control you."

Negi blinked. Really, who was she? To say something like that out of the blue, something she had no right too! He felt like snapping a hard retort at her, but held his tongue, nearly biting it. In all honesty, Negi knew she was right anyway, or at least, in the generic way of someone being right, but Negi clung to the way his lived his life with a passion. He had long given up true happiness as a bad job. He had long sacrificed being carefree for knowledge, had let all his other emotions but hate and anger melt away. Conviction, determination, stubbornness, bitterness, he had made these his emotions. Sorrow, he forced away, it became only fuel for anger. Yet, while this was labeled "wrong" Negi did not want to be, not very particularly anyway, right. There was a small part of him that did care, that did love, that still felt the pain that made him cry invisible tears at night...but everyday he imagined that part of him being smaller and smaller. That was his weakness, he said to himself, and he would get rid of it. All logic told him that him trying to force away his feelings and eradicating them was his _actual_ weakness, that those who are truly strong are not afraid to feel their sadness and their pain... yet, Negi, at this point, said "screw you, logic."

"...Once again, who are you? You don't think I know that? I just don't care. I _**want**_ to let my pain control me. It's the only thing that reminds me I'm not a mindless zombie. Thanks for your..._concern_."

Negi snapped his fingers, intending to make a glass that was situated about a foot from his hand jump into it, but the glass did not move. Frowning, Negi cast a glance at it and tried again. It still did not move. It was as if it was saying to him: "Pick me up yourself you lazy bum." Raising an eyebrow, he grabbed it with his hand, staring at it before taking a swing of the tea it had in it. Putting it back down on the table, he again tried to make it jump up. Still, it did not budge. Arika, noticing this, laughed at him a bit.

"You really have no idea why your magic won't work don't you?"

"No...No I do not. Do you?"

"Of course, but that's doesn't mean I'll tell you. You won't listen to me, so figure it out for yourself."

Negi narrowed his eyes, looking at her face with a kind of scrutiny that made her think he was about to try and paint her. She felt him reach for his mental acuity, a royal magic, the ability to divine upon other's thoughts, yet, even as Arika prepared to parry him, he let it go, as if thinking better of it. Still, she could tell from the quick way he snatched up the skill, similar to how a swordsman would quickly snatch up a fallen pike, that, while he was familiar with the tool and could use it, it was fleeting to him, and he had no real solid training in it. He had an incredible amount of power to it, being that he had a very intelligent mind and strong will, but, with no formal training, he was relatively useless in the art, making it nothing but an extension for him...he had no idea the true, devastating power it could hold...Still, as she tentatively used her own art again to divine upon him, she saw he was using his powerful mind for something else, problem solving.

_If I can't use magic, there must be a reason. I can still feel the aura's of magical individuals, I can prove that by realizing this woman in front of me has magical power, so I have not lost my magical skill...but my magic? I can't feel it. No, I can feel it, I think, but what I feel can't be my magic, it's like a rock, it's still, there is no movement. It's as if there is something that has filled the channels my magic travels along with cement, and then let it harden, blocking them. Proverbial scar tissue perhaps? Maybe, in expanding my channels so much, nearly killing myself, I damaged my ability to draw and hold magic severely, and as a result, the existing channels are full of this "scar tissue" rendering them useless, as if I have none, but then, I can't use magic at all, how would I be able to feel auras? No, aura sensing is not actually magic; it's a sense, like tasting. It's a trained skill..._

Like Arika thought, he was a sharp boy, yet what he was thinking was not quite the answer, although incredibly close. She decided to motivate him into speaking with her, and force him to play a game at the same time.

"How about this, we'll play hot or cold."

"Hot or cold?"

"You tell me what you are thinking, and I'll tell you if you are close, which would be hot, or far off, which would be cold."

"....That's just so..."

"Childish? Aren't you a child?"

"Okay Madam, fine. I'll play your game, even though I know It would put me at the complete mercy of you and you could easily lead me off track..."

"Would I do that to you?"

"I would not put it past you. I don't put much past anyone unless I am one hundred percent sure. I wouldn't put it past Anya to stab me in the back five times and rake my eyes out, but is that a probable thing? Maybe not, but I still wouldn't put it past her."

".....You really are a bitter little boy....."

"Yep. Okay then. What I'm thinking is that my magical channels and the hypothetical "tank" which I can store magic with in my body have been filled with "scar tissue" because of what I forced them to do, and thus, magic cannot flow through them, making them useless until the "tissue" clears out."

"Hmm...pretty warm."

"So, theoretically speaking, I will not be able to use magic for months."

"Cold there."

"Okay. How's about never?"

Ohh, that would be a big blow to his pride, fighting so hard and then finding out he can't use magic anymore because of it. That would be terrible. The thousand master's son, unable to use magic, a regular Harry Potter squib! Yet, he was, thankfully, wrong, although Arika could never be so sure with a case like Negi, he had come insanely close to killing himself.

"That would be terrible, wouldn't it? Nope, you're ice cold."

"Not all that terrible, my magic gives me so many problems, sometimes I wish I were a simple mundane. Okay, my magical channels need to repair themselves, so they filled themselves with scar tissue so I would be unable to use magic until they repair."

"Warmer than before..."

"Not there yet huh? Okay. That kind of problem might be easier to deal with, I suppose a month or too might be the title for me being unable to use magic."

"You're still the same temperature."

"Okay, so I got nowhere with that...now that I think about it, scar tissue, while a nice term, probably won't be able to completely block the channel. Obscure it yes, but not cut the flow, unless I've got high magical cholesterol."

That got a small smile out of Arika, but she held firm to her game and gave Negi his temperature.

"You're nearing hot."

"Okay, so forget about the scar tissue then. My magical channels collapsed due to the strain I put on them, and until I can re-open them, I'm stuck.

Negi kind of lost some and gained some here, but the amount he lost was not quite equal to the amount he gained, so Arika would have to guess he was warmer than before...but not by much.

"Kind of hot..."

"Did they simply just close down for repairs then, like some kind of sewer line?"

"....I suppose you've got it. Hot. Your channels are closed for maintenance so to speak, and they'll probably shrink back down and grain the strength to re-open."

"Shrink back down, does that mean they could possibly wind up smaller than they were before?"

"Of course, you over expanded them and your "tank", they need to shrink back down, that's why they closed, so you could not take in magic."

Negi raised one eyebrow over the other and his head turned enough to the side again. He only spoke after a few seconds of deliberation.

"That's not what I feel. What I feel are channels full of...I suppose magic, that won't flow because it has nowhere to go. Is it possible for my channels to have stayed open long enough for me to regenerate my magic, filling them up before closing?"

"...That's not normally the case...but I suppose it could be...possible?"

"Madam, I am never a normal case for anything. I can feel my magic, so I must have something in there...and it's stiff and unmoving, meaning the channels are full of it, not a small amount just swirling around. I'm guessing I was quite near death, so close to it my body had to focus all of it's attention on keeping my alive...so much so that it allowed the new, expanded channels and magical "tank" to fill up before it shut them down for maintenance so to speak. Meaning when they decide it's time to reopen, they'll be the same size I made them grow to, allowing me to continue more conventional training methods, or, be crazy enough to try a stunt like that again, not that I will, mind you."

When Negi had mentioned trying a stunt like that again, Arika had paled, and thought back to how much of an idiotic daredevil his father was, and wondering if he had inherited that trait, regardless of how intelligent he seemed at first glance...and even though his statement was meant to bring her a measure of comfort, she still could not help but think about it and fix Negi with an odd look. Negi, seeing it, laughed.

"You really do think you're my mother or something. What's with the look woman?"

_Oh if only he knew. _

+--3--+

"Thank you and no, I don't ever want to see your face again."

Saying it in a singsong voice, Negi practically skipped off to the side to let another person receive something from the man who had been assigned to give out these papers. Sliding them carefully into an envelope, Negi realized that whomever owned the name on these papers practically owned Anya until she was of legal age to go off on her own. It was an odd thought, thinking of the girl like an object in his name. He was her practically her parent now, which was an odd thought, considering she was older than him, but then again, how different was it from being the teacher of a room full of girls over twice his age? Everywhere Negi went he seemed to be too young to fit in, and yet, among people his age, he was to mentally old to fit in. It made him recall a numerous amount of books where the character had quite a case of identification disorder and could not find where the hell he or she _**fit**_ in the whole damn world, and ended up killing themselves. Yet, here he was, still clinging to life even though one could argue he was currently guilty of a suicide attempt himself, and should be chucked in the loony bin. No, instead they had given him the papers to be a legal parent of a child. What _**was**_ this world coming to?

Keeping his morbid thoughts to himself, Negi felt sorry for the judges who had been in his panel, for they had already high tailed it out of the place as soon as it was apparent Negi was alive, fearing perhaps, his or Magus's wrath. Magus assured Negi that he had at least decked two of them in the face with a magically enhanced fist and gave another one hell with a conflagration spell, he claimed each punch was for either what they had made Negi or Anya go through, and the conflagration spell was for the guy who had set Swallowthorn up against Negi. Speaking of whom, Negi had gone to check the place he had battled her. Squeaky clean. They had wiped all trace of the ice and the tiny frozen shards of human remains from the face of the earth, even though they had been content to let Negi lie face down in the ice for just about twenty four hours, now that he was gone, hey, they can't just leave this mess here for someone to see, can they? Appearances! Negi walked to the middle of the engraved circle and then off to the side, until his mind told him that he had reached the spot Swallowthorn had been standing when she got hit. He moved a bit further, until he was about a foot away and then turned to face the opposite direction she had been, and knelt down to the ground, as if to kneel by her feet had she still been there. Negi never had really taken religion very seriously, but he made the sign of the cross now, slowly and carefully, and there was no trace of a smirk or a jibe on his face, it was solemn. He placed a single rose where her feet would have taken up the ground. Casting his head so his eyes saw the floor, he closed them and sat there for awhile, not thinking, but actually, for once, praying. Footsteps interrupted him, and he glanced up to see the figure of another woman standing by the door, looking at him.

"You, of all people, shouldn't be here."

Negi didn't move, he didn't even speak, not at first. His mind sought for the name to attach to the figure, and when he had collected the name, it took him a surprisingly long time to formulate a sentence.

"Miss Cierra. Don't think, not for a single second, that I...enjoyed...killing your partner. She was about to try to kill Anya to save herself, and I was in the heat of battle...while that is no excuse for what I did, it was either kill her or be killed by her. My initial plan was to tire her until she fell unconscious and then perhaps plea for her sake to the judges, who obviously seemed to favor her more than I. My anger...got the better of me."

The woman came up closer to him, and she crossed her arms in front of her. Her face wasn't particularly sad, but it had a kind of depression hanging about it. Her steps were heavier than they should have been.

"It's not the I blame you for it, I do, but I shouldn't, it was a battle. I just never thought she could lose to you. Never. You were a no-one to me, if you died, what did I care? I never looked at it the other way...yet here you are, praying for her. We wouldn't have given you a second thought you know."

Negi blinked. He didn't doubt that. He appreciated her honesty however, but there were many people who wished Negi dead, and if he did die, they would be very happy to get that news. It did not surprise him in the least, nor did it shake him any. He looked back down at the rose he had placed and slowly stood up, leaving it there.

"I have respect for those who have passed, Madam Cierra, and I know that this woman, regardless of how she may have acted if she were in my place, had a family and friends, like yourself. I know that I have taken a life, and that is a sin against my soul, even if I don't care about it, it is still a sin. I am simply addressing and accepting that fact, and making peace with it. It doesn't matter if I don't give a damn or even know who she was. It shouldn't matter. I should still give respect where it is due. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go and get some papers laminated, and then I'm going to go pack for Japan. I doubt you will see me again, so I wish you well in your endeavors, Miss Cierra."

Turning his back to her, he left her there, standing next to where he had been, staring at the rose as it's stem shivered slightly in the wind brought by his retreating feet, and it's blood red petals full and in vibrant display, showing that it was a rose picked while in full bloom, not like the ones that were popular, being just about to peek open. She could only stare at it and think about what the kid had said. A child had just displayed more decency than Swallowthorn had ever shown towards her opponents. Swallowthorn was about power, about fun, about living life for the moment, but what happened when someone like this showed up and defeated her? It seemed that, to her, the boy was a gentlemanly black hole, sucking up more and more darkness while his outside manner remained thoughtful and perhaps even kind. One day, the collected darkness would burst forth, and he would become a monster, but none who face him would have the power, or the will to destroy him, he had been to kind in life. Yet, she did not know him, so she could not verify this claim she was making into the air, she could only think and stare. Bending down, she picked up the bright rose and brought it to her nose. It's slight scent escaped, telling her it had either been freshly picked or magically preserved. It was slightly wet, as it having just been watered. She couldn't help but think back to her partner now, and, as Negi's footsteps faded into the distance, Cierra took her place, the place Negi had just vacated and, mimicking him, taking his example to heart, she too, prayed for the soul she had known, and had lost.

Only the whisper of the wind was heard over the silent prayers to a deities ears, and if you believe in such a thing, you might think that Negi had calmed an eternal soul into peace, and had refreshed and revived the spiritual fortification of another....

+--4--+

Negi carefully took the wand from the box Magus was holding out. It had taken him awhile to accept it, but finally, he had, after he realized that the old man was simply not going to take no for an answer. Negi looked at it, inspecting it from every conceivable angle, as if looking for flaws, but in actuality, he could only gaze upon it in awe. It was about eighteen inches long and around an inch and a half thick at its thickest end, and around a half or third inch at the tip. Made of a very young redwood, it had a beautiful red-pinkish hue that the resin paste glazed over its polished length made glow. Because the wood that had made it was young, it was springy, but was still quite strong and resilient due to its thickness. Magus tapped it's thick end, making it slide a bit in Negi's hands, and almost but not quite making it poke one of his eyes. Apparently, it had a core of some substance or other that Magus did not know, but Negi would probably be able to find out anyway with a bit of testing. This, along with his certificate, was what Negi had long been aiming for all along, for this type of wand proved that he was, indeed, a fully fledged Magister.

Even though he already had HeartBreaker, he knew that to employ that in an actual magical battle greatly tipped the scales in his favor, and he may not always want to do that in every case, nor could he always control his emotions and prevent HeartBreaker from activating it's potent effect. Not only that, but between teaching Asuna magic and now having Anya on board, who no longer had her own wand, it was impeccable that he either buy one of the star wands or accept this gift and let Anya train with his own star wand. Not all Magisters accepted the gift, and many preferred to stick to their star wands after using them for so many years, or used it as a backup and accidentally broke it sometime or other... but Negi had no such sentimental attachment to his wand, and had hardly had it a long while before finding HeartBreaker, after all. His connection was with that, and that was no sentiment, as that weapon was destined to be held by him, and him alone.

Negi twirled it about in his fingers to get a feel for the new wand. There was a rubber grip that had been slid on near the end, but the wand was a bit thick and quite a bit long to hold at the end like that, so he adjusted the grip to where he could hold it better, sliding the stretched rubber to a place where it could still hold on tightly and not slip off the wand, and yet by more comfortable for him to grip. Experimentally, he swung it in a high arch and then slashed it down viciously like one would a two handed axe upon a tree stump. It made little sound as it traveled, but there was still that tell-tale swish. Good, he didn't want a wand that fan-fared it position in the air anyway. Most people loved that swish, but he could live with it being muted if it could save his life one day. Anya, who was with him along with Asuna and Arika, had her sapphire eyes locked straight upon the motion of the wand. It was so different from the ones they gave to magical students, ones available in the supply shops. Those had an encasing of bark, for they were typically the thinner branches broken off the tree, and they had tiny holes drilled in them to make room for whatever they stuffed in there before filling them back up and sealing them off. The star was to help the flow of magic for the young user, but something like this...this could hold more magic in it and yet still was easier to store and much less obvious to the unfriendly eye. With it, the little boy looked almost...complete in a way.

"Ha, why don't you try casting a spell with it, ehh mister Magister?"

"Oh, no, I want to save that for later Magus. I want to give my magic a bit of rest after the work out I gave it with Swallowthorn, if you don't mind. I think it needs it."

"No doubt...you very nearly killed yourself there boy..."

"That past is past Magus, don't dwell on it, that's what I keep telling myself, yet I keep coming back to a certain event in my own life. Don't let the image of me splayed out on a field of frozen snow be your scene to dwell on, I don't want to leave you with that kind of memory. You're too old for that."

"Ha, I'm still strong enough to kick someone's keaster, don't let me start on you boy."

"Fine, fine. I give, I'll say Uncle before you even start."

A bit later, Negi found himself upon the ledge of a local bridge, peering out into the quickly darkening sky. It was gusting a bit tonight, so Negi's front bangs were all but plastered to the top of his head, as the wind didn't let them stay down for even a few seconds. Negi took a breath of salty air and continued to gaze at the skyline, watching as slowly, ever so slowly, the lights in the various apartments and houses within his vision popped on. In his left coat pocket, his hand massaged his new wand or, occasionally, tested the stiffness in his leg with a quick clench under sensitive fingers. This was one of the rare times when Negi's vast mind was at rest, and completely, utterly, blank, void of all thought as he simply looked upon the landscape in front of him and accepted it. Off to the side, just within the range of his ears, laughter could be heard, as some children played in a local park, and yet, that sound was dwindling as mothers and older brothers beckoned to the laughing mass, calling their own charges away for the trip home. Someone passed behind Negi, on his way home perhaps, after a long day's good work, looking forward to the weekend. In his bones, Negi could feel that rain would soon be coming, and then, it would lighten until it became the fine mist London was so famous for, the London Fogs.

Yet through it all, as he sat there simply opening himself to the workings of the world and letting it wash over him without a care, behind him, just a distance away, on the other side of the bridge, sat his mother, unbeknownst to him, just...just watching him. She watched as his bangs flared in the winds, watched a single antenna like strand of it stayed stubbornly up no matter how much the wind forced it back down, she watched as his head slowly tilted to the left side, not in thought, but simply giving in to gravity. The slow, rhythmic rise and fall of his shoulders showed how his small body was moved by such a simple thing as his breathing, and thin legs attached to tiny feet dangled, swaying along with the soft wind. This...this was hers. Her baby was sitting there, and he did not even know...and she was afraid to tell him. Afraid of what he might do, or say, afraid of the angry tide that would rise in him when he set eyes on the woman that had abandoned him for all these years and left him to fend for himself against all the demons and enemies, against all the bad dreams and memories. Bitter memories. It killed her that she could do nothing. Here she was, she, who had been willing to risk her life and face execution to save the land under her dominion, she who had been willing to risk everything, and here she was. Arika, Queen of Calamity, was afraid to tell her own son that his mother was here, and ready to fill the position she had wrongfully left all those years ago. Once more, her body moved with a mind of its own as she slowly stood and approached him, only, even though she was sure she had not given the order, was sure she was not ready for this, her body was indeed, following her heart's desire. Once she got to the other side, Negi glanced up, his face expectant. it seemed to have written on it: You again? We keep bumping into each other, ehh? He had expected it to be her, had heard her come, and had glanced up at the right time to see her face. His hand flashed out, and from it, he caught a single tear.

"Oh hell, what are you crying for, woman? Or are you going to give me the same bullshit I once told someone, that you got something in your eyes?"

She didn't look at him, but stared ahead, allowing her hands to grip the ledge he was sitting on as she stared out at the river they were standing over. She allowed the same wind playing with Negi's hair to lift her light locks up and out, creating streamers behind her as she watched, It was Negi's turn to watch her now, and he allowed his eyes to travel along the path of that floating sheet, not unlike Anya's eyes had traveled to follow his wand. He could tell that, once again, this woman was trying to say something, only this time, her pause was not an attempt to say something while hiding something else, but it was an attempt to speak all the truth. Negi took a deep breath in and waited. Something told him he had to wait here. When she finally spoke, he voice was softer than if normally was, and it had a different tone.

"When I first saw you, bumped into you, in the street, I thought you looked so much like someone I once knew. Someone, a man, I loved."

Silence. That was what came from Negi. Silence ready to swallow the words she spoke into the void that he was. His mind flashed again, the image he had seen before, the image of the Queen of Calamity. She didn't look like her exactly, kind of like you knowing a person isn't your brother. They have the same hair style and the same height, but you just know this person in front of you is not your brother. Yet still, the image was more powerful now, and stuck. For some reason, Negi's mind was building up a funny feeling, one that said the man she had loved was Nagi Springfield, but that, that was not so odd. A lot of people idolized him. Her next sentence blew his mind though.

"A man named Nagi Springfield, who's child I carried and named, as we wished, Negi."

Negi quite literally fell off the ledge he was sitting on, allowing the wind to sweep his legs from under him, almost falling into the river if it were not for his quick reflexes and the decorative spaces that the ledge of the bridge had, allowing him to thrust his thin arm through and grab hold. It was only his presence of mind that kept his hand holding on. Not that he his mind had not been building up to the conclusion she had just blurted out, just that his mind had slowly built up to the conclusion she had just thrown at him, and he was simply not ready for it, for once, his mind had been as slow as a snails. Arika, showing magic for the first time, did not even speak, but extended her hand quite hurriedly towards him, easily lifting him with an odd form of magic he didn't know and making him land safely on the sidewalk. Negi instantly went into denial mode.

"The hell woman, you almost made me guilty to two suicide attempts in one week! God damn! Next time you've got a lie, think of something more plausible, and less...random!"

Negi may have launched a barb at her, but Arika, expecting it, did not get hurt by the statement, much. Still, she was adamant. Taking a risk, she formed a barb of thoughts, using the royal magic Negi was untrained in, divining upon another mind, and thrusting her own thoughts at Negi in an attack meant to make him reel, but not render him crazy or anything. Negi, untrained for such a thing, absorbed the punch without a reel, but Arika could tell he was only acting like he did not notice the sting she had sent him. He was like a person playing mercy, screwing their teeth but not allowing themselves to show pain or say mercy. The thoughts she sent his way had more than one purpose however, they were memories of Nagi and her, times she spent with Negi as an unborn child, little sentiments that made the boy heave. He proved to be a quick study, formulating many thoughts of his own into a clumsy projectile of thoughts to launch her way. It was a large and powerful show, but it was slow and sloppily made, Arika managed to easily swat it away. She could tell nothing useful was in the clump anyway, so clumsily the thing was made, still, managing to perform the task after only seeing it done once was an incredible achievement.

"So, you can sense other's thought's too. Is all of this trash you just sent my way real or imaginary?"

"You can tell, you don't need me too."

"Oh I don't know, I can make some pretty convincing false memories myself, who knows is I didn't get the skill from my self-proclaimed mother?"

"You know."

"......."

"Negi....?"

The boy didn't say anything for what seemed to be an eternity, before, finally, he spoke.

".......Yes. Yes, I know. Hell if I believe myself though. Where the hell have you been?"

+--FIN--+

Holy....didn't I _just_ give you all a chapter _yesterday_?! Yes, I did, but here I am again, somehow pulling this off, a chapter. It's longer than usual, which is odd and I suppose something of an unconscious response to Dragon, and, if I do say so myself, I like it. For once, I like it. I hope it was a good chapter for you all too. Tell me what I need to work on still because I know I am not perfect over here. Oh, and I'm leaving my poll up there until it gets at least fifty votes, meaning you all still have plenty of time and still a huge shot to change the tide of the current votes. Remember, you can chose up to four choices. Don't think that just because Eva's winning you can't come from behind. Every vote counts. Not only that, but I was just visited by an Evangelist. Too bad they didn't know I already know quite a bit about religion, thank you. (No she didn't get me during the part where Negi was praying, she got me after it, don't think it affected the story! They got my during the time right after Arika had come up to Negi.) Although, I don't agree with how she explained Christianity to me _quite_ exactly. Ahh, yet, how many of you want to listen to me talk about my life and my encounters? Very few I'm sure. Hi ho! Next time!


	22. Chapter XXI: Burning Blizzards

Ha ha, here I am, starting another one, and I have yet to submit chapter twenty, yet I am working on twenty one. Take a rest you fool! No! I am simply waiting until the change of the hour to update my story. Neh? Then I will pause this and update..then I'll be on my merry way. Simply put, I don't want the new spring semester to slow my writing down one bit, so I remedy by putting an extra burst into the effort, as seen,

I completed a chapter so I could updated one chapter for one day and the next I already have a chapter ready. It makes me giddy..I've never with held a chapter from you all before, even if it is only for about fifteen minutes! Okay, enough of my blabbering, let's go. (By the way, five reviews in one day, I am flattered. Thank you all.)

You all also broke the favorite record of the previous version of this story, and broke the two hundred hit mark. Interesting! Oh, and about huge paragraphs...I have been trying to work on that Storms of the Fire Crystal. As you might have noticed so far as one can see in this chapter...even as it is hard to made them stay sensible and still be shorter...

As for being quick on the draw with Negi's mother, I needed it to hit him hard. So I had to draw and fire the gun quickly. Otherwise, the foreshadowing would have softened the blow. This was meant to shaken the foundations of his world...hard.

Oh, and now Anya is in the lead, you see how things can change? Still waiting for fifty..about that, ArchangelWings...when I wrote that, I still had only ten unique voters, meaning the most votes I could have possibly have at that time was forty, so not matter what, I was correct at the time...now however, indeed, the polls shall be closed, as this chapter comes up.

Never think I am not paying attention. I know that in one day, eight new voters came along, meaning the total number of possible votes rose to seventy two, and you put up your review about a day or so later, even though now the voters are even more numerous.

"Crap, you're not getting to the story yet?!" Well no, I have a lot to answer for, apparently. Glennis! Don't worry. I'll handle the voters opinion and the storyline in my head equally. There are many ways one can express a "pairing" and there are so many types of pairings. Just because Anya wins the poll doesn't mean Negi is going to suddenly go "ga ga" That's not how it goes in real life and I'm trying to make this story as solid as possible. I'm glad you brought up the point however.

"Hope you're happy, you almost typed a whole darn page that had nothing to do with writing the actual story."

Did I mention I don't own Negima to anyone?

+---+

_**Chapter Twenty One: Burning Blizzards**_

+---+

It was Saturday morning, and Negi was all packed and ready to go, his luggage neatly stacked up on the corner, regardless of it being three in the morning. He himself, was sitting on the roof of the five star hotel he was about to kiss goodbye. Ehh? The roof you say? Yes, the roof. He stared off into the distance, enjoying the still darkness this time of day brought, and relishing in the fact that hardly anyone was awake at the time. It was here, in this private eternal night, that Negi pondered his life and how, after having graduated from his magical academy, he seemed to have begun to pick up the pieces of his history incredibly quickly, as if they attacked him from the dark corners of the world, having been left, torn asunder by an assortment of things and people and forgotten, broken shards of his never to be reclaimed time being happy and having a family.

Until now it seemed. As his mind reached this point, he let out a quiet, yet powerful exhale, and his ears perked up to a quick, quiet pair of feet strolling along the slanted rooftop, nearing him every second. A small sigh escaped a pair of lips, and Negi could practically hear with his sharp young ears, the hair of the individual sliding back and forth across her back as she shook her head lightly. Negi already knew who it was, and he was not disappointed to turn around and have his eyes land on the figure of his mother.

His mother. That was an odd thought. It angered him, calmed him, set him afire and yet still, made him long for something he had no name for. He looked her up and down as she came up to him, and his eyes abandoned this quick once over to re-affix themselves upon the sky in front of him, watching the winking skylights and breathing in the damp air. Arika came up to him and sat right next to him, forcing him to be aware that, as a warm blooded animal, she was quite a different temperature than the air outside.

"You look so much like Nagi, but every time I see you do something, you remind me more of myself. I'm the one who goes on top of rooftops in the middle of the night to think and watch the sun rise. Especially ever since I realized how beautiful Earth and London makes their sunrises. I know what Nagi meant now, when he wanted to take me here on a trip to see the sights. Something like this would have captivated me then...still does sometimes."

Negi couldn't help but notice the small, sad smile that she had playing across her lips, as if she were miles away, still in the magical world, seeing the sun rise form her point of view, the one she grew up with. Negi allowed his eyes to once again focus to the front. All through him, instinct conflicted with his mind. So badly, so _badly_ he wanted to sit in her lap, for some incredibly harebrained, insane reason. He would not let himself however. That would be an ultimate transgression of his personality laws... He was leaving today, and that was it, he would forget this woman and go on with his life.

Yet still, a small part of his mind laughed at his futile efforts to deny his bodily instinct. Children loved their mothers, almost to the point of going beyond common sense, many times. Not always, but many times. It was so in ground, it ranked along with an instinct, and any living thing is hard pressed to put down it's instincts, and often, doing so leads to dire consequences, they are after all, there for a reason! Yet, at the same time, Arika was killing herself not to run her fingers through the boy's hair, so she was going through a very similar problem...one could say. Unlike Negi however, she had no reservations or plans to let Negi leave from her life again. He was here, and she planned to grab hold of him to cement him firmly back into her life, like it should have been.

As we all can imagine, this probably was not going to end very well. Akira gave in to temptation and her hand landed softly on Negi's head, making the boy visibly stiffen. She noticed this and almost, _almost_, withdrew her hand. I stress almost for the simple reason that, instead of removing it, she ran it down through the available length of hair he had and lightly fingered the knot at the back of his head. His hair may be the same color and have the same style as Nagi's, but she noted that, while Nagi's was a bit stiff and sandy, of a bristly and breakable type, the consistency of Negi's hair was similar to the soft down feathers of a bird, something Nagi had complimented her one at one point. Yet, the more she stroked that head, the stiffer Negi seemed to become, until his body practically bristled, and yet, he did not say anything, just simply stared darts off into the dark sky.

Finally, Negi broke the silence that pressed upon his ears with a sharp question, making Arika's hand pause in mid stroke.

"Why? Why the hell didn't you come back?"

"I...I thought you had perished with everyone else..."

"You were that eager to get rid of me huh? That eager to just throw up your hands without a fight?"

"...No! No, I...I kicked myself every day, blaming myself for leaving you there, I...when I saw the rubble, I just couldn't bring myself to search it...If I had only set eyes on you, I would have died....I saw little Nekane there...I just couldn't think if you were like that too...You have no idea-"

"I have no idea. _**I**_ have no idea. Oh, I've got a pretty solid idea miss, I've got a real good and cold idea. Do _**you**_have any idea what _I've_ been through?! My very own life has stolen all my child hood from me on that very day in the burning snow. You can send your thoughts my way, how about you let me do the same to you?! I'll give you an idea what I've been through!!"

It happened so fast, Arika was dizzy with it. Negi, in his anger, spun an entire sphere of thoughts, memories, sentiments, feelings and pain, one who's size Arika could not even determine, so large it was, and all in the blink of an eye. In all his burning mental force, he launched forward with a far greater speed and accuracy than he had on his first try, and it was far more tightly wound. Arika, even though she probably could have easily fended it off, regardless of its power, was to shocked at the sheer speed and skill he was pulling upon in his anger to bother trying. It hit her head on, and she was engulfed in a world of fear and pain...

+--1--+

_It was dark. Why was it so dark? The darkness engulfed all light, made it hard to breathe, hard to speak, even harder to think. Yet, even as it was so dark, light surrounded her on all sides. The darkness was inside her, and it had long ago eaten her alive, doing so in a single split second of time. She glanced down as her hands came up. Tiny things, baby fat still clinging to the stubby digits, and yet, those small digits were struggling hard to grasp a wand to hold it up straight in the cold wind, even as that said wind nearly lifted her off her feet and sent her blowing away like a dry leaf._

"Who sent this baby here? He can barely walk, how the heck can he be a candidate for entry into the academy?!"

_She glanced up, and her wand hand, the left, shot out, pointing menacingly at her. She could feel the tiny muscles in her face bunching into an expression not unlike that of a snarl. The woman looked down at her and laughed, a cold laugh, one that managed to reach her even through the biting frost the weather was dishing upon her._

"Oh, so you want to act all tough huh? Okay then. If you can recite the words and make something happen with that little wand you're holding there, you'll pass the candidacy test, huh?"

_She swung her wand high, and a voice, tiny and a bit shrill due to youth, but full of conviction nonetheless, battled against the winds that tried their best to overshadow it, yet, in the end, the voice, small as it was, won out, and carried far it's victorious, perfect words._

"Practe Bigi Nar, Ardescat!"

_From the wand sprung a brilliant, tiny fire, that, despite the biting frost and gusting winds around her, stayed brilliant and refused to go out. It's fiery light reflected in her eyes as the woman, surprised, glanced down at the resilient flame with a small measure of new found respect._

"Okay then big boy, you've proved me wrong. I'll enter you as a candidate, that fine?"

_Even as the fire burned all the brighter as an answer, the blizzard around her faded until all that was left was the fire, lending her a small measure of light into the darkness. Around her, figures moved in and out of the shadow, nightmares prowling about the ring of light, waiting for the right time to strike._

"You've got the shortest straw shrimp."

"Ha, it's just right, he's a shrimp, and he's got the shrimp straw."

"I'll bet he won't last five minutes in there."

"Oh? I bet ten pence he'll run screaming from there after ten minutes."

"I bet fifty he'll wind up dead."

"Oh come on, give the little kid a break. Hey, I'll take that straw from you if you want kid, no one can blame you for chickening out..."

_Yet, even as the voices bantered back and forth, Arika felt her mouth twist into a small smile. Her vision shook slightly from left to right as she shook her head a definitive no. Once again, the tiny voice spoke out._

"I'm going."

_The light in front of her eyes consumed all of her vision, and soon she realized it had swallowed her whole. All around her, a blinding light was slowly fading, and she realized she was sitting in a desk far, far too large for her. She smiled as she finished writing her name across the paper on her desk. Negi Springfield. Having to jump a long distance to the ground, she started the equally long distance to the teachers desk in front, until something hard and fast entered her vision and nearly sent her flying. She only had a split second to identify that it was a boot before it bowled her over and she felt the soft skin on her nose shear and drip, ruining the very paper she had just finished writing on. A cold laughter could be heard from all sides as she picked herself up slowly from the floor. Someone steed upon the paper, and, with a wrench of their shoe, ripped the soaked paper in half. The laughter continued as her vision filled up with the color red, until it consumed all...and once again, it slowly began to fade, as she realized she was seeing red not because of blood, but because her hands her blocking her eyes from the sun. Several boys were all situated around him, and one of them spoke._

"So did you chicken out or did you do it?"

_She answered him in a cold voice, and her manner did not waver in her lie._

"I...chickened out. Nothing there but old books and dark...and weird noises."

_In truth, Arika knew that the secret she had learned, Hellfire Conflagration, should stay with her, and her alone. These boys were better off not knowing how scary the forbidden library really was...but she knew she'd go back one day...she had too...there was too much to learn. Even as many of the boys looked disappointed, and called her a shrimp and a kid, or collected the money they were due from others, Arika allowed herself a secret smile as they filled her vision. She was the holder to a key for power now, and she would over run them all, and show them who really was boss. Still, even as she thought this, they all faded from sight, and a searing pain was replaced._

"Ha ha, little shrimp, stay down...I like my food feisty, but you won't taste any good if you continue to fight. Now, let me just get this fat one here..."

"No."

_That voice, now stronger, slightly older, emerged from her mouth. She saw still small hands, now more spidery in form, rise the same star wand as before, only now it seemed smaller, out of place. It sparked violently with a pent up magic power, glowing brighter all the time._

"You won't touch him, or anyone. You want to try and eat something? Eat me."

_The figure came up, and the sight brought a stilling fear to her heart. It was tall, taller than three of her, and it's sickly blue skin hue clashed with red symbols that were inscribed all over the length of its visible skin. It was a walking nightmare, blood shot green eyes stared out from a fierce face that wickedly displayed yellow teeth and lowered its head to show her his dirty, ivory horns. The demon scooped up the screaming boy, and from her wand erupted ten powerful arrows of light, slamming square into the thing's laughing mouth and eyes, making him drop the boy and howl in pain. She slowly stood up straighter, feeling a wince pull at her eyes. Blood dripped from her arms unto her hands, and she knew the blood was all her own. Raising the wand yet again, seeing it shake with the weakness she felt, she heard that voice echo out again._

"What did I tell you meathead? You want to eat, try eating me! I guarantee you I'll give you stomach aches for a whole year, if you live that long!"

Once more, the vision of the demon, now about to charge her, faded, just like the others, and Arika finally managed to get a grip that this was not her, but her son, Negi, going through various stages in his life. She saw him get beaten like a dog in the streets of London trying to attend a high school, saw him graduate it with a cold, determined look in his eyes. Saw him attend college and fend off numerous jealousies, attend magic school and become widely feared by fellow student who dared try and challenge him to a magical duel. She saw him kill numerous demons, and even send a mercenary who had been chasing him to kill him flying off a cliff, only to catch his hand a few seconds later and use magic to lift him up. She saw him bleed from so many wounds she lost count, saw him digging in the ruins of his village and feasting his eyes upon a jeweled, golden staff, HeartBreaker.

She saw him fighting off children who tortured a girl she recognized as Anya, saw him teach her and others late at night. He almost got himself involved with a kind of German mafia trying to save one of his students. He traced one of his American colleagues all the way to Russia to help him stop an addiction and break up a drug ring, tossing numerous people in jail...she saw him soot a man point blank five times in the chest with a pistol when he pulled out his own weapon on him. Negi's eyes had lit up as the fire from each shot caught in them. She saw him dive bomb after a suicidal woman without even thinking, and failed to save her, almost getting himself killed in the process. She saw him fail to save one of his students when they had gotten involved in a gang shoot out, he watched them die right there in front of his eyes, knowing they were leaving behind a child of their own. Once, he had sent a hail of Sagitta Magica spells raking at a demon, only to have them simply bounce of its scaled armor and take one of his fellow classmates, dragging the girl, screaming, down into an abyss, never to be seen again...

He ruled an entire corner of the grounds, and no one entered there without him knowing or without a reason. He won numerous awards, put down many upstarts, but all the while, he grew colder. He gained numerous degrees, gaining more prestige and intelligence, but still, he widened the rift between himself and the rest of humanity. She saw him train until he could train no more, cry until nothing but blood fell from his eyes, work himself down to the bone doing so many things all at once, only to come out on top, stronger than before and ready for more. It seemed the only kindness he showed was during teaching, there was so much to see and absorb...and then, a spark.

The first happiness in a long time, Graduating Magical Academy and being sent off on his mission. The mission that lead him on a crazy, wild and very eventful near two months. Several new worthy opponents, a late night brawl with the dark Evangel herself, another venture into a completely different forbidden library, a dance with nightmares and an encounter with death, then, her. So much history, in such a small amount of time, the whole experience ran like a movie in fast forward. Extreme fast forward. Arika could not absorb every detail of every event, she could only experience them in the flashes she had. It was too much, and yet, at the end of it, she could only stare at Negi, knowing him now in a far deeper light than she had known him before, when he was just her "lost son"

This boy had sent people to, saved them from, and seen sent to, death. He had been through enough to match and supersede any normal mages entire life, and perhaps match some young Magisters...wait, scratch that, he is one himself too...yet still. Arika locked eyes with him now. During the assault of visions, she had gotten up and now stood about three yards from him. Looking at him now, she could hardly believe what she had seen, but the memories had been there and had been sent at her with too much speed, to much urgency, for them to be false. This boy was cold for a reason, and he liked it that way. That above all pained her. He allowed his own eyes to take their sweet time in locking unto hers.

"Now you know why the hell I am the way I am...Arika."

+--2--+

Saturday Morning, October 24th, 7:00 AM in the morning. The sun had finally risen, burning away all of the misty night time fogs and leaving London with clear, brilliantly blue skies. Negi carefully checked all of his pockets and cast about for his flash drive, which seemed to have gone rouge on him. When he finally found the little bugger hiding out underneath the bed, he called the room service, and then the front desk to inform them that he was leaving today. Nothing was going to change, nothing at all. He had come to London to get Anya, and he had succeeded in doing that, so now he had to simply go back to his normal life now. It had been..._fun_ seeing old co-workers again, but that was it.

Negi, hanging up from his call with the front desk, did a double check of all of his belongings, and Asuna's as well as Anya's for the two of them were sound asleep and most likely would stay that way until he barbed them awake at nine o clock to get them ready and at the airport by ten. It had been decided that Asuna would go without illusion this time, and Negi would be the culprit to change ages. He was to assume a twenty year old and pass Asuna and Anya off as his younger sisters. He would be the only one to change, only he needed to pull a pre-stocked pill instead of a customizable one, for he still could not access his magic to customize one to his liking, meaning he had to go in the bathroom with a set of newly bought clothes and play dress up. From what he had seen of his father, he could guess his way in his build and height, yet Negi went for a loose clothing style just in case, as it was a big jump, not really in years, but the fact that so much growth and development took place in such a short time, right in these years he was about to jump, he could never be sure. Everything was going according to plan...

Until Arika walked into the door of their rented room with two suitcases that is, just as Negi was coming out of the bathroom at eight forty, then everything went downhill all the way to hell, but that's another story entirely...no, it's not another story, which is why I'm going to tell you regardless of me saying it's another story. I hope you were paying attention to me contradicting myself there.

Negi was dressed in a long sleeved, thick, forest green sweater and belted black sweat pants. These sweatpants fell neatly over a pair of classic light brown Timberlands. Thrown over his sweater was a long light brown robe, not unlike Nagi's own, only this one was of a slightly darker hue and had a couple of silver fastenings, only these fastenings remained un buttoned as the robe was flying upon allowing one to see his sweater and pants. His new wand stuck quite a bit out of one of his inner pockets, along with the end of the star one held, meaning the star was hidden inside the pocket. The outer pockets were empty, although one could see his sweatpants pocket with a tell tale bulge of his wallet. Negi's hair fell over one of his eyes, and he no longer had that little antenna that stood up in the front. A good length of his hair, but not all of it, fell in a pony tail that traced to the middle of his back, only his pony was a bit off to the side instead of straight in back. Standing at around six foot one he was a bit broader than Nagi had been of shoulder, but not by much and his eyes showed far more of his mother now. Besides that, and the fact that his nose was nowhere near the pointy speck Nagi had, but the more sensible peak of Arika, one could hardly tell the difference between the two figures...well, besides the hair...when Arika had first seen him, she had frozen dead, and the obvious question flew from her mouth without her even giving her mind a chance to process it.

"N-Nagi?!?"

It was then she saw the pony tail, and the man in front of her sighed, almost visibly slumping.

"Hell no!"

He said it quite a bit louder than he had meant to, for his voice had, obviously, deepened quite a bit, and had much more power to it, attached to a larger pair of lungs and voice box. The resulting tone was a mixture of tenor and baritone, yet still managed to sound rich. It managed to do something that Konoka had trouble doing every day, shaking Asuna out of bed and making her jump up instantaneously.

"The hell?!"

Negi sighed then, and fixed Asuna with a glare when she turned to stare at him. It took her brain a few seconds to link this image to Negi, as the plan had been discussed last night before they had all gone to bed. Still...what gave him the right to mature so...well? Not that she had not, but still, he looked like some kind of emo movie star over there, with his hair covering one of his eyes. It wasn't hard to see the guy he had shown her, the thousand master, in him, not hard at all. Although, she saw a few differences she guessed came from his mother, whom he didn't know...still, she liked the change, to say the least. Anya, who had been next to Asuna had shot up, not because of the voice, but because Asuna had kicked her in the gut in getting up, and she was nursing her middle, groaning. Negi pointed towards her with his new wand, claiming the spell for a mild healing, the one dubbed by many as "Cura", then, realizing he couldn't use magic, muttered under his breath and placed the wand back in his pocket before pointing at Arika's bags.

"Where you going with those?"

"With you."

"Well that's nice-, wait, what?!?"

"With you. I've been living out of an apartment most of my life here in London, and I'm sick of it, I want to be closer to my son after all."

Negi sputtered a bit, which, besides being uncharacteristic of him, just did not look right coming from someone who looked like him. His hand came up to his forehead to swipe away some of the hair he had combed to fall in front of his right eye. Asuna looked at Arika as if she had just swallowed a lemon, and then, slowly, ever so slowly, those red eyes locked wit Negi's own red ones, and sparks flew as her face plainly asked him to explain. While a look like the one she had fixed upon him would melt a lesser man into a liquid slag of amino acids, Negi was not a weakling, but that did not mean he easily fended off the attack, so disturbed by Arika's news he was. He addressed Asuna first, mainly because he was still trying to formulate something to say to the woman in front of him with suitcases in her hands.

"I find out yesterday, I didn't believe it until this morning at three o clock when she explained herself. Ask her, not me, she's the one who made me and the rest of them all think her dead for six years."

He turned to Arika, who looked like she was ready to face a war. Her whole body seemed to say: "Oh you just try and move me from here, I'll bust you up so bad you won't know where your own head is." Negi reached into one of his pockets and pulled out three pill halves labeled one thousand, two hundred, and two hundred. Swallowing them, he allowed a puff of smoke to envelop him before, as it cleared, one could see nothing but a pile of oversized clothes. From the rubble, a head popped out, showing that those clothes were not standing up by themselves. So shrunk, Negi turned to Arika, and confronted her in a form he was more comfortable with.

"Oii wo...Arika, you can't just drop your life and chase after me, you'll end up ruining mine as well as your own."

Her eyes locked with his at that very moment, searching in them for some kind of reason he would try and deny her from coming. What she found was typical, he refused to let himself be happy, refused to relax, refused to accept that he was good and could be rewarded. He was so used to pain, he didn't know how to experience joy properly anymore.

"You would deny your own mother the chance to catch up with her son?"

"I'm an evil bugger! I've done despicable things! You can't possibly still be trying to see me as something to catch up with, something to try and love."

Arika made a sound halfway between a horse's breigh and an exasperated sigh. No way did he just call himself evil. After seeing his memories, Arika would have to call her son anything but. Evil came to mind when she thought of what Nagi, and Negi, fought, not what they were.

"You are someone who came to the aid of a scared little girl and saved her from what could have been the death of her soul. You have saved numerous individuals-"

"And failed with many others!"

"I repeat. You have saved numerous individual's lives and gave them hope. You have taught them and fought alongside them, gained their admiration and trust-"

"None of which I either deserve nor want!"

"I repeat. You have gained their admiration and trust through your sheer dedication and thoughtfulness, your caring heart-"

"Which does not exist at all!"

"Which is quite big thank you."

'You woman, are un-believably stubborn. You are so adamant that you are right that you cannot see the truth that is right in front of your eyes-"

She could not see what was in front of her own eyes? He was one to talk. So far his head was stuck in the ground, in his own misery, he did not see the good he was doing for others, or, perhaps he saw it, but thought it nothing compared to some grand sin he committed, thinking that, no matter how much good he did, he was not worthy to receive good back, that he was too _**bad**_ for it. That was more idiotic than even Nagi could be, which was saying something. Why was it always that way with a genius?

"So are you, after all you are my son. Only this time, it's you who can't properly access yourself. You need to give _**you**_ a break for once and look at who you are, seriously."

Negi paused then. He bit back a hard retort that was at the tip of his tongue. Something he knew would stop her cold, but that he just could not say. Like it or not, he wasn't really sure any more what he was. Was he a cold hearted unlovable bas+rd like he always said he was? He wasn't so sure any more. Did he only love and enjoy pain? Did he still think friends did not exist? Did he even still think his mother had not loved him? The woman was right in front of his face, and she herself had shown him the emotion that told him there was not a day she had not cried for leaving him. How could someone who was unlovable be cried over? The very illogical fundamentals he based his life upon where crumbling, finally giving into their own weight, finally showing him what he had already known, that he was wrong, only that now, they would not continue holding the illusion for him anymore. At that moment, Negi really did not know who he was. His barbed tongue had, for now, been snipped...

"Okay then, fine, do whatever the hell you want Arika. I don't give a damn. You'll learn I'm not worthy of any one's friggin love sooner or later."

Negi, picking up the oversized pants with his hands, did his best with his current size to walk back into the bathroom, grumbling all the way before slamming the door behind him. Anya couldn't help but laugh at the sight, I mean, how many wouldn't?

+--3--+

A slight change of plans, that is what Negi had told them all. Since Arika had decided to come along, he had decided to use her to slightly edit his plan, just a tad. Negi had still assumed an older guise, but this time it was more along the lines of his early thirties instead of being twenty, and the whole pack of them would simply be a typical traveling family. Of course, Negi had to teach Arika to change passports, something she never had claimed to learn because she had never needed to, she was a royal queen after all, not a mage of subterfuge. Even if she had a few combat skills, that was mainly it besides her royal magics, and those don't change passports, but they could do a couple of other interesting things...yet, Arika was out of practice, and she did not want to put her skills to the test, especially when some of them had not been in use for nearly fifteen or more years. Then there was the small issue about Anya's passport. Should she have Springfield or Cocolva on it?

True, Negi was, legally, her guardian, and therefore, she could, obviously, have the same surname if she pleased, but Negi wasn't sure if she wanted to keep her last name. In the end, she decided to keep it, but for the airplane trip, it would say, via illusion, Springfield. The so named four Springfield's passed through the London airport without a hitch, meaning Negi did not have to teach Arika or Anya to blow up and cameras, and that they went through the metal detectors without a hitch, except for Arika, who was a bit embarrassed to realize she tripped the detector with an anklet she had completely forgotten she was in possession of...of course, it wasn't like she was paying much attention anyway. Ninety percent of the time, Arika was on the phone trying to move her possessions she could not carry with her to Japan by telephone and shipment, and we all know how long distance moving can be a pain, even when you are doing the packing yourself!

Still, even when Negi told her that she could still turn back, she remained adamant on the fast move. It did not seem to occur to her that she could simply catch a later flight, say a week or a month later, and be better prepared and have her affairs straightened out, something that Negi dutifully pointed out quite a few times...No, she wanted to make life difficult for herself, that was Negi's summary of it. She didn't want him out of her sight for a single day longer any more. Like the leech Anya had become on her first day with him, she had latched onto his existence and was not going to be shaken off, no matter how much salt her poured on her, it seemed, yet, all in all the whole ordeal went pretty smoothly...

The plane ride wasn't too bad either. Negi sat next to Asuna, which made her oddly uncomfortable for about three hours of the flight until he decided to switch with Arika, who had been next to Anya. Once again, Anya fell asleep, and once again, she seemed to love using Negi's lap as a pillow, something Negi hardly noticed, as he was glancing out the window most of the flight, trying to determine where they were. Asuna and Arika chatted a bit, got bored, looked around in their seats, found another topic started up again, but always fell silent. Not one of them was tired, even though Negi told them it would be best to try and get some sleep, for they would be arriving in Japan at around Midnight between Saturday and Sunday.

Still, Anya was the only one who happily took Negi's advice, making him look like a hypocrite as he silently stared out into the darkening sky. Arika had turned back a couple times to try and engage Negi in conversation, but each time, he only answered with short, clipped sentences, as if he were angry at her. The boy was adamant to prove himself bitter to her, and all he was doing was making her like him even more. He was acting like the little child he was, trying to be all big and bad and only succeeding in looking cute in her eyes.

The plane ride was over far too quickly it seemed and Negi lifted Anya easily and carried her as they left the plane and went through the motions typical arrivals went through. by the time they got out it was one thirty, and Negi was back to his old self, allowing Arika to carry around Anya, for she was awkward to hold with his small size. The trip "home" was uneventful, they took a cab, for the train station had practically closed down for the night, and Negi paid for it, for all Arika had in her wallet was a bunch of pound notes.

However, once they reached the campus, Negi had to put his foot down, telling his mother that, unfortunately, she needed to find a room somewhere, for the dorm he was in was currently housing three, and Anya made quite a crowd with four. Negi had no doubt he would need to get some kind of house...his mind drifted back to his father's property in Kyoto, and he decided to give her the address, it was as much his as hers. Yet, she did not really want to be all the way in Kyoto...

"Arika!!! Would you rather still be in London?! It's a house, it's in Kyoto, which is close enough, and the best we can do for now. It's under the thousand master's name, which means it's under yours too, at least it should be. Now take the damn keys from me, take the money from me, and get a cab over there, make sure the guy's loaded with coffee or he'll crash into some damn tree, and friggin sleep on it. Just sleep on it. If it makes you any happier, I may be sending Anya over there with you too, but I have to think this out myself, which means _**I**_ still have to sleep on it. All I know is that Asuna and Konoka can't sleep in their beds, with Anya in my bed, and me on the couch, and there would still be room for you! God damn, unless you want someone to step all over you when they wake up because you've rolled from the couch unto the floor! Now, for once, go..."

Negi took a deep breath and he paused, as if what he was about to say was causing him great pain. The cogs in his head were turning a mild a minute, and finally, finally, he let loose. His eyes finally locked with hers, and even as Asuna turned to leave to put Anya down in the dorm room, he let loose his voice into a pregnant silence.

"Go, I'll be there tomorrow to talk to you. I'm not...you know, I don't know what I am, but I sure as hell am not what I was when I left Japan. Go and don't be stupid about it be...be safe. Okay...Okay...mother?"

A single word had taken him so much effort, and yet, he had said it so softly, Arika had barely heard. Before she even had time to register what had just happened, Negi turned heel and frankly ran away from her into the building in front of her, leaving her stunned and standing in the October air. Negi, ever famous for his quick exits, had pulled another one, all a bit of a completely different style then what he was used to, and Arika still stood there, letting a different country's wind lift her hair and enjoy playing with it, just as London's had done before...

Finally, after quite a long pause, Arika smiled, and she easily turned on her heel, as a ballerina doll might turn on their pedestal, and walked off to try and unravel the mystery of her son's heart in the peace of a home her husband Nagi had once inhabited. Negi had finally stepped down his guard enough to call her mother, and as much effort as if had taken him, she believed that was a brilliant step, and that his acceptance of her back into his life was, with that word, already half way done. Admitting you have a problem is the first step, is half of the battle, and she had a feeling he had long since taken the step, he only needed to look down to see that his foot had moved. They would be a family again, and then, together, they would conquer the mystery of his father too.

Together, they probably could accomplish anything either of them set their minds to...

+--4--+

Sunday was a day of rest, a day that one regrouped for the big blast that would inevitably hit on Monday. Sunday was the day one just sat down and calmly organized their things for the next day, it they had that kind of discipline, or finished their homework at the last minute, if they operated like that, yet, even so, Sunday was not a day to be restless, unless you had a big test, a job interview, or some other such nonsense to deal with. So why was Negi so jumpy? Maybe his mind unconsciously rated "Meeting his mother for a talk." among the tasks like "last minute studying for a final tomorrow." or "job interview drilling."

You can't even say that though, Negi isn't nervous at job interviews, just ask the Dean how theirs went. No, Negi only seemed to get internally stressed when he was around his mother, the exact opposite of most individuals, unless you happen to be an unruly teenager or this individual is your step mother slash mother in law, _then_ you have a problem.

Truth be told, he was torn. He was still a little boy, if not in mind and soul then certainly in body, and that body of his was in dire need of some kind of love, for Negi drilled it harder than anything...but even if you disregard that, we all need to be loved every now and then, if not, well, we don't work to well, do we? Negi is no different, he is human, so the laws apply to him. The problem was simply that he refused to give in to his body.

He wanted so badly to run to that woman like any ordinary child would to their loving mother. So badly did he want to be held. It made his head throb just thinking about it. He was not a lovey dovey boy. He was an: "I'll kick your ass." boy.

Negi took a glance at his watch. It was eight thirty in the morning, and here he was, standing in front of the door to the Kyoto residence he had given Arika the keys for. Having taken the earliest available train for the time he had woken up, and having traveled by bullet express train no less, it didn't take him any longer than it had for him to reach here. Still, his fist was poised for knocking, only his brain wasn't sending the command. Negi was instantly reminded of the time he had first tried to knock on the door to his shared dorm with Asuna and Konoka, and how long he had waited until he decided to ask for permittance. He had waited so long, he had fallen asleep and let the lights out time catch him. Sighing, he knocked firmly on the door. He wouldn't let his courage fail him today.

The door was instantly opened to reveal a very flustered looking Arika, who was holding a pan in one hand that had..something inside, or more like a former something, as it's burnt smell was obviously plaguing Negi's nose, and an awkward chef's hat on her head. Her other hand, the one she had used to open the door, had an oven mitt on it. Negi could smell some kind of concoction wafting it's pungent fumes from the kitchen, if Negi had to guess, the woman was baking an ammonia pie. At that moment, all the stress seemed to melt away, and he began to smile, a smile that quickly turned into a full out episode of helpless laughter. _This_ is what he had been so afraid of meeting?!

Arika looked pissed at him for a couple seconds, but then, glancing down at her skillet, and having her hat fall off into it, she couldn't help but laugh along with him. Who was she kidding? She had never cooked for herself, she had both the money and the shortage of time to eat out, and she had never made her own food when she was in the position of queen. Negi was doubled over, laughing away a stress he obviously had been holding unto tightly, and, in that moment, he finally looked his age, a properly smiling, laughing child, without any reservations at all.

It took awhile for them both to stop, but when Negi managed to reign in his self control, he pointed to the skillet, and, walking inside with her, decided it was time to give his mother some cooking lessons, which, as backwards as it sounds, is exactly what happened. Negi extracted the poor ammonia pie, which turned out to be a failed attempt at a fruit cake, tossed out the stuff in the skillet, which he assumed had once been a stir fry. Negi, deciding to just make a quick omelet for breakfast and worry about lunch later, in which it looked like he might be able to pull out a quick pan of enchiladas if he played his cards right, started to put his mother to work in the kitchen, giving her a few basics. It turned out that she was, once she knew what she had to do and saw it done, a fast learner and the owner of some common sense.

The omelet was an omelet, it finished quickly and he put it out for breakfast while he went over what was in the fridge. Eishun occasionally used the place to house meetings, and he had stocked the fridge the very day after he had asked Negi about owning the house, through pre-order, so he couldn't have really canceled it once he learned Negi was not coming, but, low and behold, he was now benefitting from Eishun's "blunder". Everything in here was fresh from the local supermarket, and nothing was any older than the the few days it had taken him in his trip to London. Negi only had to throw out a carton of strawberries with had gone slightly shriveled and looking like they were ready to go moldy, and maybe an odd banana on the counter.

"An enchilada is...?"

"Typically, it's a tortilla, usually corn, rolled around some kind of filling and covered with a kind of chili sauce, but there are many variations. It's typically referred to as a Mexican dish. I'm going for a more..ahh..Tex Mex approach here.."

Negi found himself going shopping with his mother and pulling together a few nuances with the list. Instead of just talking, they cooked while they deliberated, and this brought a whole different tone to the conversation. It was agreed that Arika would stay here, as it wasn't far by the convenient express bullet near the house, and Anya would have to chose the dorm over the house. As for Negi himself, he was already well integrated into the school community, and, as he told her, many students came to him after class hours for tutoring and help on various subjects, and him moving into this house would cut them from that valuable resource he gave them, meaning he would have to stay in the dorm.

"Do you need these yet?"

"No, the cheese goes on top. I have to roll in the filling first. Then we put the rest of it on top and put it in the oven."

As for how often she could visit him that was up to her. He didn't have to many problems about the weekends, but any other days would have to be on her effort. Of course, this up coming weekend was out of the question. Saurday the thirty first was the Mahora Festival, and he would need to be there, yet she was welcome to come over.

"I thought you said this was fried?"

"Occasionally, the tortilla is lightly fried to add taste, but I'm baking these. It's healthier and it will still taste perfectly with this variation I'm doing."

"...and this is?"

"For after, when they come out. Cilantro for the garnish."

"Ohh...okay. But this is so...simple."

"If you thought cooking was all like a guy standing in front of a hot stove for hours on end, get that image out of your head. It's not all that hard actually. It can be enjoyable too..."

In the end, a middle ground was reached that satisfied them both, just like the enchiladas came out. Perfect and able to satisfy both of them. Negi had made plenty extra, for he was planning on taking some and leaving some. Asuna and Konoka needed to eat to after all, and it was his turn tonight, why not kill two birds with one enchilada dish? Negi left that day feeling he had accomplished something at least. He had met with the enemy general and they had reached a satisfactory agreement. They would, for the most part, stay out of each other's lives, but would accept that they existed and honor that. When Ngei came back into the dorm room, Asuna dropped one of the text books she was reading at the sight of his smile.

"..Did you poison that thing that's in your hands?"

"Hmm? Oh, this? No. Whatever would have given you that idea?"

"You're _**smiling**_. That's what gave me the idea."

Negi couldn't help but suppress a light jerk his laughter gave him. Honestly, he wan't all sinister and evil...okay, maybe he would poison the food as a joke...would he? Nah...maybe? He walked into the kitchen to put the glass dish down and then walked back, bending don to pick up the text Asuna had dropped and handing it to her. It was one of his magical texts. Anya seemed to be trying to pull off some kind of spell, twirling around his star wand with a kind of abandon that made him think she was about to poke out her own eye. Negi shook his head. It seemed his dorm had become a circus for magical acts. In all honesty, they should be more careful in how they study their art, as one tends to take practices done at home and apply them outside, and one should be all but carefree when thinking about magic in the general public...

+--EX--+

The night is harsh, and a lone shadowy form tries to continue on its travels, passing by alleyways quickly on its legs. Yet, it constantly falls to the ground. It is badly hurt, and tired...hungry. A soft sound escapes it's throat as it lies on the ground. Perhaps the end is finally near. A light come up and it closes it eyes in pain, but it's just a car, passing on by. Whining against its own pain, the creature gets up and continues it's walk, yet, once again, it collapses, this time in front of a young woman holding a bunch of grocery bags. Glancing down, she realizes the thing that has fallen in front of her is a dog.

"Oh, you poor thing...Chi-zu-nee! Come quick, look, it's a doggie...poor thing must be a stray!"

Looking back at Natsumi, she sees the dog, and, despite thinking it a lost cause due to its condition, feels the creature yank at her heart. Natsumi, always one who has had a bit of a weakness for animals, sees this and tries to play upon it.

"Look how thin he is, can't we help him any?"

"What would Lincho-san say to that?"

This caught her for a bit. True, Lincho might not appreciate a dog in their dorm, but this little guy was going to die without their help, just look at him! She had to be in the right here. If Lincho didn't like him, she'd keep the dog close to her, simple as that, and she said so, drawing a bit of a surprised look from the other girl. Natsumi hardly spoke out about anything, unless she was acting or something like that. Yet, the dog really did look like it would die without their intervention, and what kind of karma would that bring down on their heads? Not any good kind, that was for sure. Sighing, the girl shook her head.

"You had better keep him close to your bed then, and any mess he makes is your responsibility..."

"Nee-chan please, I'm not a little kid! I know that already!"

Picking up the poor creature, she nursed it in one of her arms while she held her groceries in the other steady. Her companion only shook her head marginally before turning around. Lincho would ream her out once she saw that Natsumi was bringing a dog into the dorm, but what could she do? It was Natsumi they were talking about. Besides, as much as one might think her the peace keeper, but she liked to stir up trouble every once and a while herself. This would be the perfect mood breaker..although, it would, admittedly, mean Natsumi would bear the brunt of Lincho's wrath for the purpose of her entertainment, which was cruel, but inevitable.

+--FIN--+

Why do you have...EX now? Well, EX simply means I did not want to number it, and put it as "extra" It's simply a format I'm using to say that what I reveal here is really meant to kick off in the next chapter. I've spoken enough in the beginning, I should not take up your time here. Next time. Poll now closed! Official results posted next time…


	23. Chapter XXII: Bestial Alluvium

Some of you have already noticed, but there is a new poll pertaining to my stories up. Already I have four votes on it, all pointing to the same choice...anywho...Kotarou! He's coming back. How nice. I've already tossed this story quite a bit off the beaten path, and this loose horse is only going to stray further from its cart the farther we go. Another thing. I plan on changing my chapter titles on the selection list to Roman Numerals, so I can properly name some of my chapters. You have been warned. Oh, by the way...

Poll Results: 28 Unique Voters

#1 Anya, 14 Votes. - The kiddie takes the cake!

#2 Evangeline, 13 Votes. - Aw, so close, yet so far.

#3 Chao, 10 Votes. - "..." Inbreeding.

#4 Setsuna, 9 Votes. - Two demons, a good couple, but what about her charge, Konoka?

#5 Konoka, 8 Votes. - "..." Royal couple?

#6 Ayaka, 7 Votes. - "..." One way relationship...I think.

#7 Sayo, 5 Votes. - Odd.

#8 Some crazy unexpected thing happening to Negi that turns everything upside down partner wise. 5 Votes. (This is actually what I first had in mind.)

#9 Chachamaru, 4 Votes. - This one is one of the oddest choices I put here, next to Sayo. I wonder how you all thought I was going to do it...

#10 Yue, - 4 Votes. Not a bad choice personally speaking.

#11 Nodoka, 3 Votes. - A classic choice, I expected this to rake in a few.

#12 Chisame, 3 Votes. - Ahh, the two harbor feelings over a date under the humming servers of Mahora!

#13 Asuna, 2 Votes. - "..." Possible inbreeding, then again, don't we historically inbreed anyway?

#14 Mana, 1 Vote. - Not a bad choice.

#15 Satomi, 1 Vote. - I don't know, this is one of my personal likes. No one ever does it though. I should, not for this Negi though...wouldn't fit. (Possible other Negima story in the making?!)

#16 Another student form a different class, 1 Vote. - Ehh, you'd give me that much control over it?

#17 Some other teacher, 1 Vote. - "Now come on now Agatha, you're worse than the children!"

All other choices got zero votes.

Dutifully noted, ArchangelWings. I saw two different names before, but now it's official, your name has changed.

I'm not to happy with this chapter. It gave me trouble. I also get the feeling it may be confusing for some. I hope I'm wrong, but I can't shake the feeling. I also think this chapter is rushing a few things, but I'm like a barrel with a hole in the bottom. I'm empty. I know what I want to say and do, but how to say it? That's the problem. Review and tell me what you all think. Know that the confusion will subside by next chapter if there is any.

One last thing. While Negi has "come to terms" with his mother, that does not mean he has completely accepted her. Like I stated, it's simply two army generals sitting down at a table and agreeing to at least tolerate each other from now on. You can expect some sparks to still fly from them however...

Famous Quote: "I don't own Negima!"

+---+

_**Chapter Twenty Two: Bestial Alluvium**_

"There are many things that can take place in one's life that make them look at life the way they do. We all see life through a filter comprised of our experiences and what we have learned. All we know and learn, we know and have learned for a reason. This is common knowledge. No to people can ever have the exact same set of knowledge and ideals as another, even identical twins, for their experiences will always differ, however slightly."

"This is one reason why there is no right or wrong answer in a matter of asking for one's opinion. Yet still, from time to time, we will attempt to prove another person wrong in their ideals, and sometimes we are correct in doing so, other times we are simply exercising bigotries. It matters not however, as the world goes on. As such, I must stress the point in which-"

Asuna couldn't read any further. This book droned on with a relentless tide that never got to its point, or never seemed to get to the point. Sometimes she wished she could borrow Negi's brain. He ate text books for breakfast lunch and dinner it seemed. Sighing, Asuna heard a thump, and then a sharp shriek as Anya came in the room, rubbing her left eye. She couldn't help but internally laugh at the kid. It seemed Negi had lit a fire under her, and she was determined to chase after her idol and mage sensei, Negi Springfield, for praise...

Yet, the girl drove herself crazy doing this, and thus her magic sucked. Asuna grabbed a box of tissues from the coffee table and tossed it to the girl, who missed catching it by miles and had it hit her dead in the nose, eliciting a stifled cry.

"Go get some ointment; you should know the drill by now. If you just stop spinning that thing so carelessly, it wouldn't poke you in your damn eyes."

"I don't think this wand likes me..."

A voice floated from across the room, drawing closer as some light footsteps along the carpet signals the individual's coming. Anya stiffened at the sound of the voice, for it was a bit testy.

"Anya, don't tell me you're resorting to that old trick again."

"N-no...no magi-sensei."

Negi entered the room, spinning a cap along his finger and holding a book report in the other hand. A red marker was tucked behind his left ear, all but disappearing into his flaming head of hair. Ever since coming back from the airport and being installed in Negi's former bedroom, the girl had dropped her casual calling of his name and adopted the title of "Magi-sensei."

It was, perhaps, the only Japanese thing she said, or, as it would seem, would ever learn, for Konoka and Asuna knew enough English by now to conquer her simple linguistic skills in her native tongue. Negi had taken the title without any comment, as he was her mage teacher now, and that was the litteral translation of what the girl was saying, Yet Asuna felt it was just another thing to distance himself from someone close. She had seen him react with Anya before and was almost glad for the acidic boy, having a kind of friend. That all seemed to have been lost now...

The cap in Negi's finger spun off and flew upwards, landing upon his head with a decisive plop, and proclaiming to all who cared that they should chow down at Chowder's fishery. He pulled out his polished wooden wand a lazily swung it in a practiced arc that Asuna recognized as optimal form for a basic burn spell, but nothing came from his wand tip. Negi, still looking at the book report, nonetheless muttered under his breath, showing that he was not unaware that his attempt at the magic had failed. Yet, he covered easily by telling Anya that that was the form she should take, and not spin her wand willy nilly all over the place...

"Here, use these to soothe the bruise, you didn't get your eye, you got the area under it, I can see it turning an odd color."

Pulling a pack of medicated wipes from his pocket, he tossed them to her, his throw of a much slower and accurate arc than Asuna's toss, and, even as she missed catching that too, it fell into the crook of both her arms, which had come together to try and catch the parcel. Without so much as a backwards glance, he left, tugging the red marker from his ear as he went and beginning the stroke for an eight out of ten. Asuna turned to the girl as his form disappeared from view.

"You completely bombed that one. You want him to notice you, you've got to put more real effort into your spell work..."

"S-Shut up!"

"Oooh, looks like someone's got a crush on their daddy. You know that's not healthy Anya-chan. Never have a crush on Negi, it could KEEEL you! If he doesn't do you the honors first that is..."

"S-sensei wouldn't do that."

Asuna pulled a face at that, and made a mockingly thoughtful expression, putting her fist under her chin and closing an eye to her. The opposite eyebrow raised a smidgen, for she was not quite as adept as Negi was in performing that action of "rock over rock"

"Hmm, no, most likely, Daddy would just ground you."

"D-don't call him that!!"

"Why? He basically _is_. Legally anyway. All that legal mumbo jumbo stuff."

Asuna left the girl sputtering as she returned to her book, trying to make sense of the nonsense _**it**_ was sputtering. She was looking to learn a simple history event, not listen to some damn guy ramble on about ideals and what not. Why did college text books have to be so...obtuse? Oh wow, so actually found a way to use a fancy word, go Asuna!

+--1--+

In another area of the dorm, another sheik was heard, only this once was far more pronounced, and the thump came afterwards, followed by a growl. All this commotion came from the dorm charred by Ayaka, Natsumi and Chizuru, who seemed to have suddenly gained an extra member to their little crew, their own version of Negi, only, Ayaka was not to happy with her version. They didn't make it right.

You see, this one was called Kotarou, and he was dirty, near naked, if it were not for the sheet that had been tossed over him, and apparently very rude and childish in her eyes. This "Kotarou, also was, apparently, in the same place a dog had once been, a dog Natsumi had taken blame for picking up. Very fishy business if you know what I mean...

Ayaka aimed another cushion at the boy's head, her only current ammunition, and could only watch as the boy nearly abandoned his towel to dodge it, she had to turn around as Natsumi tossed the towel back in the boy's general direction, not daring to look herself and therefore only succeeding to toss it in a vaguely correct area.

Yet, even though he grabbed it, he did not attempt to tie it about himself like a decent being. He was a dog and acted like one. He didn't really need this thing...he only grabbed it because a tiny part of him remembered human decency. That part of him made him tie the blanket about himself.

That human part made him stand there and listen to Ayaka try and ream him out too, only he answered her back at several points, eliciting more responses from her and turning the conversation into a long winded fight.

The boy had been introduced as Natsumi's brother, much to her original chagrin, which calmed Ayaka some, but could not get all of her distaste from the boy out. During her conversation with the apparently amnesia stricken boy, she mentioned Negi in a comparison of the two, and this seemed to send a light bulb going off in the boy's head.

Ayaka may have continued talking, but the boy wouldn't let her. He rushed out, leaving her to yell behind him before turning to Natsumi to start on her on what kind of parents she had. Who let their kid run around Naked all over Japan anyway?! It was a wonder Natsumi turned out only as bad as she was and not worse! Still, the boy was gone, and there was no need to push the issue any further, even though Ayaka did do so anyway, berating Natsumi for answers she did not have. Chizuru offered no help here, even though she was the one who came up with that quick solution. Sometimes Natsumi swore she liked to see her squirm. Why couldn't the kid be _**her**_ brother instead?!

Meanwhile, Negi was blissfully unaware of any of this nonsense. He was grading another paper, writing a few comments on it. The person would have gotten an" A -" at least, but, being the fact it was nearly two weeks late, he was forced to just give them a skin of the teeth "C" grade. Yet, we all know that this particular little boy has had the hardest time doing the simplest thing, which is to have a normal, peaceful day.

He had almost achieved this impressive feat however, considering he had spent a normal day with his mother, but his life would not allow him to get away with murder so to speak, and the door slammed open, admitting a jet black haired bullet who had, in his hurry, caused the stick it note with Negi's name on it to fall off...

They really needed to get him an official name plate for this room, that damn thing almost _**always **_falls off. Negi had just set down the report and had gotten up to get a glass of water when he saw the jet black haired bullet head straight for him. Negi quickly braced himself, but he had been too relaxed originally to completely deter the force that slammed into him.

What ended up happening was that Negi was sent flying into the couch, which slid back about two feet from his impact and making Konoka, who had been sitting on it, squash her face into the text book she was studying from. Anya, who had just come out of the bathroom, needless to say, shrieked, but proved to have the fastest acting in rushing to Negi to see what the heck had just happened. Asuna however, ignored the whole thing, as she was too busy focusing on her current game...so close to beating her previous record, come on!

Negi coughed and pushed himself off the couch, disengaging himself from the tangled feet of his attacker, who turned out to be, obviously, Kotarou. Negi stared at the boy, even as the boy quickly disengaged and stood up.

Inwardly, he cursed the fact that his magic was still locked, this once. Normally he would just mutter about his habitual stupidity, trying to call it up. Here he was actually cursing the loss of it, yet he readied himself and met Kotarou with a stare and a battle stance...

Who cared if he was in the dorm? His first kick would send this guy flying out of the room, and he after him. He knew how he operated, or at least, in part, from the first time they had battled. Yet the boy did not attack him again, only continued to dust himself off. He was dirty all over and looked kind of roughed up. This oddity made him relax, but only a little, and not visibly. Kotarou opened his mouth.

"...It's Negi right? Yo."

That's what he had to say?! He comes flying into the dorm, tackles him and sends him flying into the couch, making Konoka eat printed text and generally disturbing the peace, and all he's got to say is Yo? Negi raised his clenched fist...

and punched the dog demon straight in the nose, sending him skidding backwards into a nearby wall, thankfully not damaging it any.

"The hell was that for you mutant mutt?! If I wanted to be shot-putted into the couch, I would have done it by my fricken self! Hell are you doing here anyway? You want another round like last time?"

Kotarou may have come here for a different reason than that, but his eyes nonetheless lit up. Western mage he may be, he was a real fighter, Negi was, and Kotarou respected that. He loved it actually. He only wanted a one on one so he could kick this guy's ass. Still, as he pulled himself from where he had fallen after hitting the wall, he managed to beat down his battle lust and address the boy seriously.

"While I would love that, no. I came here to warn you."

Negi narrowed his eyes a tad and a signature eyebrow did it's thing. He face was skeptical, after all, who the heck crashed into you like a runaway freight train to warn you about something? Must of been one heck of a plunger to kick this sucker of a pinball at him like that. Still, the very lameness of the statement made Negi believe him. Either he was an idiot or telling the truth, and while he was sure this boy was an idiot, he didn't think he was lying.

"If you're here to warn me that the sky is falling, or that a horizontally flying, demonic bullet is about to send me flying into my couch, you are a few days late and far more than a few yen short."

"Someone is after you."

"You and the rest of the world, what else is new? Next you're going to tell me that my mother is from another planet, oh wait, technically she is! You're late with that to"

"No, you don't get it...god damn it if only I could remember it all! Damn amnesia! This is different from what you're used to!"

+--2--+

_"You know, you shouldn't worry yourself so much Negi. You'll end up getting brain hernias."_

Negi had the curious feeling that one feels when they are halfway asleep, at that crucial point just before going into the land of dreams, when one shakes you awake. At that point, one feels like they are suddenly falling, violently falling. As if their spirit, only centimeters from opening the door to the land of dreams after a long climb up the astral stair case, suddenly trips and falls, within a millisecond, back down into your body, the earth bound being. Indeed, Negi had been nearly at his dreaming state when his mother's voice had shaken him from his revere. Instantly, he tried to access if she was in his dorm room, which, if she was, he would then attempt to execute her, but her voice only laughed in his head, a light hearted, flowery kind of laugh, for of adoration. His mind was just about to pick up speed and recess things with his normal thought process when she interrupted him again.

_"Think slowly Negi. I can barely keep up with you. Your father was a self proclaimed genius in the art of battle, yet his mental speed was only slightly higher than average in that field. I was the one hailed as a genius, but still, I am having a very hard time keeping up with you, my son."_

The hell? Okay, now he was officially crazy. He was hearing his mum's voice in his head, and she was telling him to slow down so she could keep up. He was hearing voices in his head, voices that were talking to him. Doctor, I need some meds over here. Negi's mind called up an image of himself in a loony bin, wild and disheveled, being forced down and stuck with a needle where the sun don't shine. Arika's voice laughed at him again.

_"Oh no, you're not crazy Negi. This is just another extension of mental divination. Telepathy. You should be able to do it too, your ability to pick up on this royal magic is incredible, you pulled off the sharing of memories, and the usage of them as an attack, with quite some style after all. Normally, something like this, from such a distance, would be difficult, but now that I am more familiar with you and have your shared memories, I'm much more familiar with your signature. Besides, you mind sticks out like the sun would next to a bunch of flash lights with dying batteries."_

Oh hell, this was not happening to him. One second he was peacefully grading his papers, the next, Kotarou slams into him, sends him flying, tell his someone is coming and planning to attack him, watches the boy get dragged out by Natsumi and Chizuru.. (Along with Ayaka trying to suck up to him and apologize while offering some kind of compensation, which he did not care to know what was or accept...), and now, his mum was giving him a "late night call." Nope, his life just could not be normal for even one day could it? He heard a sigh that made him look over to Konoka's bed, but then he realized it was, once again, from his mother.

_"You just don't know when to slow down do you? This poor head of mine is throbbing over here. Who is that blonde haired girl in your memories? She looks like she trying to pick you up...and honey, just talk to me, mentally. I'll hear. I'm the one who established the connection, you don't need to put any effort into a response..."_

Negi rolled his eyes at his own stupidity, hell if he was going to listen to a voice in his head, but might as well give it a shot, huh? If it really was his mother, he would extract the proper punishment from her for waking him up in the middle of the night, but for now, she must have had some damn reason for doing this. Unless it was just because she "missed him." An image of her in a cell locked up flashing in his mind, and her heard a mockingly hurt gasp escape from what he supposed was her. He grinned at that. At least she knew how to cover her surprise by pretending to be hurt.

_"Oh hell Arika. Hell, hell, hell. That is a student, my homeroom class president, and she's always like that. As for slowing down, I am thinking slowly. It's flipping two o clock in the morning...Oh, and don't call me __**honey**__. The hell kind of magic is this, it's turning more and more into some kind of sci-fi movie. Telepathy my ass."_

Another gasp. This woman liked to do that, didn't she? If it wasn't a gasp, it was a sigh, or some kind of damn little smile. Reminded him of himself, maybe that's where he got it. He thought back to how he could open his mind to accept the thoughts of multiple people at once, allowing the tides of human sentiment and emotion to wash over him. Taking in the voices of hundreds of different minds at once... He knew that he could also work it backwards, shrinking and hardening his mind until he erected a shield of steel around it, preventing foreign entry. The thing was, he didn't know how to do that part, or how to detect when someone was trying to divine upon his thoughts. The presence of his mother, being able to do so, had alerted him to this weakness...his mother sighed again. See? Either sigh or gasp.

_"Negi, Negi, Negi. You don't need to __**worry**__ about things like that. Only people who have either trained extremely hard to achieve it, and this is a dying art, or someone who is of a royal line, like myself, can divine upon what you're thinking." _

_"That's my point Arika. I don't want even __you__ knowing what I'm thinking. A person's mind is their final defense, the one absolute place to be alone. Break that and nowhere is safe anymore. Besides, why the hell should I just let you waltz into my head if you're gonna wake me up in the middle of the night just to say hi, or so you can hear me breathe? Or maybe you want to see my dreams? A private movie theater you don't have to pay tickets for?"_

_"...I notice you've switched back to calling me Arika."_

_"I never left from it. I only called you by the title you want me to once, and only because I didn't know where the heck __**ME**__ was anymore, and no, that is not improper language there. To besides, it's your damn name isn't it?"_

_"I didn't even think of it being improper language...and while most mothers might think you disrespectful...I can understand where you are coming from."_

_"If you did not, after all those memories I sent you, you would be an idiot."_

She couldn't help but smiling at that on her end. Negi never ceased to amuse her it seemed. She had never before allowed herself to dream about meeting her son if he had somehow wound up to be alive, and now, seeing him, she couldn't help but love the result. He was sharper than her, but still untrained in some places, giving her experience a handle on him. He looked like Nagi and had some f his odd little nuances, but acted like her, only more bitter in the mouth. Yet, the boy had reason and he was like Nagi in his noble, "heroic" instinct. He bled from others wounds, even if he no longer let that show.

_"Oh, so I'm not an idiot to you. That means I'm intelligent to everybody else, whoopee!" _

_"Oh god, you did not just say whoopee. I swear, the feeling you are sending me...you're no better than Anya, a little girl."_

_"Oh, so your mother can't allow herself to be girlie every once and awhile?"_

_"...It's not so much girlie as childish-"_

_"Yet you are not childish enough Negi, so I will be childish enough for both of us. How's that?"_

_".....Okaaaaaaay then. Let me know how that one goes, Arika. Now, if you don't have anything important to tell me, I'm going to try and get some sleep. I've got a busy schedule tomorrow and it does not include yawning from lack of sleep."_

Aww, she could never have fun with Negi for long before he pulled out the need to get down to business. She needed to set a play date with him one day, a day were he was not allowed to do anything related to work, his students, or any kind of study or training. A day just to have fun. She would challenge him on that, one of these days, she had to. The boy was too serious, to studious, to bitter. She decided to bring up a topic he would recognize as valid.

_"Has your magic returned to you yet?" _

Negi's hand landed on the coffee table next to the couch with a faint smack as his left hand cast around for his wand, which he had put inside a box inside of his books. He knew the exact thickness of the book he was looking for, so his hands groped in the darkness with a far more productive purpose than his current near sightless eyes. His hand alighted upon the book he needed and his pinky flipped the cover open as his index trailed down the pages until it was stopped by a projection sticking out of the book. He used his thumb and ring finger to open the book to the roper page and then grabbed the box with his other hand. Prying open the box with his right, his left grabbed it from the box and waved it in a practiced arc, one he could do even in the darkness, the basic burn spell, it's purpose here to be for illumination into the dark room. Nothing came from his wand however, and he sighed as he put it back in the box and then back into its designated book as a bookmark. He did not need to tell his mother the answer, through their connection, she already knew.

_"Just...Just be careful then hon. Be careful. A mage without their magic is a near sitting duck, and you know yourself how many people would love to take advantage of that."_

_"Arika, ninety eight percent of those people don't have any idea I can use magic in the first place. The other two are both too far away and too weak to do any damage even now...and didn't I tell you not to call me hon?"_

_"Nope, you said not to call you __**honey**__. I call you __**hon**__."_

_"...Don't be a wise ass Arika. It's the same basic thing, now get some damn sleep, I'm pretty sure Imperial Queens are human and need sleep too."_

_"Good night then my little prince."_

_"....You know, next time we meet face to face, I'm going to have to comprise a list of things not to call me."_

_"Yet, I don't lie. You are a prince."_

_"One damn thing at a time. I can't think about being a prince. I'm having enough trouble being just plain old Negi."_

+--3--+

Negi sighed, and massaged the back of his neck with a powerful and rough motion. His hands were ice cold to the skin, which seemed to burn with a fire to counter the cold touch. Sitting at his desk, his eyes zoomed over three reports splayed out in front of him, yet his mind was anywhere but on the reports he was inspecting. Even though one was getting an failing grade because it was blatant plagiarism, and another was getting a "B +" because it was due last Thursday, and the last was near perfect, but the person had neglected to write their name, _again_, as he recognized the handwriting, he was not paying much attention to them. His mind was on the burning sensation that pulsed through his body. The feeling that Magic burned under the surface of his skin, but he could not release it. The feeling that he needed this power, but could not call it. Today, he had almost been forced to use his skill in martial arts to break up three fights, when he could normally rely on subtle magic to diffuse situations. He had almost been late to a meeting on the other side of the building, because there had been at least two "traffic jams" of students and a flooded bathroom that made the hallway unusable. He usually could rely on magic to speed his traveling, but instead, he had to rely on his uncanny speed of thought and shortcuts, along with his still quick legs.

Then there was Kotarou, who had tried to "hook up with him" during lunch for a fight, but, as Negi soon found out, he was not the only one who could attract attention. Girls just seemed to love his ears and tail "costume pieces." The ever cosplaying boy had to beat it numerous times in the opposite direction from Negi to avoid being lynched, leaving Negi to pick up the pieces on who his friend was. Apparently there was a rumor of him being Natsumi's sister, which was nonsense, but a welcome excuse, although Negi did not use it himself. He would rather just feign ignorance and claim him some random boy who wouldn't leave him alone, or suddenly and conveniently remember that he had forgotten a homework assignment he had to give to the class which the students addressing him belonged to, which usually cleared them out in a hurry.

Still, the use of him magic would have helped him in these situations, but he did not need it. Now however, it was near urgent. His body felt like it was on fire. He even knew what was happening but he had no idea why it was happening. His hand, having been taken off his neck for awhile, now came back to his neck to re-apply it's icy hold to cool it's fire.

Essentially, he was getting a magic induced fever. It usually happened when a person is healed with magic by another individual who is far more powerful than they, and that more powerful person does not know the other, weaker mages limit. The weaker mage's body gets overloaded with magic and as a result, the magic causes problems inside them, making them more and more sick until they either use the power up or die. Usually, the power uses itself up through one's aura, which is why it only happened when the healer is far more powerful and the injured. Negi had not been healed by any one though.

His magic channels had been shut down, so he could not have randomly come in contact with anyone and fed off them either. The only person he was near who might have caused it would be Konoka, but she had not ever cast a spell on him, and her magic was kept well under wraps, he was not near her in any of her spell work. Even if he had been, he could not absorb any magic anyway, being near her did not change the fact his channels were still shut. Still, he could not let out his load he already had...

No go there either. A mage did not produce magic, they drew it inside themselves from an outside source. Chi was exuded outwards, the energy of life. People don't produce magic...

Or maybe his fever and pain were due to the fact that his body was already overstocked with channels that had to have expanded to accept the load. Perhaps they had shrunk somehow and now were overloaded. It was stupid and didn't make any sense, but it made more sense than anything else. His magic channels should not have been able to shrink smaller than the load he had in them, the load would have filled them and stopped the shrinking after all, but what was he supposed to think? That he could produce magic? That was a laugh. Energy could not be created or destroyed.

No, scratch that, he would not be creating energy if he could produce magic, it would be like producing chi The transformation of one type to another type. Calories into chi, Calories into magic, yet this defied all normal laws of magical science. Humans did not produce magical energy. That was a law, like Newton's law of gravity, a fricken law.

It was then that Negi, sighing, looked at his class planner for the first time in eons. Besides a small glance on his first day here, he had never really cracked the thing open. He didn't need to. He knew his schedule and student's names by heart already. Yet, the book fell open to his home room class, conveiniently. Besides a couple notes from Takamitchi, there was nothing to interesting, until Negi's eyes allighted upon a statement he had nearly forgotten when he had first read it, for it had not had much merit behind it after all.

_"Evangeline A.K. McDowell. Talk to her if you have a problem."_

He had known instantly what that meant when he had first read it nearly two months ago, and he knew what it meant even more now. The vampire could potentially help him with any "problem" he had, specifically, magical problems. A vampire who's age and experience far outreached his own, and who's locked power seemed like an unobtainable goal to him. Gritting his teeth, he stared daggers at the picture, but of course, being a picture, his stare got zero response. If the fire that Negi's eyes held captive could ever escape, the book would have not even been cinders by now. It would have turned into a gas, a complete disintegration.

Oh he wanted nothing to do with the vampire and her kind of help, not really. The girl may have redeemed herself a bit, but still, he are her together meant fireworks, and these fireworks were not friendly, I'll tell you that much. Yet, what was he to do? Just avoid Konoka or any other powerful mage until he could use magic again? How long was that going to take? He should go and ask, and if she gives him a hard time, blow her off, simple.

_"Blowing off the Dark Evangel is not an task to be taken so lightly, Negi."_

If it were not for the fact he had a great amount of self control as he sat there grading papers, he would have jumped up and banged his knees on his desk. Yet, that was just not Negi. He just continued to sit there, not showing any indication he had just received an extra, foreign voice in his head.

_"You have got to stop doing that. Really. It's getting annoying Arika. As for our teething friend, I can blow off whomever I please, it's a free world...Theoretically."_

Negi made up his mind. After school. In fact, he had his homeroom last period today. Convenient. Or was it fate? After all, the book had just fallen open to that specific [age, placing McDowell's name ever so conveniently in front of his nose...

+--4--+

((I'm kind strapped for ideas for explaining this part, so I might as well glaze it a bit.))

The sun was just about to set, so the sky still had it's beautiful red tinge to it, but did Negi care? No, not really. Some of his hair was in his eyes, but he neglected to brush it out of them. His head was downcast, to the pavement he walked on as he walked on without a shred of outward emotion to show for his travels. Students who walked by him gave him a bit of a berth, Negi-sensei was not someone you messed with and if he looked spaced out, you left him that way, or suffer the consequences.

The boy sighed, ignoring the air around him. His skin was on fire, and it was only getting worse as time passed. This was not normal. Not normal at all. He knew now that something weird was going on, only he could not think at all. His mother had continued to try and talk to him after her interruption into his thoughts earlier, at a later period, but by that time, Negi had been on auto pilot.

The farther along time stretched, the more his skin burned and the faster his mind swirled in its fever. This was not going to end well if he didn't stop it now. One foot in front of the other. He did not notice Nodoka approaching him from the front, which was an impressive thing, considering how much the boy normally notices. He crashed head long into the girl, or, should one say that she crashed into him, for she was the one that fell.

Negi only snapped out of his revere long enough to apologize and help her up before dashing away. He was no good like this. He was used to being injured, but having one's own body turn against you like this? To have it burn everywhere, inside and out? He had only been through something like it once, and that was when he fought Swallowthorn...only now...it was a slow and increasingly painful process. Then it had been a quick and blissful end.

When Negi finally managed to get to the cottage and bang on Eva's door, the vampire, who was in her living room, snapped her head around at the offending noise with a classic annoyance. The door shivered a bit at each knock.

"The hell? Chachamaru, whoever it is, send them away. The hell are they banging on the door for anyway?"

Chachamaru came to the door, obviously ready to carry out her masters orders. However, Negi, once the door had been opened, zoomed past her with an unexpected speed, the gynoid had not exactly been expecting such a small package after all, Negi-sensei had never visited Eva's resort before. Negi almost performed a forward roll as he regained his balance and faced the vampire, who, needless to say, looked annoyed and a bit pissed.

"...And to what do I owe this visit...?"

A bit later, Negi was sitting cross legged on the floor, having a staring contest with a pair of familiar emerald eyes. His fists were clenched, and one could see the faint imprints of his magical channels, once more visible, but nowhere near the point they had been the day he had fought in London. Eva gave him a familiar smile, like one would imagine a spider giving a trapped fly.

"Focus boy. I can't tell what's going on if you don't focus."

How convenient he had come to her for help. She could imagine just what kind of misery his soul must be going through at this moment, and, coming from him, she loved it, reveled in it. Let his squirm while he still needed her help. She'd love playing around with him before, but him in submission was just grand. She had always liked to bring big shots to their begging knees after all.

"Like hell I'll take my eyes off you."

"Ooh. You should know I'm old enough to be your grandmother, lover boy."

"I wasn't referring to you in that way, you shotacon."

Her right hand flashed out, and a single finger pressed against his lips. When he had tried to insult her, she had felt a slight spark of something from him. His speech had distracted her, so she couldn't tell what it was exactly.

"Shut your damn mouth. You came to me for help, didn't you? Shut your eyes."

Grudgingly, Negi agreed to do so. He had come here to try and get her help, as much as he hated to admit it now. Some giant hand of fate had grabbed him and told him that this was what he was going to do, and by god he was going to do it, no ifs ands or buts about it. Meanwhile, Eva's hand moved from his mouth and rested on his heart. His spoke again, allowing her to feel just how thin he was, how much control his lungs had over his body, vibrating.

"You better not be doing anything stupid there."

"Oh, don't flatter yourself little boy."

A spark, a whisper of power. She had it. Yet, she didn't believe it at the same time. The boy was, like he had originally told her he had stupidly guessed, somehow producing power. Only she knew something he didn't. There were mages who could produce magic. Only...she had never been near a _live_ one. They tended to die out real fast they did...

A catalyst. That is what the boy was behaving like. A friggin catalyst.

Catalysts had an odd metabolism, they generally didn't have to eat much and were extremely active. Their bodies could stretch a calorie thin. That was not the important part however, the important part was that they used calories like one used calories to produce chi, to instead produce both Magic and Chi. This produced magic was normally stored in a different area than the general magical storage, and most catalysts are not mages themselves, one reason they die so quickly. The magic builds up and has nowhere to go, and they generally develop severe diseases in youth, normally, cancer was a staple. The ones that were mages live a bit longer, but tend not to know their own limits and end up blowing themselves up or some such nonsense.

Yeah, blowing themselves up. You see, because of the fact that they have two places to store magic, they have an incredible ability to hold magic in themselves, and will normally be able to draw in more power than they should be able to, like Negi had done in his fight with Swallowthorn. Yet Negi took it too far, like catalysts are famous for doing. The key difference was that Negi was still alive, but if no one did anything, he'd die anyway...how nice.

The idiot's magical channels were closed, meaning that a body that was already full of magical power had to deal with more magical power being stuffed in it, I.E, he was currently no better than the average mundane catalyst. Hence, his pain. It also explained why he wasn't sick before, he, unlike a majority of people, had his magic unleashed and able at this age. It was something so simple she nearly laughed, although, by a slight accident, her had slipped down and Negi caught it, a bit of anger in his now open eyes as he held her hand in his, a mere inch of so from his waist.

"The hell are you doing, may I ask?"

+--5--+

It was almost completely dark by the time Evangeline had finished deliberating with Negi. His cell phone had moved three feet from where he had placed it on the table from sheer vibrating power. So much had people tried to reach him and fail. Usually, Negi knew when he was going to have a call almost before it happened. The phone clenched before it began to vibrate just a bit, giving it away.

Of course, only someone like Negi would notice that clench.

Still cross legged on the floor, Negi sat straight up with his eyes closed as Chachamaru sat behind him, her hands in an optimal position to choke him, or massage his shoulders, you take your pick. Eva had her back to him, sitting in one of her arm chairs, drinking an odd pink tea who's ingredients Negi had not been able to identify when he had been offered it.

He took a deep breath in and held it a few seconds before letting it out. Once again, he reached for his magical "nub" and felt around it to the channels it was attached to. He felt past these to a second nub he had been previously unaware of until today, proof of Eva's theory.

Of course, Negi had his own sentiments to add to it, and it came from history. The longest a Catalyst's ever lived was around twenty-five, which gave him a nice scale of his life span. No Catalyst ever married, their love normally ended up being unrequited. The only catalyst who ever had a child died in child birth, taking their child with them. It was not a pretty thing to be diagnosed with.

These people tended to age quickly, because they couldn't get rid of their pent up ,magic, and it acted like free radicals, damaging the body inside out. These people always had bad luck, and almost always had incredibly troubled lives. He was a classic case apparently, and fit the mold like a glove.

Yet, Negi also knew that, according to legend, these tragic cases, these messed up people, were only born when something terrible was about to happen. According to lore, these poor people were angels sent from god destined to give their lives to solve the conflict and return to heaven.

Yeah, riiiiggght.....Negi had a good idea where his soul belonged, and he was pretty sure it didn't belong resting on some eternal peaceful plain. Nope, Negi saw a whole lot of fire in his soul's future, if you know what I mean.

Shaking his head, he reached again for his magic, trying to force his channels to open. Eva had given him a key in which he had put on his shoulder to allow Chachamaru to rest her had there. The idea was that since the key responded to magical power, it could draw out the access that was burning just under the surface of his skin and relieve his pain for awhile.

It was a limited success kind of thing. The only real solution would be Negi getting his magic unlocked, but his body seemed reluctant to do that for him. Didn't stop the boy from trying though. Commendable. Eva turned in her chair to watch him grimace.

"Such a funny thing, fighting for a life as miserable as yours. I thought this might have been the optimal chance for you to blow off yourself and die."

Negi didn't immediately answer, just grimaced and magically reached. He did eventually answer her however, although his eyes remained closed.

"I'm not a coward. I'm not going to bomb out of life because I don't like my lot, I'm going to accept it. Besides, I wouldn't want to ruin your polished floors now, would I?"

"Touché. I would kill you if you did that."

"Oh, I would love to see you try to kill a boy already dead, I would."

She stays silent then. Turning back around, she went back to sipping her odd tea. Her silence was not because Negi caught her, quite the contrary... she had been speaking in a offhand way to him about killing him... but because there was nothing to say. If he managed to open his channels, he'd live to die another day. That's all mortals did anyway, die. At least that was what it looked like to her in the end, when all was said and done...

An explosion of magical power about three minutes later interrupted her thoughts. No, it was not from the boy. It was from outside...somewhere off and secluded. The boy snapped his eyes open, and stood up at quickly as his thighs could shot put him up. If it had not been for Chachamaru's fast reflexes, he would not have been able to stand, for her heavy hands would have cemented him to the floor. His eyes snapped to the door of Eva's cottage. Eva answered the unanswered question in his eyes.

"No boy, I've no idea what that was, but I don't think it was friendly, no. You had better make sure your magic gets free, fast. I can't help you here boya..."

A scream interrupted her, one that Negi did not recognize. Did that matter though? A scream was a scream. Reaching deep, he yanked at both of the magical nubs he felt, pulling them with an urgency and desperation that was not present a minute before. Still no go. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed his coat and practically flew to the door.

"Oii! Boya! Where the hell are you going?! Get back here you baka!"

Negi only spared her a glare full of conviction before slamming the door behind him. The force at which he did so sent a few things on a shelf opposite the door rattling, but nothing actually fell from there. Chachamaru quickly bent, showing all the grace her joints allowed, to capture a teapot that had tipped from the table and had been about to shatter on the floor. Eva still held her cup in her hand, staring at the door as if she could see through it. The image of the boy with those eyes replayed in her head.

"Just like his damn father. Idiot doesn't listen..."

+--6--+

Negi ran. His life seemed to be made up of that action. Running. Running from his pain, running from his emotions, running from happiness, running for his life, Running, running, running. This time he was once again, running to answer the call of distress. He was a flipping minute man, one of those in the civil wars who were "ready in a minute" to fight the death. Hair flying back after him on the winds he displaced with his body,

Negi dragged the Magister wand from his coat pocket, tossing the cloth on his shoulders so it's tails could join his hair in a flying trail behind him. Life. Life was a fickle thing. His left hand clenched the wand tightly, allowing it's polish to catch the moonlight and play on his face. Too bad it wasn't bright enough to stab his eyes.

Bringing his right hand forward, and grabbing unto the barrier separating the forest from the road, he used his arm as added leverage to shoot over the offending obstacle, his skin almost being ripped by the stone, but he cared none. He landed hard, but did not break his stride. A presence of power was thrown in his face, yet the feeling of his obvious target's power did not slow him any.

Negi was soon joined by a shadow, a shadow that neared him and then revealed itself to run alongside him, just as Negi was about to spring off and attack it. It was Kotarou, holding a demon sealing bottle and looking like murder. He only spared Negi a glance of accent. This was the enemy he must have been talking about, and apparently, it was a common one. Fine. He'd work with him for now.

So acknowledged, the two ran, side by side now, a boy and his ally, the dog.

When Negi finally skidded to a stop, he found himself in a kind of old, abandoned and open air coliseum. The kind of thing one went to for a theater show under the stars. Such things were an unfortunate dying practice. It was not were, but who, that interested Negi, for he saw Asuna in an unfavorable position, and in unsuitable clothing he might add. A couple of his students were trapped in a shielded bubble of magic, and a woman was off to the side, seeming to have fainted.

Prevailing over it all, an elderly gentleman in a porter's hat turned his head to see Negi and smiled. Negi provided an opposite reflection of the man's expression, frowning so deeply it turned into another grimace of anger, which he was famous for. His right hand was clenched tight enough for his already pale knuckles to turn pure white, and his channels still showed their re-obtained swollen state, even if they were nowhere near the point they had been that day.

This whole time he had been reaching, but he was getting nowhere, not even this level of desperation was enough to pull Negi's power out. A growl from Kotarou was answered by a surprisingly similar one from Negi. Natsumi and Chizuru were part of the bunch being put on display.

The "gentleman" tipped his hat to Negi, and his smile only got wider. It was obvious who he wanted to get to here, and Negi was happy to oblige in letting his anger flow. He had let his friggin guard down...again! All for some damn pain! Was that how weak he was?!

"Hello Negi Springfield, I have been waiting for you. I've heard so much about you you know..."

Quite suddenly, Negi's mind recalled a snatch from the past, a poem written by a student on the edge of their rope, a scared and sorrowful voice calling out to the dark of the world. He had managed to prevent that student from taking the plunge, but only for as long as he had been there. It seemed that they had only been putting on a nice face for him, and once he was gone, their final pillar had crumbled. However, the ill writen ditty sparked a train of thought in Negi. Gathering it up, he added to it, forming a briar of thoughts. All the while, while the man began to talk, Negi fashioned his briar, making it grow from a thorn to a lance in which to impale the form in front of him with. This was the third time he was doing this, but for all the speed and skill that he preformed the task, it might as well have been the third thousandth.

"I propose a battle, I want to se if the hype that follows you matches up to the form I see."

"Why the hell didn't you just ask me then you fool? Why try to capture my students?"

"You wouldn't have fought me full on otherwise."

Kotarou attacked and Negi jumped up at the same time, He didn't recite a spell, why should he try? He had his fists and his mental techniques now. He did spare the man one statement though, after all, insults and banter were almost an irreplaceable part of battle, it's what riled the opponent, or let you know where the opponent was. Negi tightened his mental hold on his spear of thought, wielding the memories and forcing them tighter, hammering his weapon in the forge that was his mind.

"If you wanted me to fight you full on, all yah had to do was throw a fricken egg in my face!"

+--FIN--+

That's all for this one folks. I really need to tell you, this was the second hardest chapter to type. That's why it took so long, not because of school, although that might have had something to do with it, but because I had no idea what to write! Next time!

I hate this chapter... I really do...except for the end. I like that a little bit. Well, review and tell me what you think.


	24. Chapter XXIII: Diode Rivers

Last chapter, I hated. I said that already, but I feel I should say it again. Once again. I hated last chapter. There, I said it. Why? I feel like I rushed too many things, tried to do too much, perhaps made things utterly confusing for people. Negi? A catalyst now? The heck is that? Wait, he's only gonna live to twenty-five?! No no no. Wait a second and don't just jump to conclusions...

Well, with that said, Mahora festival is just around the corner! Negi is about to jump into a battle, with Kotarou at his side instead of on the other side. Things are about to get interesting. So what am I waiting for? Tell the story already!

I warn you! This chapter might very well get...gruesome. Negi against the dude who led the raid on his entire village is guaranteed to get violent...This is another chapter I went back to edit, not to get rid of things, but to add things. If I have to glaze over my writing again, this is going to "M" so I warn you all...

+---+

_**Chapter Twenty Three: Diode Rivers**_

+---+

"Demon Sealing Bottle!"

The sealing technique was activated by Kotarou, having ran behind the man and tossed it at his back. They say it takes one to know one, and Kotarou, being a hanyo himself, can tell a demon from a being. Still, the bottle bounced off a barrier erected around the man, and Asuna seemed to take the brunt of the power, an electric shock seeming to run through her, not unlike that which happened to Konoka.

The man sent lances of light careening at Negi, but Negi jumped off the side from where he was standing and launched himself forward, closing the distance between them. He stopped short on a step of the area and launched his captive spear of thought at the man. This was magic, but at the same time, it was not. However, there were more reasons than this for the fact that this attack broke through the being's guard and sent him reeling.

Royal magics against royal magics. Magic Cancel versus Divination of thoughts. The demon managed to pick himself up from where he had landed quickly enough to dodge a roundhouse from Kotarou, sending him flying with a powerful punch to the gut. Negi used his distraction as an advantage however, and kicked him right in the shins from behind, making him both spin around and fall to his knees at once. Negi aimed at punch at his now lowered face, but the man caught his fist and attempted to crush it in his hand.

Yet, Kotarou was not going to let that happen, as he punched the man dead in the face from the side, making him release as Negi jumped back and sent another little jibe at him mentally.

Ever been attacked mentally? Imagine someone intruding in your mind, sending a knife like javelin into you consciousness, their own memories bursting into your head, foreign things, mostly hateful memories and pain. Confusion, and all from a painful source, it being forced in and turned. Think of it like a stab wound in which someone has twisted their wrist, making the knife dig deeper and cut wider.

If the attack is powerful enough, or the mind weak enough, the person's personality would shatter, lost in the attack, they would go insane. Negi rushed in as the demon faltered again, but just as he reared back his fist to strike, his opponent grinned, grabbing Negi around the waist and quickly slamming him into the ground. Negi kicked him hard in the gut, giving him a bit of reprieve for another mental assault, yet the demon tossed him up and kicked him hard in the torso, sending him flying away.

That's one weakness of this art. You devote your mind into forming an attack, yet you have no way of countering in those precious seconds you are formulating the attack. Those seconds could be fatal. This also tires out your mind if done continuously, which Negi was finding out now.

Running to close the distance as the demon sent slanting lances of magic at Kotarou, Negi got him from behind again, kicking him in the small of the back and sending him skidding forward, right into Kotarou's well placed kick. Negi followed up by swiping the being's legs from under him, just as Kotarou, still in front, kept him from falling by kicking him in the kidney area. Negi took advantage to end the combo, punching him from the other kidney side straight down unto his knee, yet the man escaped this last attack by twisting away, blasting Negi and Kotarou away with more shots of magic. Negi landed on his feet, but his hand touched the ground as he squatted, preparing to launch back into the fray. Kotarou kind of skipped before landing straight on his feet.

A single nod from across the area, an acknowledgement of allies. Yet, Negi's eyes widened and he shot off, coming right at Kotarou with all his speed. Kotarou turned around just in time to avoid getting slimed by a gooey arm. Negi punched right through it, but that did no good, as it simply reformed. He eyed his new opponents, three girls that seemed to be made of slime.

"Crap, I keep telling myself, I'll stop doing experiments with grape jelly, now look what's happened. How nice of your to join us...should I call you the slime sisters?"

Always ready with an insult, Negi narrowed his eyes as he kicked off the ground, pushing Kotarou out of the way as he went the other, for he did not forget their demon friend, who had sent a powerful blast where they had once been, making the steps that had been there disappear into rubble. Negi landed lightly, his back still to the man. His head, and only his head, turned and revealed a single red eye, which burned as he caught site of how Kotarou, failing to use the demon bottle again, set Asuna alight with sparks.

"Complete Magic Cancellation, an incredible power, Negi Springfield, to have in a partner. Not only that, but it seems you like attacking people's minds. Why don't you use your famed magic on me?"

Wouldn't he love to know? He would. This was obviously nothing but a nuisance. Some higher power wanting to test his strength, so they send this guy. Well too bad, they wouldn't get his full strength, his magic was locked. Let them come when he was in top form. He'd make them shiver; _**oh**_... he'd make them shiver.

"You're not worth it old man."

"Oh my. Well, what if I told you something interesting, hmm?"

Interesting? The hell? Kotarou tried to grab the man's neck in a choke hold, but he threw the dog demon off easily. The "slime sisters" bound him up in themselves, which was not a pretty thing for Negi to think about.

"Interesting?"

Negi may have been speaking, but that did not mean he was not moving. He had rushed the man again now, alone. The demon easily fended him away with lances of his odd magic, but Negi gathered his mental strength for another shot at him.

As powerful as the boy's mind was, he was still untrained in this art, and his endurance in it was severely lacking. He estimated he had about two more shots before he would have trouble thinking on any plain higher than punching and/or kicking something.

Negi rushed him, ducking under a few more of those magical lances the man sent him. He brought his fist rearing back and both fists met, dealing quite a shockwave, but not enough to do more than tousle Negi's hair. Negi himself however, was sent flying backwards, and this time the demon initiated the charge.

Ever tried to out punch a demon? It's not fun, I'll tell you that much. Especially when no magic is there for Negi to boost his physical abilities, however small or large that boost might be.

Launching himself sideways off a step his foot had made contact with, he barely managed to dodge the man's foot, which slammed home into the steps, turning those into rubble just like the ones previously. Poor stadium. It lasts for so many years and this is the reward it gets?

Negi went for a roundhouse on the man, using his close proximity and current position to his advantage, but it was a no go, for the demon bent like a willow in the wind and grabbed his foot with a hand, tossing him bodily into the air and slamming him back down with a well placed elbow to the gut and a knee to the small of the back, a pincer like move that Negi had been planning on using on him earlier.

The boy fell and once he reached the floor, his hands shot out, performing a push up that was titled sideways, meant to make him spin away from his opponent and give him time to jump up. They both attempted another punch at the same time, only this time, Negi was higher up on the steps than his opponent, and had a leverage advantage. The result was that Negi only slid back a bit, making a few steps behind him crack.

Once more he entered the fray against his opponent, this time twisting and ducking under the taller man's punches and kicks, using his smaller size to his advantage. He did not dare try and use another mental attack, he feared what he would be left with if it did not bring down his opponent...

"Of course. Do you remember what happened after that demon who turned your foster sister into stone turned into stone himself? Do you remember your second village?"

Oh now he had done it. Negi, despite himself, clenched his fists. His second village had gone up in flames, just like the first one, it was the reason he was sent to magical academy...the reason why he fought so damn hard to pass the entrance tests. The demon who had led the first attack had led the second. He would never forget that face...that evil, hateful face. Not much different from other demon's in stature or even of face structure, but something about him screamed of a higher arch. The man in front of him jumped backwards, landing carefully some distance away from Negi. He reached behind his head...

and pulled off a rubber like mask, revealing a demonic face. A couple students who had given up on trying to escape the bubble they were in, gasped at the site.

_Blood red horns..._

Negi's fists clenched all the harder, and both of them, knuckles white, showed channels of magic still enlarged.

_That sinister smile..._

Inside him, Negi felt himself unconsciously reach form his magic and then past it, pulling so hard he felt as if he would rip out his insides...

_Those shiny, shiny, golden eyes..._

Both of his fists turned completely white, the channels expanded, but not like before. Like a pulpy orange juice, beads ran along the rivers that held his magic, beads that increased in speed and traveled up his wrists...

_That stance, the height, the body size..._

Inside him, something broke loose, and then, the wild, addicting, wild flow, so much, all at once, more than he had ever felt before. The combined power of both his new capacity and his secondary store, flowing loose...

_It's him..._

Free.

"Rastel, Mascir, Masgister..."

An aura of magic exploded around Negi. A fan of a popular manga and anime might have thought the boy had gone super sayian... his hair flew free of its bonds, as it was liable to do when he pumped magic all over himself. His fists came up, condensing bright power into something else, black magic, dark magic. Negi was conjuring with black air, piling shadow upon shadow. Arrows began to form around him, arrows of darkness, but, these began to grow, and change shape, even as the same chant came from his throat...

"Sagitta Magica, Spiritus, Centum quod nonus novem...Obscurans!"

Yet, Negi did not let them loose. Instead, He rushed the demon in front of him, putting a speed he never had displayed before, his magically enhanced physical speed, and slammed his fist straight into the man's gut, even as a single arrow of darkness bore down and sliced right through the barriers around Asuna, destroying the necklace she wore on contact.

Negi's arrows came out then, revealing themselves to be huge, lances, not spears, but lances. They sheeted upwards, right into an opponent still in the air. Still his opponent managed to counter most of them, but not all, as a few dozen pummeled him still further upwards, catching him in the gut.

_Such power from such a little boy! To think he's come so far! This is his magic berserk?_

No. It was not Negi's magic berserk, for, like it or lump it, Negi had quite a large complex of control, and his magic, wild and quick flowing as it was, was under his control, and for once, Negi was holding his anger and memories in check. His magic was wild... for him, extremely powerful, but he had a firm grip on it.

As Negi might say, if he did not, after all he had been through he would be...well, something I cannot repeat, for Negi has quite the imagination as I'm sure you all know.

Negi jumped up then, using the power his legs had and his light weight to travel high enough to give the demon just one more punch upwards, sending him down and the other a bit more up. Negi landed on the steps and his hands were still glowing with magic as he called up not arrows this time, but copies of darkness.

"Evocatio Valcyriarum Contubernalia Gladiaro!, Age Capiant!, Contra Pugnent!"

Mid level copies of darkness were similar to copies of wind, only these guys tended to come up from the ground as pools of dark matter. Each one bore Negi's likeness, and wielded a wicked looking sword that had several spikes along it's sharp edges. The ten copies surrounded him as Negi called up more arrows, reaching deep as he once again began to pull off his double spelled tricks. Still, even as the demon landed and the dark copies attacked, no one said he was done.

"Sagitta Magica, Spiritus, Undecim...Lucius!"

Punching one of the copies dead in the face right before he performed a roundhouse for three others, the demonic being sent more magical lances pummeling the others, two of which dodged enough of them to come at him, swinging their blades high.

_Sagitta Magica, Spiritus, Undecim...Obscurans!_

It was his turn to dodge, as he ducked from their blades and used one of them as a shield to block more magical "lances" from Negi, this time of light. Negi surprised him by shooting dark ones at the same time however, they made contact with his remaining copy of darkness, prompting an odd change.

The thing seemed to absorb them and then split off, creating two copies instead of one, and both of them looked meaner than the one had been. It was a classic combination of the same energy, but for the boy to consciously use that as a technique!

_Shit. _

The two copies attacked him, as Negi came from behind and kicked his legs from under him. Negi elbowed him right in the temple; the copies cut him right at the kidney area, drawing blood for the first time. The demon punched upwards, catching Negi in the nose and sending him reeling, making his copies vanish and making his nose spill some blood of his own.

Both had blood now.

Meanwhile, Kotarou had managed to escape the slime sisters with Asuna's help. However, the girl herself was not much of a help against the slippery opponents, she had no boost from Negi to take into account after all, and these sisters were naturally slimy, they did not use any magic to help them there. Yet still, they tried to fight them. A punch here, a kick there, dodging return fire, but, as Kotarou so kindly pointed out, it did them no good, the girls just slipped away, or broke off limbs only to reattach them.

"This is getting us nowhere!"

Asuna, who was frustrated enough to make one of her punches land right in her opponents face, gritted her teeth at the gooey feeling her had received as well as how her opponent simply rebounded backwards and their face came back into focus, good as new.

Great, first some creepy old guy steals her away from a peaceful sleep and strips her, giving her this...suit...to wear, and now these slimy things won't even show any par to her efforts. Tell me how this could get worse?

"You don't think I can see that, dog boy?!"

Back to the other conflict we go...

_"Sagitta Magica, Spiritus...Trignita..."_

Both combatants kicked at the same time, Negi catching the demon in his gut, the demon booting Negi in the face. Negi was sent bowling over away from the demon, who recovered quickly from his kick and charged Negi, only to get tripped up when Negi shot off to the side and stuck out his foot Negi sent both of his elbows into the small of his opponent's back, sending him flying forward and to splat down on the ground.

Negi followed him to the ground, still having his elbows cocked to hit him there again, using his momentum to boost his slight weight and slamming him to eat cement with all his strength.

_"...Ingus!"_

From his hands it traveled down to his elbows and gave the demon man a through roasting, extra crispy style. Negi's front bangs whipped back in the heated wind, and the fire singed his own clothing a bit on the sleeves, but he held himself there, pumping the magic until it was done.

But the man back kicked Negi, catching him in the gut as he spun around, springing up and capturing Negi in a strong grip on the shoulders, holding him at arm's length for a quick second before giving him a powerful head butt, all before Negi even knew what was happening....

He bodily threw the boy from him, making Negi fly quite a distance...yet Negi landed on his feet on the steps and launched himself back at the demon, making the man spin around in surprise and duck the elbow Negi had meant for his upper back. Negi continued as his momentum carried him, and had to spin around to face the demon, only to jump off to the side to avoid more lances. His nose ran freely, yet Negi could see that the white shirt the demon had underneath his black over coat was red as well.

"Sagitta Magica..."

_Sagitta Magica ..._

Negi sought distance now, looking for a suitable stronghold as to which he could launch his magic at his opponent from afar, allowing himself to have minimal chance for damage; his close approach was not working right now. He spied a pile of rubble created from their fighting and dove behind it, having most of it turned into a pile of dust by his opponent's efforts in a near instant.

"Hiding now are we?!"

"...Undecim Spiritus...Lucis!"

_...Undecim Spiritus, Ingus!_

Jumping on top of the pile and then launching off it just as the rest of it was pulverized by his opponent's lances, Negi launched both of his spells at him, twisting fire and light into a wild array, spindles of power slanting down upon his opponent to break his resolve. Negi came after them and watched as his opponent dodged just about every one, except for a few which managed to take some souveinneirs form his pant legs. The boy, using his arrows as cover, charged magic all over his body and slammed into his opponent with a powered up tackle, sending him flying backwards and into a wall, kicking up dust.

Still, less than ten seconds later, his opponent emerged, dusting off his suit and fixing his ragged collar, but his only indication of having just been slammed into a wall was a small trickle of blood from a cut just below his left eye. That was all he had to show for what Negi had just did to him, which showed the toughness of his opponent more than anything.

_Shit. This demon is tougher than the usual one's I've fought before. A good choice for their leader on the raids...I need something more!_

"Nice try my boy, a brilliant try, but not enough. Now, if this is all you have to show me..."

"Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach.."

_Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach_

Negi jumped backwards, landing on the edge of the platform they both were on. They had fought along the steps until they had reached the center stage by now, and the walls the demon had slammed into were the walls used to incase the actors to the audience. Negi clenched his fist and dodged off to the side with a simple sidestep when his opponent sent a few lances at him, almost lazily, or exaltedly, you take your pick.

"In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium...."

_In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium...._

Negi rushed in on him now, side winding to avoid more of his lances and meeting fist with fist once more, yet Negi did not slide back now, for his magic was back in play. He extended his free hand and his opponent broke off from their contact when he realized Negi had been trying to set up for his spell, yet Negi spun around as his opponent tried to reach his back, making his once exposed back now his very dangerous front.

"Cum Spinis Centum, Iaculatio Fulgoris!"

_Cum Spinis Centum, Iaculatio Grandinis!_

Launching both lances at once, Negi shot off two hundred of them, ice and lightning, all at once, at close range upon his opponent, who had no choice but to slam up a barrier and take it. He was blasted back, away from the walls and towards the steps, and Negi raced after him, shouting as he did so:

"I just broke the fourth wall with you, Jack!"

((I may remind you all that the "forth wall" is actually a theater reference in origin, which describes the invisible wall between the actors on stage and the audience. A stage normally has three walls after all, and the forth wall is the imaginary one the audience looks on through. We all are supposed to unconsciously imagine it being there. Tell your friends, they will think you unduly clever.))

The demon slammed into the steps as Negi came right at him, his fist glowing purple with pent up magic , which he used to punch the demon right in the gut, he was not going to let up on him, after all. Yet, the man reached up and kneed him in his own gut and his hand shot out to slam into his chest, pumping magical lances right into him and sending him flying. The demon got up and charged after him, his face saying plainly he had had enough of playing games with Negi.

"Enough fooling around, child! This is the big boys playground!"

Now, Negi generally wore dress shoes to school, which meant he did not have his daggers on him, and he had left Heart Breaker at home, because he had not expected to even be able to use magic today, after all. He only had his magister wand by pure chance, but, the ever paranoid Negi had something else, and he reached under the collar of his shirt as his opponent came at him...

and pulled out his short sword from where he usually kept it, sheathed close to his body there.

Did you all forget he had that thing?!

Negi shot putted himself off to the side to avoid the charge and swung out his blade, yet the demon twisted to avoid it and laughed.

"So you have to resort to weaponry to defeat me?!"

Like hell if he cared. This demon had killed his family, and his entire village, and then attacked the village he had sought refuge in. He had sent countless demons after him in the following years after that, having them drag back helpless victims when they failed to capture the big fish.

"I..."

Negi rushed the man again, bringing his blade out in front of him to capture the moonlight. He jumped up faster than the man could anticipate, yet the other still managed to duck the silver swing of the weapon. He struck out with a powerful punch, but Negi slammed his blade down with his free hand, blocking it and sending himself flying due to momentum. He landed on the steps once more and launched right back off.

"...don't have to..."

The blade glowed a violent purple, showing a collection of not Magic, but his rarely employed Chi arts. He did not use chi ordinarily, it was weaker than his magic and not as versatile after all. Yet even as he made himself arrow like to stab the figure in front of him through the heart, he dodged off to the left, slicing down at Negi with his arm when he came flying by, but Negi passed by too quickly...

"...resort to _**anything**_, to kill you _**honorably**_..."

Negi broke his landing with a roll, tucking his blade into his body so he could jump back up facing the man and charge him again from a different direction. Negi used his glowing blade to deflect a couple of incoming lances, and his blade now began to circulate with electricity. Negi was employing both Magic and Chi here...

"...Yet, you don't deserve...an _**honorable**_ death by my hands...so..."

Negi swung his blade out to try and slash the man through the middle, but he dodged off to Negi's right and tried to kick him in the kidneys, Negi ducked under the kick and ran right into the man, tackling him in the legs.

"...I _**won't**_ give you one!"

Using his tackle in the legs, Negi brought up his blade and stabbed the man right in the...well, it was not a nice place to be stabbed... you figure it out...He brought him to his knees with that blow, and Negi, showing absolutely no mercy, flashed out his blade back out, to the neck, it's red and purple glow reflecting in his eyes that had gone colder than even Antarctic ice.

_Shit. This wasn't supposed to happen! He wasn't supposed to be this crafty to make up for his weakness! _

The demon brought his arms up nonetheless, to block the blow, those hands of his glowing with magic pent up and ready to go, but his eyes locked with Negi's. That cold was intense enough to even give him, a ring leader, freezer burn. Negi was intense, and as such, his strength was near its limits.

When your soul reaches its peak, your anger and determination, your revenge, love, hate, nobility, honor....when it all merges into one emotion, everything you have boring on one purpose..no matter who you are, you are a near unconquerable force, and being conquered in that state only makes you..

Stronger.

It landed.

Slicing right through the connecting tissue, it landed. The bones in his arms were shattered upon impact with the sharp short sword, and with the speed and power at which Negi was slicing, the head did not even move from its place. It was like pulling a table cloth from under a bunch of cups and the pots on the table. If done quickly enough, they don't move.

_Incredible...his power has increased so much...just for the simple fact of revenge?_

Even so, the brain still had a few thoughts to think, even as the demon in front of him began to gurgle a bit from burst arteries, sending their pressurized blood flowing down the windpipe. He managed to croak something Negi recognized as words.

"I suppose you want to hear my final words, right...?"

Negi wasn't positive if that's what he said, but he was pretty sure. Negi looked at him, those eyes still burning cold and he rose his left hand from his blade. His voice, still young, yet taking on such a tone it was impossible to believe the pitch of the voice saying it, answered him.

"I just did."

With that, Negi's left hand flashed out and stuck the head hard on its side, sending the offending obstacle flying like a stuffed animal might fly after being thrown. The body fell with a sound that Negi ignored as he got up, but the bodily fluid it spurted got on his shoes.

"Oh hell, nice of you to leave me a parting gift..."

_I hope you're happy, __**father**__. I finally cleaned up the mess you failed to save us all from._

Negi heard a scream and turned around. The shield that had held his students shattered as it's caster died, and Negi was brought to full attention of Kotarou and Asuna's plight. Piling Magic into his hands, he rushed at the fighting party, and yelled over the fray the one thing he was sure would send their gooey friends packing.

"Sagitta Magica, Spiritus, Centum quod nonus novem...Ingus!"

_Incendia Laquis!_

Negi let the unincanted one out first, caging all three sisters as they bunched together for an attack on Kotarou in his cage of dark fire, and then let loose his lance like projectiles, his fire arrows, right at that cage.

Obviously, the sisters tried to escape, and obviously, they got burned, shrinking back from the cage bars as they feasted their eyes on the fire arrows coming from all sides. However, they were not to be denied. Turning into puddles as fate was famous for doing, they faded form site just as the burning heat became unbearable, and disappeared as the purgatory closed upon them, creating quite an explosion that threw Kotarou backwards, right into Negi, sending the two bowling head over heels down the steps to crash on the platform.

"You idiot hanyo! Who the hell told you to slam into me at the last second like that!?"

It took a while for Negi to sort his legs from the dog boys, and when he did he got up and turned to look at his students, and quickly had to look away. Simply put, they were as he had been in the time frozen Dracula world, nude. Negi managed to compile a list of who they were in his head and what needed to be done.

Nodoka, Yue and Haruna, out of those three, two he would leave. They had been in Library Island, and he deemed it safe for them to know what he was capable of...for now. Haruna, along with Makie and Madoka, needed a memory adjustment. He looked about for something to use as an excuse...and finally gave up on using something solid.

"Hey, look, a shooting star!"

+--1--+

_"You, Negi, are cold."_

The boy sighed as he rubbed his eyes, feigning tossing around on his couch. He had come home after seeing his students off to their dorms, Asuna had rushed ahead, and Negi didn't blame her, if he had been dressed like that and had no other way to change...He had taken a shower, cooked, eaten and then went out to feel the cool night air on his skin for awhile. After that, he had come inside and gotten ready for bed...

Now Arika was paying him another late night visit.

_"The hell are you in my business again for?"_

_"That man...you sliced his...you sliced his head off!"_

Negi gave up on trying to feign sleep and got up out of bed, sock clothed feet meeting carpet with a near inaudible thump. Negi grabbed his shoes from next to the couch and picked up his coat, sliding it on his thin shoulders. He didn't immediately answer his mother, but walked to the nearest window and threw it open. Konoka, who was nearest, turned around in her sleep, muttered something unintelligible, and pulling the sheets up on herself a bit higher, unconsciously.

_"Due Payment. He was the one who destroyed my village and attacked the second one I took refuge in afterwards...he sent minions after me for all these years to kill me and feast upon those around me. He deserved far worse than what I did to him. His punishment should have been a slow, painful, torturous death, in which he would be forced to live every moment he stole from all those people before it was brought to that merciful end. "_

Negi grabbed the window sill with both hands, feeling the wood and plastic bend in underneath his palms, and hearing the creak it produced in slight protest of his strength. The wind whipped his bangs back and stung his eyes. Behind him, Anya called out to her father in sleep. No not Negi, her actual father, who had disowned her. He had taken something from her and she wanted it back apparently...Negi watched as a plane flew by, to high up to make a sound he could hear from down here.

_"Negi...you know I worry about you...you seem so dark...distant."_

The addressed boy sighed tilting his head to the left side a bit as he stared out at that disappearing plane. How many people were on that thing? Where were they going? Did any one of them have a life even remotely similar to his? Even just a little bit disturbed? Who out there had crawled back from the realm of insanity and fought an army of their memories with a cotton ball sword and won? Was Negi really the only one with such a life? Why did it have to be him, the catalyst, who might have to go out there and die for people he didn't even know, and would never know?

_"Your worry is misplaced...__**mother**__...this is not the first demon I've killed. It's not the first fight I've had, it's not the first time I've seen someone die..."_

Negi pushed his strength into his arms and used them as levies to get himself to sit on the window sill, and then, to jump off. He wasn't that high up, not to Negi at least, and he kicked off the building to land on the ground neatly. The night air assaulted him, tossing his coat to flap behind him as he broke into a run, just a run. He was so used to doing it that it provided him with a calming feeling. His heart, pumping with abandon like it always does, set the pace for his feet, which almost silently tapped out along the ground, measuring his traveled distance.

The wind woke him up fully, tossing him back into the realm of his normal routine. What groceries he had to get and when, when he should probably get to the bank to check on his funds, things he had to get for school supplies, his routine for tomorrow, his schedule and assigned homework's, grades he was to give out, things he planned to cover, his mind was going into its usual mode, the mode in which he really didn't have to think, only do.

_"...I never expected you to have so much magical power. I've seen your memories, but this...it's a wild flow of magic, and when one takes into account that your power is supposed to be nonexistant at this age...hmm? I can't see...oh...Negi...are you hiding something from me?"_

What was he going to say? That he was a catalyst and most likely had an expiration date on him for about eighteen to nineteen years in the future? He didn't know how he was managing to block Arika from seeing this, but he knew it had something to do with the fact that he wasn't letting her think it by pushing his mind to think about other things, and making it speed along at his regular incredible speeds. Negi answered her coolly. There was no need to worry the woman after all, it was his problem.

_"No Arika. How the hell can I hide anything from you in the first place? You are the master here. I don't know how to block you, so I'm stuck with you reading my thoughts every time you want like some damn romance novel." _

For some reason, even though she knew he was probably telling the truth, she didn't quite believe him. She didn't push the issue however. Negi's mind was too powerful for her to brute force her way to the answer, and she couldn't pull back the condensed clouds of curtained thought no matter how hard she tried. Negi had little skill in this art, but her interference in his life had brought his attention to it, and like the person he was, he instantly put the art to work, trying to incorporate it in training and battle to whip that part of him into shape. Negi didn't like to have any part of him be "weak", and he was an incredibly fast learner.

_"...Okay...but you do know I worry about you hon..."_

_"Don't fricken call me hon. I'm a lone wolf, woman... ... ... ... ...sorry... But you have got to understand. I work well without someone worrying about me. Relax. Okay?"_

Negi continued to travel along at his pace, not breaking stride and not giving his surroundings much of a second thought. A shadow appeared from one of the bushes and shot out from them, shooting in front of him. Negi stopped on a dime and his hand shot into his pocket, his gun coming out in a flash. The trigger was already half pulled and aimed as the thing shot away into the other set of bushes on the other sid of the road. He watched the place where it had resumed its forest tromp, his gun still pointed and the trigger still half pulled. He stuffed the gun back into his pocket as he broke back into his run. Soon he found himself in the forest.

It wasn't long before he shot by Evangeline's house, where he saw Chachamaru outside, doing god knows what with a shovel in the middle of the night. The gynoid looked up to see Negi standing there, breathing. His mother had left his head some time ago. The robot bowed to him and addressed him as she turned back around to her business.

"Master has asked me to prune these bushes and relocate a few of them."

"In the figgin middle of the night?"

"Master is a vampire."

As if that explained everything. Well, it explained the order of the bushes in the middle of the night in it's own way he supposed. A robot and a vampire. Of course they'd be active in the middle of the flipping night. Still, it was kind of stupid. Couldn't they do it in the day like normal people? They were awake during that time after all. Heck. Negi shook his head as the robot continued.

"Master was upset that you left so suddenly."

"Doi. I'd expect the chibi to be pissed. Do I need to go inside and bend over so she can smack me?"

The sarcasm flew right over Chachamaru's head of course, and she looked at him oddly while Negi muttered under his breath something that sounded like: "Oh forget I said any friggin thing." Bowing again, she left with her shovel to climb the steps to the house. After all, she was finished. Negi beat her there however, and held the door open, causing her to stop dead and look at him.

"The hell are you staring at me for? You've got a friggin shovel in your hands, now move!"

Chachamaru moved into the doorway and Negi followed afterwards, where, as Chachamaru returned back to her business, all a bit slowly as she stared at Negi, he met face to face with a vampire who had her hands on her hips, staring him up and down.

"Well well, looks like you did it yourself, hmm? Is the little baby proud he went to the potty for the first time?"

"Save it for your insect pie swinger. I came to talk to you."

Hands on hips, the vampire looked the boy up and down before answering him with a kind of lazy drawl.

"Swinger? That's a new one, where did you get that one from, hmm? And since when do you come for talks?"

+--2--+

In all honesty, the next few days passed like a blur. They were utterly normal, well, as normal as Negi's life can get that is. Nothing really exciting happened...except for Kotarou popping up at odd times to challenge Negi, only to be turned down amid the occasional laughter because he was in class teaching or to get glomped by some mob of girls like Negi was used to happening to himself. Negi normally rolled his eyes when this happened and called order to whatever class it was that was assaulting Kotarou.

Negi also managed to save Nodoka from falling off a case of stairs when she was carrying way to many books for her good, or too see where she was going, but that's another story, and one that brought up his powers..

It had been a Wednesday, and Negi had finally dismissed his last class, and was on his way to the local super market for god knows what, for he certainly didn't know. He was planning that, once he got there, his eyes would settle on something and he would spontaneously call up something he could cook for tonight.

It was a bright day, and Negi was trying to enjoy it. Looking up, he saw a case of stairs that led to the school's grounds, more specifically, it's fountain. Several students were milling up and down its length, but Negi's attention was caught on one of his students, one Miyazaki Nodoka, who was carefully walking down them, with a stack of books higher than her head in her arms.

Hell, the girl didn't look strong, but she must carry some kind of secret punch if she could carry that many books, but Negi was alerted to the fact that she probably had a hard enough time seeing without a stack of books in front of her eyes, all that damn hair.

Oh, he was one to talk, Negi was...he had more than she did! Still, it was not in front of his darn eyes like that, she might just fall off that-

You had to jinx it Negi, you just had to. At that very moment, the books tilted to the side, and Nodoka struggled to get them back in the proper balance, but only succeeded in tossing herself off balance and, books and all, to fall of the staircase off to the side where Negi could see.

-staircase. Oh hell, why me, why does it always have to be me god?

His wand ripped out of his coat pockets and he quickly and violently swung it out in a straight horizontal cut in front of him before he broke out in a run, activating a surge of magic meant to slow and stop the girl's fall, forget her damn books. They fell to the ground with a bang, some of them flipping over with the force, yet the boy just managed to grab Nodoka before the whole thing conked out and allowed her to fall right on top of him.

Lord, you really must like making me your personal sitcom. A fricken girl who fell out of the sky is sitting on my back right now because I was stupid enough to try and catch her.

After that little fiasco, Negi had another person who was itching to know just how he was able to pull off all of these odd stunts, and she wanted an explanation for Moday too. Negi promised he'd give her one....sooner or later, but he had to run right at the moment...

((By the gods, that was terrible.))

Finally, Friday came along, and with it, a kind of duty for Negi. The Mahora festival started tomorrow, and that meant two things, first, his mother was coming over for a visit, and second, he had to deal with a mob of students who had free reign to be as un-rulely as they so pleased for a few days.

Negi wondered which one would drive him mad first. He also had a bunch of duties to handle, and there was going to be a meeting tonight near the world tree with all of the teachers who were mages, the number surprised him. Negi finished up his last class for the day and beat it home. The meeting wasn't until dark, around ten o clock, so he had plenty of time to burn and was finally free, for no students had homewrok due to the festival and he doubted any would come to him for help in study when they didn't have too...yet, unfortunately for Negi Kotarou had him tabbed by now, and Negi can never really have a peaceful life after all.

When Negi arrived in his dorm, he closed the door, and put his briefcase on the coffee table before going into the bedroom and grabbing some clothes to change into before heading into the bathroom. Yet, as soon as he closed the door to the bathroom and his eyes locked on the porcelain sink, the dorm room door slammed open, prompting the sticky note that held his name on it to fall off, _again_. The door bounced off the wall it had slammed against and had enough force to slam itself back shut. A voice rang out through the dorm, and probably the next three on either side, prompting Negi to roll his eyes once more at the antics of the boy who's voice it belonged to.

"Negi! I know you're free now! Stop hiding and fight me like a man!"

The red headed boy just sighed from his place in the bathroom and shook his head, finishing his change of clothes as Kotarou continued to yelp like a dog does at a stranger on the property. He would not shut up until he saw Negi apparently, and when he saw Negi, free and not doing anything, that meant he should battle, even if all Negi wanted to do was lie down and rest, gaining strength for _tomorrow _and _hell_. Yet Negi knew that was just to much to hope for, wasn't it? Negi exited the bathroom and addressed Kotarou quietly, yet that quiet voice managed to stop his yelping dead, much to the relief of the adjacent dorms. Negi had turned on his oddly quiet, deadly voice once again.

"Kotarou. Shut the hell up and get out of the dorm. Go outside, in the woods, near Evangeline's flipping cottage. I'll be there not long after you, god damn it."

---- I'm doing this because I don't want to make another separator, but I want to skip travel time. Call it...laziness? Nay! Creativity.

The forest was quiet. The wind was calm. The sun was shining. Not a cloud in the sky....in other words, it was utterly boring here. Evangeline grumbled as she sipped her tea. Said tea tasted right incredible, as always, but still, she was bored, so that did nothing for her mood. Evangeline loved action. This was boring! God, at least let something happen!

How ironic that at the very moment, a dog eared boy flew backwards from outside the tree and landed hard in the clearing her house made. A single arrow of darkness, pretty thick in it's continence managed to speed and slam home into the boy's chest, causing him to slide back a bit, but he got up quickly and shot right back into the forest, or at least, he tried to. A fist stuck out from the foliage, catching him dead in the pectorals and blasting him back again as Negi leapt out of the tree and attempted to kick the boy's head off. He missed though, and landed on his one foot to perform a back kick, which Kotarou caught and tossed off, and ducked when Negi turned that toss off into means for a spin kick.

"Hah, missed me!"

Eva rose an eyebrow. Wow. Who knew that a vampire's prayers could be answered that fast? She watched as Kotarou rushed in and punched Negi in the gut, sending him skidding backwards, but not to far, as the boy braced and kicked off again, rushing right back at him with his fist coming out and slamming right into the dog boy's face, just as Kotarou was planning to kick him in the gut again. Kotarou reeled from the hit and spun, but he recovered quickly enough to rush in again, sending what seemed to be arrows of chi at Negi, which he dodged by meeting them with his arrows of fire.

"Like hell I missed you."

Yet, Kotarou used these as a distraction, and had gotten close enough to elbow Negi in the gut before kicking him brutally in the kidneys, making him fly off to the side, yet, Negi unleashed more magic arrows even as he flew off, making Kotarou dance to avoid them. Negi braced on a rock before kicking off it and short stopping just a foot from Kotarou, throwing a punch dead in the boy's face, but he blocked it and tried to perform an upper cut to his chin, which Negi blocked and attempted to crush the boy's fist, but he didn't succeed there, as he ripped his fist from Negi's grip and kneed him in the stomach, disengaging him and making Negi double over.

"Say uncle!"

Still, Negi used this to his advantage, sweeping his foot to knock Kotarou off of his and then bringing his elbow right into the boy's gut. His free had shot a darkness arrow point blank in his face, which the boy craned his neck to avoid and he punched at Negi's other arm until it was numb and vibrating from the funny bone, making him disengage and allowing Kotarou to get up and back into the fight. Negi's fists glowed with magic as he held it in reserve, using them to simply soup up his punches for now as he rushed Kotarou.

"Never you mangy mutt."

Kotarou extended his own fist and the two met in quite a powerful shockwave, for Kotarou had boosted his punches with his own chi. This contact was quite a bit more impressive than the one that Negi had held with the demon, yet, with Negi's magic bolstering him, he stood his ground and both players were sent skidding backwards at an equal distance due to the force. Kotarou rushed back at Negi and Negi dodged off to the left, bringing his foot to kick at Kotarou's vulnerable back, but the boy spun to catch his foot and toss it away again, but he did not expect Negi to once again turn it into a spin kick and the kick connected with Kotarou's temple, sending him sprawling.

"You say uncle."

Still, the hanyo spun back up and met Negi's kick by grabbing his foot and holding this time, but Negi launched a punch that made Kotarou think his knuckles were on fire and he let go, allowing Negi to drop down and sweep kick him, or he would have, but Kotarou was prepared this time, and jumped to avoid it, curling into a kind of ball in mid air to make himself land behind Negi, the said boy spun his feet back under himself and shot off to the side to avoid Kotarou, who had been about to try and kick _his_ head off.

"As if!"

Negi stood opposite the boy now, and he could see Eva looking on with a slight, bored interest from her position on her porch. She always seemed to pop up at odd times, didn't she? Negi formed a fist slowly, and it sprang to life with a cherry red glow of magical power. his feet also began to glow, but with a different, greenish hue. When the boy kicked off, he almost flew at Kotarou with the speed, for he had pushed wind magic into them and the result was a bit more than he had anticipated. His fist slammed against the others, but his momentum was what sent Kotarou skidding back.

Kotarou bent low on all fours and lunged at him, shooting past him when Negi dodged off to the side and landing on two feet again. The boy sent a back kick right at Negi's spine, which, because Negi had not seen it coming, made his body vibrate with the force, but the boy did not move forward an inch, he bore the brunt and turned around to face Kotarou again, for the boy, finished with his backwards kick, had also turned. It was then that Negi's cell phone chose to vibrate it's electronic head off.

"For the love of- God damn. I need to take this."

*--BS--*

"Okay, what is BS now, please don't tell me it means what I think it does..."

Oh nothing, it means bonus...I just felt like making a comparison. This is an excerpt of the first chapter, or the prologue of the _original_ version of this story. Compare it to how I tell my story now if you wish.

Although, if you ask me, the BS could probably mean what some of you might have originally thought it meant anyway...I have left this, for the most part, unedited. I think I changed something, but I'm not sure what, it was a while ago. Ahh, who cares, you don't have to read it if you don't want to...

Chapter 1: Negi Incarnate

A boy shivered. It was really cold in this place...at least He would only have to wait until his name was called for his diploma, then he could high-tail it outta here. He turned to grin at the person next to him.

There was none.

The he looked down and saw a hood.

_Oh great. They place me next to a shrimp. How could a nine year old look so short anyway..._

"Im not nine. Im six." Ngei whispered upward, causing the boy to jump. "You shouldn't think so loudly, I can examine your enlightenments and thoughts a mile away the way you carry on you know."

The boy shivered again. He was next to a flipping _toddler_ graduating with all the top students at least three years early.

"Negi Springfield!"

The short boy moved out of line and walked. If he had not just spoken to him, he would have thought no-one was in the robe, as it was at least four sizes to big...

--

"Do you happen to know the earilest plane to japan sir?"

A man looked up from his newspaper. He saw nothing. He looked level ot the table, and still saw nothing.

_Stupid midgets..._

He looked down and saw, not a midget, but a young boy.

"Sure kid, if you got a ticket that is, or at least the money for one."

Negi threw up a one time free-pass up at the man, who recieved it and stamped it.

"It's in one hour at gate 12-B."

"Thank-you sir, and Im not a midget."

Negi walked away, leaving the man scratching his head.

--

(Thank you, I finally have some time for this...)

--

Negi looked up at a map of the train routes. He looked at the letter he had recieved from the headmaster of Mahora. Seeing the map, he should be taking that train that is about to close it's doo-

_Wait a secon-_

"H..HEYY...!! DON'T LEAVE ME BEHIND!!"

Ngei ran for his train and managed to nearly amputate his arm via the closing doors. They opened automatically of course after noticing somthing blocking the way, and Negi stepped in to a crowded car of kids, adults and everything in between. He grabbed a pole and let his weight rest on it as the train took off...

After a few stops, the train was thining out. There where only a couple of odd adults and children, plus crowds of chatting teens. After one stop emptied out everyone near his age, a girl bent down and whispered to him in Japanese

"I think you missed your stop boya."

Negi just gave a fake little smile, of which the falseness when unnoticed, and answered back with a leveled, well practiced tone, "Im fine thanks, Im not going to elementary school, Im going to Mahora.."

The girl looked him up and down and stood up, distancing herself, and did not speak to him again. Negi allowed himself to relax, and instantly regretted it, as his mind unconciosuly picked up on it's skill of mind reading, and he was instantly assulted by the thoughts of fifty or more minds. One paticularly dirty mind stuck out with a comment that made him glance in the culprits direction, a man in his late thirties.

_Phedophile..._

--

Hope that was fun, and hope your eyes did not bleed. Next time. I don't like this chapter either. I am...unsatisfied with my ability. Yet, I feel next time, the Mahora Festival, is where I will once again be satisfied with my work. Lets see, shall we?


	25. Chapter XXIV: Wishful Thinking

Okay, here we go. We are finally at the Mahora Festival. Whoopee. Expect me to go crazy here. I've been debating on this part of the story for a long time. A very long time. Longer than this story has been around even, for, if you remember, the previous version of this story is still on my roster list. Expect some insanity and some regality. Speaking of regality....

Oh, did I mention I don't own Negima?

Another thing, I still have a poll up. It only has seven unique voters on it. I'll wait until it claims thirty of them, or perhaps fifty. Then I will take it down....I already have another poll waiting for it after that, but afterwards, I'll give the polls a rest for a bit. I have another story I'm debating on writing, but everyone seems to want me to stick to one. We'll see.

A slight mistake. I typed in "Fulgoris" out of habit on the mental spell Negi unleashed, but I meant "Grandinis." I'll change it. Just in case someone saw the other way, I am sorry there...done. Changed. I also, finally, changed the chapter titles to roman numerals. Now I can put more of my actual chapter title on there.

Yes ArchangelWings, all of them are fourteen to sixteen years of age.

+---+

_**Chapter Twenty Four: Wishful Thinking.**_

"Nyaaaah!"

What else could she say? Chao held on as best she could to Setsuna's form, feeling like a tiny, helpless child as the girl jumped from rooftop to rooftop to avoid the shadowy forms of dark puppets that were following them. Negi and Kotarou were not far behind, smacking down upon the flat rooftop of a building, kicking up gravelly tar in a spray of black dust before they broke into a run to reach a good vantage point for the next roof.

Negi's hands were glowing, and his familiar, one Albert Chamomile, was hanging on for his own dear life in one of the boy's coat chest pockets. He needlessly yelled to Negi that using magic at this time, in broad daylight, was a bad idea, something Negi gritted his teeth and grumbled at, for he already knew that.

While she hung on to brace for another rooftop, Chao couldn't help but look over to where Negi was. This little boy was supposed to grow up to feed her line. She tried to compare him to the extremely old and hard headed man she knew and loved. It just did not fit. Not only was this boy younger than he was supposed to be, he was already so bitter and world weary....the Negi Springfield she had known had an action filled life, but he wasn't dark and bitter...

Although a person could change, she could only assume that when she jumped back in time, she snagged the wrong timeline. Her own timeline, the one she came from, was probably a few stops back...she had always thought the ride here had been a bit too bumpy...or maybe Springfield was lying about his age and life, trying to save her from undue sympathy? Maybe the old codger just forgot...

Her head slammed into Setsuna's midsection as they landed on another roof, and Negi was the second one there, kicking up more gravel in a spray and spinning around, letting loose powerful, brilliant arrows of light right at the opponent, which exploded on contact and looked artfully like fireworks.

Clever. Making your magic look like fireworks. She could faintly hear a few trademark "oooh's" and "ahh's" from the crowd of students below. Surely it would feel like a festival to them now! Negi shot off more arrows at a different angle, catching a few of the dark puppets from where they were trying to swoop in from the side. Kotarou joined him with a few well placed blasts of his own.

"Got damn puppets. Come closer so I can cut your damn strings and feed you to the chipper, I dare you!"

Setsuna jumped off the rooftop they were on, although she did not aim for another one, and Chao's stomach plummetted as they fell. The idiot was heading right for the alleyway! Negi jumped down right alongside her, and Kotarou followed after shooting off the last of the dark puppets. Setsuna landed softly, despite the speed at which she feel, which went easy on the scientists jarred nerves. If they had caught her and erased her memories, her entire plan would be ruined...and she'd be stuck here with no idea that she belonged in the future. Feh.

Negi landed easily next to Setsuna by jumping off a few walls. Kotarou went for a more noisy, "manly" approach and just flew straight down, right into a dumpster he had not anticipated being there. Negi, whipping around at the crash, rolled his eyes and walked over to the bin, kicking it on it's rubber side so it made no more noise than a dull thud, and it's lid fell down with a definitive clunk.

"Finally, you decide to go in the trash where you belong, dog breath. Just try to make more noise on your way in why don't you, I could barely hear you that time."

The sarcasm was lost on the hanyo, who popped his head out of the dumpster, his face looking a bit hurt while his voice was angry. He seemed to forget it was time to be quiet...

"WHO YOU CALLIN-"

Negi cut him off with a sharp retort, bitten off at the end and proclaimed in his trademark deadly calm, whisper of a voice.

"Zip it, you bag of fleas. Can't you tell it's time to play the quiet game?"

Kotarou may be a hot head, but he wasn't stupid. He shut up instantly, realizing what he had been doing for the past minute or so, and extended his senses to sweep the area, just like Chamo and Setsuna had already been doing. Chao, out of her element, stayed off to the side where Setsuna had put her down, looking at Negi swivel his head this way and that, as if to cock those human ears like a wolf might, to get a sense of where it was.

"There are three groups of them out there."

This came from Kotarou, who seemed to have finally crawled out of the dumpster and was in scout mode, straining his ears to catch another glimpse at the odd, calculated footsteps of those who were chasing them. He himself, being familiar with the use of summoned spirits, knew that whomever had fired off those puppets had to be close. Setsuna added her input to the pool he had created.

"I can't determine the size of the, but they already have us surrounded. They have to be small to travel inconspicuously, and I have a feeling the largest party is only comprised of three."

Negi narrowed his eyes and turned his head slightly to the side to nod at Setsuna. His eyes moved up to the roof, which was a slinet indication of where he wished her to go. He took a glance at Kotarou, and indicated his head to the back ot eh alley they were in. He himself focuses on the front, and his voice was not even above a whisper as his face came dangerously close to bruising itself on the brick wall he was leaning against.

"Three opponents, three parties. I'll go to the front, Kotarou-san, behind, Setsuna-san, the top. Kotarou, I don't need to tell you to stay in the crowd, we'll surprise them by initiating. Chamo, get off me and stay with Chao-san. I don't need to ask you if you blocked mundane telepathy, do I? Good. Move."

Three parties shot out, and Negi was the first to spot his target, three robed figure walking along at a measured pace. Negi zeroed in on them just as Setsuna landed on the rooftop and charged her lone target, who turned around to initiate. Kotarou sped and managed to snag his target, weaving in and out through the crowd to capture them from behind.

It was a good plan, just against the wrong party. Negi reared back his fist as his opponent turned around, revealing herself to be one person with two shadow apparitions, and his fist froze an inch from her midsection as he recognized who she was from the mages meeting not a day before. Kotarou found himself mentally beating himself up, for he had attacked a girl who seemed to have caved in at first sight of him, getting bowled over in a very undignified fashion. Setsuna paused in mid-strike to see she was about to hit one of Mahora's faculty members.

All in all, it was not a pretty thing to find out you were fighting amongst yourselves. Negi found out they had been after Chao because she had found out the existence of Magic, and was labeled as dangerous because she had been warned three times before. Still, the boy argued upon their methods of attack on one of his students, and he found himself on the wrong end of an ermine transfiguration threat. Yet, in the end, Negi won out, and the three who had come to capture Chao left, all a bit when about sixty seven percent of the party was reluctant to do so...Negi then found himself on the wrong end of Chao's gratitude, and she gave him an odd magical trinket as her thanks for "saving her life". What was this, a video game where he got a mission prize for completing the quest?!

+--1--+

The sounds of carnival music warming up to the times, the wind was nonexistent as the sun beat down, there was not a cloud in the sky. All was beautiful and calm with Mahora, well, as beautiful and as calm as Mahora can get on any given day. The sun was just about to decide to get on with setting, and the local bullet train was rolling into Mahora, letting some college students with late classes and night workers out, and accepting some late leaving workers and students heading home in. The train also let out one familiar, blonde haired woman, who stared out past the open air turnstile of the station to set her eyes on the campus of Mahora.

Arika Anarchia Entheofushia, or Arika Springfield, had finally landed on Mahora campus to feast her eyes on it's visage in the daylight. It was huge, quite a bit larger than she had anticipated, and, even at this hour, there were so many girls milling about, Nagi and Rakkan would have probably lost all of their blood and died "happy men in heaven" or some such other nonsense.

In all honesty though, what was Japan feeding it's children these days anyway? Those girls were a bit _too_ mature looking for her liking. This was why so many got into trouble, looking older than their years and sneaking into clubs or what not... the degradation of morals was appalling! Still, who was she to talk? She nearly got executed on the base of "improper" behavior for royalty, and then, scandalously, was rescued and escaped, fleeing to the old world and having a child.

She sighed and picked up her light luggage, going through the turnstile with a bit of difficulty, it wasn't made for people with luggage in their hands it seemed, and she had neglected to notice the access door on the side, so she struggled a bit for it. She got through relatively quickly however, and sped off for the campus in the distance to make up for lost time. Her heart measured her pace, but that beat was also for the proximity to her destination, the nervousness she felt for meeting her son on his turf.

Before, Negi had been on her grounds and had been a bit subdued, without his natural magic, he had little control over the situation, and her appearance had sent his mentality reeling. Now however, he was in his element, and his magic was pulsing freely through his fingers. He could happily blast her right back through the door she came through when she walked into his dorm room, his power was sufficient for it....

..and while she could handle Nagi's overbearing idiocy at times with royal magic, which, no matter Nagi's power, superseded him because it was of a higher arch, she could not do that to Negi. He was hardly idiotic, and that same royal magic flowed through his own veins, more powerful than even her own, if untrained. Negi was a quick learner, and you could hardly pull the same trick on him twice. He almost instantaneously devised a way to prevent you from pulling it again, and learned how to implement the trick himself to boot.

She continued to travel at her measured pace, simply listening to her shoes hit the sidewalk for awhile. It was here that she felt something reach for her. A large mental presence that clumsily flitted about, flying like a buffalo would if it had a bees wings. She, out of instinct, clenched down her mind, hardening her conscious until it erected a shield about her mind, in which nothing could enter or no thoughts could leave, but the huge conscious fell on her mind with a heavy, consuming blow, and shattered her fortifications, leaving her mentally breathless, her body swayed a bit on the road.

A voice, far too loud and booming it's authority, slowly turned down it's volume as it painstakingly lifted itself off of her own mind, giving her a chance to breathe. She recognized the voice and marveled at the size and power that was behind it, even if she paled at the closeness that she had just attained to losing her mind.

_Shit. I still don't know how to frigging fly this thing._

Negi was trying to drive his own mind for one, initiating the royal magic extension of telepathy, which, unlike mundane tactics, which used up magic and or needed a pactio, had no such restrictions, it did not even tire out the mind unless one was trying to reach someone extremely far away, which Negi was not. The more powerful the mind, the farther someone had to be for that distance to be called far.

_Negi...?! My god, you almost killed me!_

She felt a mental shrug, which almost equated to an earthquake where she was. Negi lifted his mind off hers a bit more, striving for the kind of simple connection Arika could achieve, but the simple fact that his mind was just that much faster and stronger than hers meant he had to hold back so much more of his contact ability than she did.

_Hey, this is my first time trying what you do oh so easily. You never taught me anywho. Hell if I know what the heck I'm doing here. Am I still too loud?_

Still to loud? He was making her deaf. While her mentality told all, she still answered him. After all, it was incredible for the boy to be able to actually make contact on his first try after all. Phenomenal, absolutely so.

_...A bit. You're still weighing down on me too..._

The weight lifted a bit, almost painfully, and Arika could almost feel his consciousness "creak" as he tried to reign in his the gravity of his mind to a suitable amount to allow them to talk, one to the other.

_All right, all right, keep your panties on while I adjust..._

She should keep her panties on. Well sure, just don't kill me, will yah...finally, the weight settled into a more manageable amount, and as she responded, she felt him lifting more off and putting more on, as if experimenting with how much he could place upon her mentally and still have her be comfortable.

_Negi, why are you trying to contact me, did something happen?_

The boy scoffed, and his mental aura bristled at the thought of him being "helpless" enough for him to need to call her for anything serious as such. He was a lone player and he liked it that way. He called for help little, only trained and pushed himself harder so he wouldn't even think about needing help.

_I'm "calling" you to tell you you're headed the wrong flipping way, you're headed towards the college campus, and I am on the middle school one. I'm also testing out this area of royal magics to get a feel for it. Hell I'f I'm going to let you continue popping in on me whenever you feel like and I can't tell when you are...or stop you. _

_I also saw you trying to stop my contact, although I couldn't stop my connection at that point and broke your shield...that's the next thing I'm going to master. Blocking you from contacting me. I've seen you do it, so all I have to do is emulate the technique, right? Speaking of which, since I can do this now, I can take an eye for an eye.... _

_You try to contact me without any warning, and I'll come knocking on your door...with all of the weight and gravity behind my thoughts behind me. Think about that next time you want to give me a late night call for no damn reason Arika. I've set the table, and dinners ready. We're expecting you soon._

Negi left her leaning against a building she didn't remember running by, her luggage having left her hands and fallen to the ground, were it sat, looking dejected in the setting sun's dying light. She was breathing hard, as if she had just come from a marathon, and her mind felt like it had just been wrung by a pro wrestler like a sponge before an elephant decided to sit on it.

Negi wouldn't try and crush her consciousness underneath his own weight, would he? She was his mother after all...yet, even as she thought that, her mind replayed Negi slicing viciously right through a demon's neck and then smacking his head clean off his body with a decisive swipe. He wouldn't _**not**_ do anything, that was his _**point**_. He was hard enough by now to hate his own father. What was stopping him from crushing the mind of his mother?

She shivered a bit and picked up her bags from where they had fallen. The table was set for her already, and they would be expecting her. A nice way to end a chilling conversation, started just for the sole reason to tell her she was going the wrong way. She noticed her body had stopped conveniently right next to a map of the campus grounds.

Conveiniently, or by Negi's design? The boy was powerful and crafty after all. If he knew how to contact her now, what was stopping him from learning the next level of extension to this art? The usage of your mind to overwhelm another, driving them crazy, crushing their mind completely, or...or taking control of their body through their mind, while they helplessly watched, or rendering them completely unable to resist by snatching that awareness too.

Then there was the visible extension of royal magic, the things she had used to reign in even Nagi's impressive powers. If Negi learned that, there would most likely be nothing to very little that would be able to stop him, he who was the genetic combination of a powerhouse hero and a royal genius...

Arika made no motion to show her thoughts as she studied the map in front of her. It didn't take her long to find out where she had to go, and, fingering it with one pink nailed index, she mentally imprinted the route from here to there, before turning around dutifully and walking off at a measured pace where she had to go.

+--2--+

Nightfall fell on a peaceful Mahora Campus...I don't need to tell you what I mean by peaceful right? Good. A couple of parties began to build up in momentum, many students, to excited to sleep, were deciding to get a head start on the festivities by starting now. Negi on the other hand, wanted nothing more but to catch some shut eye.

Yet still, his life would not let him achieve this simple joy, for it was Negi's life were talking about, and he never gets any peace, for the heavens above won't let him. Currently, he was washing dishes while his mother, now chatting with Konoka, spared him a glance every now and again. Was she afraid he was going to vanish into thin air? Or was she afraid she was going to be the one doing a disappearing act? '

When she had first walked through the door, he had noticed she had looked different. More like the pictures in history books depicting Ostian Royalty, and the Queen of Calamity. Her hair was lighter, had face a bit younger, and her eyes a different color. Before, they had been that of the light colored, mossy bedrock, which was just deep enough in the water to have a blue tinge, now it was hazel.

It was obvious that, in order to shy away suspicions from potential mages, she had gone with small changes in her appearance, but to simply drop them upon coming here was brash, illogical, unless she thought herself completely safe now, that or she just wanted to meet her son face to face, _actual_ face to face.

For Negi, he had his night planned ahead of him. He would do some training, take his shower and hightail it to his designated patch of carpet for this weekend. Anya had his room, Arika had his couch, so he had to take up a patch of floor for himself, and no, he was not going to sleep with his mother, he had long since out grown that, he never even got into that phase. The day he slept with his mother was the day he was going to see the world end in front of his very eyes, or the day he lay on his death bed.

Finally finishing with his dishes, Negi put them to dry on a cloth he had laid out on the counter and picked up a wet rag, rinsing it in some warm water and wringing it dry before he went to wipe the counters. The rag glided smoothly over the surface, but Negi's mind was running circles on a Ferris wheel of the things he had to do come the beginning of the festival. His students had bombarded him, and each wanted him to make time to visit them do something. How the hell was he going to get it all done? There was one Negi, one day in which he could do it all, and thirty one students to placate. Hell if he knew what he was going to do.

He shook himself out of a trance when he realized he was wiping the same area for the third time and went back to the sink to rinse off the cloth again so he could wring it and hang it to dry. He then grabbed his coat and HeartBreaker, piquing Arika's interest with that simple action. Negi regretted it the moment she turned around and her eyes landed on him.

"Where are you going Negi?"

God, another person who resorted to calling him just Negi, but this one had authority to do so. She was his mother, and so she needed no honorific in using his name. Negi sighed and, defeated, he turned around to allow his eyes to meet hers, which burned a with their surprising hazel to his ember red.

"I'm going to train, Arika. It's what I do before going to bed. It's how I relax, how I get tired enough to go to sleep."

Arika looked him up and down. She'd never actually seen him train before, but to think he did it every night as a habit...! Yet, even as she was about to discard it as an excuse to get out of the dorm room, she remembered just how dedicated the boy was in his arts. How quickly he picked up things. Perhaps not all of it was just from him being a genius, perhaps quite a bit of his ability to pick up things so quickly was due to his extreme hard work, the amount of time in a single day he put into learning and perfecting his skills. She got up, and as she rose, Negi's face fell, yet the woman would not be denied.

"I'm coming with you then, I'd like to see your routine. There's no harm in that, is there?"

The boy let out a breath through his nose and looked away from her, towards the bathroom. Yet he wasn't really seeing the bathroom, he was seeing past the place, to his own little world where he could debate in peace about such things as letting his mother see him in his daily training routine. He mutely make a "come on" gesture with his right hand as his left gripped HeartBreaker all the tighter. Arika caught the message and picked up her coat from where it had been on the couch before following him out.

"Come on if you want then, just don't get in my way."

A bit later, Arika could only stare. Negi had begun his training with a bit of what he called "warming up". He had pulled his short sword from its sheath under his clothes and held it bare with HeartBreaker in the other, which sprang into a brilliant blood red glow. Negi held them both out in an "x" like formation before he lunged forward into the air, bringing both blades out to slash straight down vertically before his foot pushed him right back into his starting position, stopping him on a dime.

He did this a few times, lunge and slash, jump back, and stop and repeat... before, when he lunged forwards again, he continued slashing, wheeling his arms now to slash from the upper left or upper right to the lower right or lower left. His blade came out, flashed down and traveled to his back before coming around again. He continued this for about twenty seconds... then he stopped his blades in midair and began a flurry of forward stabbing with them. This carried on for about thirty more seconds before he became still again.

Negi then extended his blades out and began to spin around with them, slowly at first, and then faster until he became a near whirlwind of steel in her eyes, blades flashing out at all different heights available to him as he spun, managing to stay in one place like a top. He tried to stop on command, but his momentum carried his blade for a while before he could force them to halt.

He sheathed his blades and quickly jumped up in the air, pulling his daggers from his boot soles in one fluid moment and slashing at the air in front of him. He spun the weapons in his hands, going faster and faster until they became discs of brilliant metal, which he used to slice at the air and pivot them on command, changing direction in mid-slash at the height of momentum to force his muscles to respond. His daggers flew back into the soles of his boots and, almost faster than she could see, kunais were in his hands from his pockets, which spun and snapped in one direction before Negi threw them quickly in the direction of a nearby tree.

They almost touched the tree, but stopped a few inches from the bark, glowing green before they zoomed back into his hands, only to be thrown off again in a different tree's direction. His aim was near perfect, although she did notice that his last throw almost had one of his kunais hanging in midair. They zoomed back to him and his gun came forward fro it's holster, and the boy spun around throwing up dark spheres Arika assumed were targets. He raised his gun and shot them down, three, five, ten, eighteen, twenty, twenty five, they fell to the ground, glowing green. Yet one landed near her feet, and it was dark. Had he neglected to shoo it in fear of getting her instead?

His face showed a grimace of anger as his gun went back into its holster and his hands came out now, an odd tattoo along his wrist glowing brightly as he resisted into the cool night air.

"Rastel, Mascir, Magister, Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus Lucis!"

_Sagitta Magica Trignita Spiritus Ingus!_

Even as the arrows of light ripped from one palm, and the arrows of fire ripped from another, flying into the sky, Negi was not done as he called up arrows of ice and darkness right afterwards, allowing those two to join their fellow in the sky before the other two disappeared. The boy sent a few of lightning and of wind right after them, and finally called up the rare arrows of earth, which were slower than their other arrow counterparts but had more power behind them in the momentum department. Yet Negi still wasn't done as he pointed to a different angle in the sky, yelling out once more his power to the night air.

"Evocatio Valcyriarum Contubernalia Gladiaro!, Age Capiant!, Contra Pugnent!"

_Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Centum, Iaculatio Grandinis!_

From around him, stemming from his right hand, came the magic to call up the mid level copies he had summoned of himself, yet from his left came lances of Ice, which bored down upon his copies and neatly anihalated each and every one of them, kicking up smoke and dust in the wind, which masked Negi from view, but did nothing to mask his voice, which was still reciting magic to throw at the air.

"Sagitta Magica, Quinquagnita Spiritus Obscurans!"

_Sagitta Magica, Quinquagnita Spiritus Lucis!_

Both sets of arrows sprung from Negi's fingertips, dancing in the night, but Negi looked up at them as they soared, and, in the height of their flight, he reached for them with his hands and clenched them into fists, redirecting them to come right back down at himself, where he waited until the final seconds, near impact before he began a fevered dance.

Dodging in and out, all around, the boy spun to avoid his own arrows as they slammed into the ground, canceling in neat tome with the rhythm his feet beat out. Not an arrow even came close to touching him, it seemed like he was used to doing this before. His mouth opened again, this time forming a curious spell.

"A universitas per pacis, per somnium, per vita , vultus inter mihi , adveho in res , Rectus of Decor."

Around her, around them both, a brilliant light came into being, Arika had to shield her eyes to the blinding light. Yet, when it faded, she was met with an incredible sight.

It was daytime, and the two of them were in a field of flowers, beautiful, numerous flowers. Several little insects, butterflies, mantises even dragonflies, flitted by, a tug on her pants alerted her to the ground, where a squirrel had run over her shoes for a nut on the ground. It was wonderfully warm here, peaceful, even the wind, which chose that time to sent a soft gust, carried the perfume of the area around them.

Where were they? She looked at Negi, who was frowning. He held his hand out, and a butterfly actually landed right in it, peacefully flitting it's wings. He turned to her, and the insect flew away. She looked about a bit more, and her eyes fixed on a hummingbird flitting from one flower to the next. Negi shook his head.

"As always, it is beautiful and full of detail, sometimes I wish I could make this real..."

Make it real? That meant...wait...if this wasn't real, then Negi could cast....illusion magic?! Yet, an illusion this detailed would take incredible focus, or an incredible...and incredible mind, just like the boy's who stood in front of her, as a red tern called from a tree in the distance before flying off. He sighed and raised his arms.

"Se Dissolvant Circumstantia Falsa!"

Just like the illusion it was, the world around them frankly shattered into a million pieces, revealing the dark night in Mahora city for what it was. Arika blinked. That...that was simply...incredible, but Negi looked unhappy.

"A true master of illusion would have been able to spin a world at least ten miles in radius from the center, and fill it with false people and a truly layered life, just like our actual existence, they would even be able to muddle the victims mind to the point in which they believe they lived here their entire life, and they had a place in this false society, yet, what can I do? Create something maybe thirty meters at most, and fill it with the simplest of life forms, programmed to perform simple actions. The rest is mist. I can't even create a proper muddling of minds, only allow the victim to accept their surroundings for a few seconds."

He looked over to Arika. His face was blank even as his bearing was disappointed. Magic pooled in his hands again. He was about to try one of his creations...This spell had drained him before, but now, he was confident, now, after Swallowthorn, he was certain he could cast it. Raising his hands to the smoke around him still suspended in air from his arrows, and he recited:

"Aestuo continuo in nox noctis meus flamma incidere per obscurum valde levitas, convenio...ego sum vestri famulatus rip continuo, Abyssus...Levitas!"

_Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes...Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!_

Both the higher arch he had created and an original higher mid level spell ripped from his palms, just as the dust had cleared so Arika could see. Negi had been bold today, unbelievably bold, for he had been fired by the need to let himself see just how far he could push himself, let his mother see just how little she could mess with him. He could only hold the both of them for about five seconds, but those five seconds had to have been the longest ones Arika had ever felt, besides all those long seconds with Nagi. Seeing the boy spew such power from his small form, she was filed with both a fierce pride and a touch of fear. This was her son at his spell work. He fell to his knees after that stunt, and Arika, breaking out of a trance, ran to him.

But the boy quickly sprang to his feet and fixed her with a glare that rooted her feet ot he spot she had traveled to. His hands went up to the sky again, determined to prove to her he was not a weak child to be protected, he was Negi Springfield, a professor of English, a professor of numerous degrees, a magister magi. His mouth opened again, and he recited yet another spell, this time focusing on a large boulder on the ground, off to the side, near the trees.

"Incendia Laqueus!, Undecim Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans!"

_Ex Somno Exsistat Exurens Salamandra Inimicum Involvat Igne! Captus Flammeus...._Flet Une Vente! Flans Saltatio Pulverea!

Needless to say, as Negi fell again to one knee, completely drained of his stores of magic for the night, the boulder had never received so much abuse and crumbled to dust. First being captured in a cage of fire and darkness, then having fiery ropes snake around it to strangle it before the lances of lightning ripped forward and struck it right through and through, finally shattering it before the final spell sent it all blowing away. Negi was breathing hard at the end of that last blast, but he was smiling, or at least, he was smirking.

Arika looked down at him from where he was. Nagi used to carry a book of spells, and would flit through it to find the one he needed. Master of a Thousand Spells, he was called, but at most he might cram and remember six spells and then almost instantly forget them all the moment he saw a pretty girl or something.

Yet, Negi had just recited, off the top of his head, nine spells or so, and she knew he had not let out his big gun, the end of the world spell he was shown to be capable of casting, even more capable than she knew, because of his catalyst stores. Negi had not even recited his Deflexio, which, as Anya had told her, he was a master in manipulating. He had not called any barrier spells he knew, and who knew how many of them Negi could cast.

Perhaps, if he was given time to grow up and train, he would overcome Nagi. In fact, if he was put in the same situations Nagi had, she had no doubt the boy would, but she prayed he would never have to go through something like a full fledged war...

The boy stood up by himself, fixing her with another glare. No help. At all, that was what he was saying in those eyes. She backed off a bit and let him be. Her son was a maze, and there was only one correct path, all others where instant pitfalls. She had yet to find the right path, she kept falling down holes. She'd find it though, she had to.

+--3--+

The festival has begun, and Negi has a long list of things to do, obviously. Just thank god that he woke up early so he could study just what the heck was the object Chao had given him. So far, the only thing he could tell was that it was magical, looked like a watch, needed a ton of magic to operate, more than he had, and that it was probably something that would be labeled politely under: Forbidden Artifacts, in a library.

He still decided to carry it with him though, as he went over his list of things to do. He had to visit just about everyone while he patrolled the grounds _and _keep a promise to Nodoka about an explanation of his magic. Hell if he knew how he was going to keep a date in all of this, but he would. First on his list was a visit to what else but a haunted house, perfect for the late October air and mood...

Negi later found that his students wanted him to "help" them in the horror house, which meant they wanted him to put on a costume. He was fine being Dracula, but when another student approached with something fishy, he bared his fake teeth and hissed. Nope, he was not going to dress up in something stupid, no way, no how, they should _know _that by now. Negi left the haunted house a bit later, after scaring off a couple college kids by hiding in the drapes on the "ceiling" of the house and dropping down on them all like a bat out of hell, lunging at them and screaming bloody murder.

After that bit of fun, Negi visited Konoka's "fortune telling" stall, he had met Kotarou along the way, along with the class president, so he took them for a ride. Kotarou received "Worst of luck." from her, which really put a damper on his spirits, although it gave Negi a bit of a smirk for the dog boy. It wasn't long before Negi was in the martial art's dojo, visiting Ku Fei to do an exhibition against the general public. Unlike the other students, who went easy and occasionally lost on purpose, Negi had no such mercy against the opponent. If they challenged him, they were going down.

He did make sure to take them down as quickly as possible however, he did not prolong their suffering, which was perhaps the only plus to the whole situation of smacking them down. Yet, Negi could only stay for a few minutes. He left in a hurry, going to change and freshen up, or he would miss his little chat with Nodoka, and the girl was a wreck enough without getting stood up.

He bumped into someone on the way however...

"Ahh, Sensei! This is the first time I've seen you today, which surprises me. You don't have to be so careful with it, you know?"

Negi narrowed his eyes a tad. What was she talking about? She seemed to look at him expectantly, as if waiting for an answer, and Negi felt like he had missed something. He cocked an eyebrow.

"Excuse me?"

She looked him up and down, and then mentally slapped her forehead. Of course, she hadn't given him the manual last time, baka. She reached into the pocket of her current outfit, and there it was, her finger caressed the edge of the book gently. Should she give it to him? Last time, she had given it to him out of thankfulness, but she didn't have to give him everything, did she?

Her mind flashed back to the future, or her past.

An old man was there. The backs of his hands held an innumerable amount of wrinkles, the veins outstanding and blue. Yet in those fingers one could see an incredible strength. Long, flowing silver hair fell from his head, sheeting down to the middle of his back, shining in the dim light. Even in his incredible age, he still had a full head of it, and it still shone as it had in youth. One of those hands reached out and quickly tugged a scrap of paper form in between a shelf of books.

"My dear girl...."

He turned around, and she could see the face. Strong of jaw he was proud, and his thin physique allowed his face to still carry some youth, youth it shouldn't have held. Yet his eyes showed bags and the skin was thin, soft to the touch. Yet, even as she clutched the object in her hands to her body tighter, she knew that this man was still near indomitable.

"Take this with you. It's the manual for that. This device will let you escape them...go and do what you must. I may try to stop you in my younger state, but even in performing that action, I calculate I will be put on a course to achieve the goal you seek to anyway, that is, if you fail. Try to go for as young as possible in the world, if you can manage, before I am even born, although this may stop my birth, I care not. I've lived long enough..."

Her eyes grew wide at that. Stop his birth..? Never! He was her confidant, her best friend. Only he knew all the secrets, only he could understand her. His mind was incredible, even at his age, when the government knocked on his door every other day to check if he had become senile yet. Never would she try to stop his birth...he bent down to come to eye level with her, and his hand came out to stroke her hair while the other put the paper in between the device and her chest, where she clutched it too.

"Don't be too soft my child. You know my mind now, know that this same mind will be against you if you come to a time where I am alive. A bit less experienced, but no less clever and reams worth more agile. If you can prevent my birth, do it, for my influence in this world, while great, is nothing compared to what the world would have been had I not been born..."

Those words echoed...but she had not the guts at the time to travel before he had been born on her timeline, she had not even, in her naiveté, even wound up on the right timeline, even though, in her traveling back to this point, it mattered not which one she was in, not really. She pulled out the manual and handed it to him...like he had to her all those years afterwards. God, that still doesn't make any sense...not even after living two years in the past. It was his invention, he had created the Cassiopeia, and all the models afterwards...up to model number three, which she held close to her heart.

"The manual, ne. I forgot to give it to you yesterday. Silly, ne. I'll see you, Negi-bozo!"

Just like that, she was gone, and the boy didn't get to see her sniff, yet even if he did, no tears would come from her, she had given those up long ago, when she traveled back in time and gave up her Sensei, the great Magus, Negi Springfield, for the world's future...

+--4--+

Negi clutched the thing to him tightly, the Cassiopeia, it was called. For some reason, the handwriting seemed incredibly familiar, as if he himself knew very well the hand that wrote it, but he had never really seen the writing style quite before...he had a feeling he had seen one eerily similar however. The book Chao gave him expressed in simple words how to use the device, and what it did.

In essence, it was a time machine.

That alone was incredible. Negi looked up into the sky. At this time and place, a great amount of magic was flitting through the sky. Negi had been forced to "stand up" Nodoka in the end of this day, for, after Chao had bumped into him, several errands assaulted him, including patrolling. He had gotten to her just in time to tell her he could not go, for another teacher approached him with duties.

She had seemed fine, but he saw the say she had dressed. She had been expecting him to go along with her...hoping for it even, by the way she barely held her face together. Perhaps it was just his incredible intuition but...He caressed the object in his hands...so small, and so _familiar_. The craftsmanship seemed to echo something deep inside him, yet still be somehow foreign.

He stared up at the dark, cool night. He was alone, but that was the way he wanted it. If this was fake, a falsehood, he wanted to be alone in his idiocy. Based on the fact that the world tree was active, he could use the incredible amount of magic it was spewing out to use this. He closed one hand over the front of the watch-like apparatus, and focused. If he was being an idiot, well then, let him be an idiot.

The magic he called up swirled around him before getting sucked into the device in his hands, drawing upon his power and that around him, and feeding on his desire, where he wanted to go in time. The swirl of magic consumed him, and when it dissipated, no sign of him was there...

... ... ...

Negi opened his eyes and had to shield them from the bright sun. Hell? He looked off from where he was, on a balcony of sorts. He had to dodge back his head, for a shadow puppet flew by, almost knocking him silly. Negi almost instinctively shot at it as it flew past, but just in that moment, an exploding arrow hit it from the front, and Negi ducked to peep between the railing bars, to see his own face off in the distance, set in a hard grimace before spinning around and shooting at more of the shadow puppets, this time coming from the side.

He really couldn't believe his eyes. He had forgotten that this balcony was near the place where he had fought on the rooftops against those things this morning. No, not forgotten, just hadn't thought about it. Now he was witnessing that same event again, in a different perspective. He saw Setsuna jump down between the alleyways, and saw himself jump down after her. It was extremely odd...seeing yourself do something like that, and knowing it's not a video.

Negi waited a bit before getting back up. He heard a crash and smirked. It must be Kotarou crashing into that damn dumpster again. He took a glance at his watch. Hell, it still said 8:48 PM. But when he called up a spell, it claimed it was the same day as his watch, but the time was not 8:48 **PM**, it was 8:39 **AM**. Leave it to magic to supersede some minor technologies like his watch. Hell, he had a whole day to do...whatever! It was an addicting feeling, but he reigned it in.

Time travel was not something you wanted to get hooked on, for obvious reasons...

Negi looked down at his current clothing, pajamas. Well, he was in the dorm, alone. Why the hell not change and go back out? He would just have to watch out and make sure not to run into...well, himself. He smiled at that. Now he was his own worst enemy, and that was a feeling you didn't get everyday. Only he had the advantage here. Avoidance is best played when you know exactly where you opponent is going to be at any given time after all.

This time, Negi drunk in the sights and sounds of the festival, going for a more relaxed approach instead of rushing around doing errands. He took an earlier shift to patrol by relieving Takahata and swearing him to secrecy on it, after all, why would the man want to admit he left his duty? He took a glance around and spotted Yue and Nodoka walking around. He approached them and tapped Yue on the shoulder, making the girl spin around. She almost fell, but the boy caught her shoulder and steadied her. She ended up quite dangerously close to his face.

"Damn. You must have a whole bunch of friggin bruises if that's how you respond to someone tapping you on the shoulder. Miyazaki...is it okay if we have that talk now? I might be busy later on..."

Negi noticed that the girl was still dressed the way she had been when it was time to meet her. Apparently, she had decided to put on the dress so she wouldn't bomb herself later on and forget or become to nervous. She had no excuse if she was already ready.

"N-now sensei? But, I..I'm not ready, not dressed for it.."

He rolled his eyes. Her physical was ready, but not her mind. He smirked a small one and looked over to Yue, who was still being held up by his arm. It seemed she didn't have the will to set herself right, so he set her right. She blinked. Maybe the girl was a closet shotacon?

He mentally shook his head. How the hell did he get to that conclusion? Anywho, Yue was safe to talk to, she was after all, one of those who he had decided to leave the memory of the demon attack in. In fact, as she continued to look at him, a blush crept up, as if she were remembering that very event right at that moment.

"It's just a talk Nodoka-san. Just a talk. Yue-san can come too if you like, you both need to hear this. I was planning on talking to you two separately, but time is against me..."

Negi usually called them by their last names, so the switch to first name basis visibly shook them. He had been counting on that, and was not disappointed when Nodoka agreed. Yue made no comment, but the girl looked interested to say the least. Negi swept out his arm, as in an after you gesture before saying:

"Then let's head for a private cafe, shall we?"

+--5--+

"My dear...what is the matter?"

She looked up. He was always there, no matter what happened, he was always there. That old man was faster and smarter than even the most advanced tracking systems. She could fool them, but not him. Chao looked up into those slightly faded red eyes. Faded after eons of use, after all the injustices they had seen. They blinked now, slowly, but they did not waver from their stare at her. Her own black ones, not tainted by time, blinked in response. She clutched the Cassiopeia tight to her. It was her lifeline to him now. Her only part that she would have left, the tangible one. The third generation was already hidden somewhere safe. The second had been broken years ago. The man bent down to clamp his hands upon her shoulders, staring at her face.

"Are you ready?"

No, she wasn't ready. This would kill him. The amount of magic needed to activate the Cassiopeia...she knew that he could draw magic extremely well for his age, but he was far from his prime, and she could only shoulder so much of the burden. Magic, softly glowing magic, pooled in his hands, even as one of them reached out and deftly brushed a tear from her eyes. She didn't even realize she had started crying. She had always praised herself for being stronger than that...

"Now now. Calm yourself. It's not that bad. You'll always remember me. Right?"

"I-I-I...I can't kill you! I just can't!"

He pushed a soft finger to her lips, and she could feel the magic radiating through it, ready to cast. The intensity increased with every moment of passing time, as he drew more and more of his power into himself, looking for that one, final signal that he had gathered enough. In a world where magic was falling apart at its seams, Negi Springfield still had complete control over his art, regardless of his extreme age. He shushed her as the swirl of magic encompassed her...no. She wasn't ready!

"You can and you must. Go now, and know that no matter what happens, no matter how many times your close friends and family may say you are useless...that I will never think so. Take this old man's love and do what you must."

Before she could even squeak again, the magic encompassed her, and in a flash, she was gone from his sight, off into the past to do her duty. Yet, even so, Negi knew she would not be able too. She would try to stop the magic before it's time and she would wind up, most likely, in a different timeline. As such, Negi prepared another blast, this time, even with his steadily tiring body, he would transfer himself...

+---+

Finally, an end to this one. Took me long enough!!!! See you all next time, hopefully it will be better than this time.


	26. Chapter XXV: Infinite Realism

Again I am ready to bash my brain against the wall that is this near blank WordPad document in hopes of it spilling its contents unto the expanse, in a suitable arrangement for the next chapter of This story, Young Negi ; An Applied Approach. You all may have noticed, but I have another "story" that has been launched. Don't be upset if you voted for me to keep to one story, I am, that "story" is a challenge story. You can review there to challenge me to write anything you like, within reason of course. It's there for me to test my mettle and sharpen my ability. In other words, it's there so I can better serve _**you all**_. Believe me, I take no joy in increasing my own workload. I can only hope that by increasing the amount I have to type, I will eventually type faster, and that, by working on two different, yet similar "stories", if I get writers block in one, I can simply switch to the other and write for that one. Namely, if I get writers block here, I go to Challenge MFT to get rid of the block.

I also use it for practice. I've been told I've improved a lot since beginning this, I aim to continue improving by expanding my chances to practice. Kapeesh? Okay then. Let us go now. Oh by the way, I said "froggin" purposely, not to be confused with "friggin."

I do not, as always, own Negima. I do own my mind though, and this story is a product of my mind, so, by a chain of logical thought, I own this story. Ask me if you would like to use one of my ideas please. It will only take a small portion of my time, and I most likely will say yes. Unlike Negi, I'm a nice guy, although I'm not nice enough to make his life easier, no.

Don't ask me why, I seemed to like listening to "According to you." by Orianthi, while writing this. Blame my mood. I'm a very weird guy aren't I? Between Rock, Metal, Classical, Country, Dance...hey, I listen to just about anything....

Galerians, Negi is a lone wolf. I think..._**eventually**_...he'll warm up to his mother, but not _quite_ yet.

+---+

_**Chapter Twenty Five: Infinite Realism**_

He was almost there. He almost had gathered enough magic. Years ago, when he had created the first version of the Cassiopeia, he had also created a second. That second had been broken not to long after, which prompted him to create a third version, which he had given to Chao along with the first.

Yet, in fiddling with time pieces, Negi Springfield was, in actuality, far older than he even was supposed to be. It had only been little more than a hundred years since his confrontations with Territum, yet this man was far older than that.

In actuality, Negi Springfield had managed to somehow cling to a life whose existence numbered near the two hundred year mark. He was more resilient than any one would ever know… those who called him a hardy soul at over a hundred. Perhaps it was the magic running through his veins, or maybe that he had such a long way to fall originally...but he had yet to become senile.

As such, after the creation of the third Cassiopeia, he secretly came upon a discovery that led him to work in private, even keeping his daughters and thus his granddaughter in the dark, until he came upon the creation of his forth Cassiopeia model.

This model needed far less magic than the first, even less than the third, and was even more precise, more accurate. In fact, it's precision was a direct mirror of the mage who controlled it, for it was a spell, not a tangible thing that could be broken like the others, but an actual spell...he glanced towards the window, preparing to set his eyes on a far different night sky...

The old man's ears perked up at a slight sound along the hallways leading to his quarters, and her stuffed his hands into his bell sleeves, a signature of his office, but also a prime hiding place for glowing hands. The door slid smoothly open to admit a party of three, one of which being a man.

He stepped forward into the darkness, throwing his face into shadow, but that did not stop Negi from recognizing him. A brilliant young man he had grown into, but he was a bit too hard headed and bent on the rules, which never held under extreme circumstances, something he refused to let get beaten into his head. His sandy hair glinted in the light from the open door as he opened his mouth.

"The Great Magus, Negi Springfield. Leader of the "crusades" against the life maker, in his father's shoes. Over comer of the great code of the life maker. Monarch of the forgotten and fallen Ostian Empire, savior of the magical world several times over. It's a honor to step foot in your humble home again-"

The figure of Springfield near the window snapped out, his voice impatient as he stared out into the night sky. He had almost gathered enough magic, and this fool had to come and interrupt him, as fate would have it. The old man spun around, and faced the far younger one.

"Zip it, pee wee. You came here last week, in case you have forgotten, Matthew. Are you here to test my sanity again? Or are you here just to grace me with your overbearing presence? You were never a quiet child boy, and you haven't changed in adulthood. Don't' forget who baby-sited you in your youth!"

For a moment, the now named Matthew writhed inwardly in a slight shame. Obviously, this man could still bring him to his knees with his embarrassing memories of childhood. No one could take away an old fogey's ultimate weapon against the younger ones, their baby days. It seemed, as always, that this man had yet to go senile. He was froggin...how old? He must be near his one twenties by now. He stared at the man and noticed something off.

"Where's the girl? No surveillance system can find her anywhere. She escaped from the detention cell, and the camera's caught her going in here, but she never left here."

Although he knew exactly who the man was referring to, the Magus felt like messing with his mind a bit, and he wanted to buy some time. His magic didn't come to him like it used to after all, and his body was tired. Tired not only from age, but from the amount of magic it had just let loose.

"Girl?' A collection of molecular mass with a double x chromosome genetic code, usually not to far along the human maturing process and vulnerable? An object of desire for the counterpart labeled a "boy"? A combination of amino acids and proteins assembled in chains used to create chemical reactions in order to perform certain tasks which drive the basis of the action of "living?" Or do you mean..."

Even as he continued, he saw Matthew grow impatient, and he cut him off just as the man was about to snap at him with a soft tone artfully bitten off at the end with a snap of tongue. The other fell silent at the very moment he began, showing that this old "fogey" still had it.

"Before you snap at me you impatient boy, know that Chao is not _**always**_ with me. The girl does, after all, have a mind of her own."

He wasn't buying that, and the Magus knew it, still, it was best to try and buy time. Respect and his strong adherence to the rules are what this magus would play upon, for the young one would not do anything reckless and thus he would lose this confrontation. All he had to do was talk, which old men were famous for doing anyway, so why not fulfill his quota to serve a purpose?

"You know I don't believe that old man, no matter how senile you can grow in a single week."

Negi raised an eyebrow and sighed. His hands inside the sleeves of his robes twitched. He was ready to form the spell. He brought his hands out, and he saw the two women behind him wince. Matthew paled and took a step back. They all knew that magic was not something to be taken lightly when coming from a magister, even if it was fading from this world in its strength...this magister was especially dangerous, even taking into consideration his advanced age.

"Fine, then believe this. Chao went to do something none of you all were brave enough to. Do you remember when I suggested countless solutions to keep this magical world together? Do you remember how each one was over ruled, and the terrible results? Do you remember my last suggestion before I left my senator's seat? Time travel. My creation, the Cassiopeia. Well, Chao just used it, and I plan to join her..."

"You really are senile. The first was lost..."

Negi looked over to the coffee table in front of him, and his staff, which had been in front of him, acting as a faucet for his power, jumped into his glowing hands. It had once been his fathers, and now it was his. He spun it slowly, experimentally, getting a feel for the weathered wood under weathered skiin.

"I only told you all that…lie."

The other still felt he should continue, yet he kept his eyes on that rotating staff. Always, there was that threat. True, he himself had some skill in magical art, learned from the very man in front of him, but in this world, where magic was hard to call upon, and scarce, he could hardly match the elderly one in front of him.

"The second was broken..."

Negi scoffed, and his staff stopped spinning to point right that the other's heart. It shook as it was heald there, not with anger, but for the simple strength of wrist to took to hold it in place. Red eyes traveled down the nose and along that staff before he spoke.

"By yourself as a totting child, yes I know."

"You would need two, for one could not hold up to the amount of time travel needed to get back...and for both of you..."

The magus, tired of this talk, stomped his foot, bringing more attention to himself as his hands glowed all the brighter. He looked Matthew dead in the eye, and his bearing still managed to push the younger man further away from him without so much as a touch.

"I never told you that I created a THIRD version of the artifact, did I? Chao has that. Along with the so called "lost" first version. However, this still leave me, doesn't it? After the third version was created, I stumbled upon a deeper secret of time, one that would drastically reduce the amount of magic needed for a transfer in time. I also managed to, after some experimenting, perfect this forth version of the Cassiopeia. This version, no one can break."

Matthew quirked an eyebrow. The man was mad. Most likely, he was hiding the girl under his robes, or in one of his closets. He rose his arm, and the women behind him, wary though they might have been, stepped forward. He looked to them and then swept his head to encompass the whole expanse of the quarters in front of him.

"Search this! That delinquent must be caught! Her grandfather can't save her this time from the crime she committed! The height of treason will not be spared it's justice, not even for a little girl! ...I'll take this man, he, who is hiding her, is also guilty! If you find anything that seemed to be in the likeness of a timepiece, smash it!"

They fanned out from behind him, trying to stay far away from the magus, making three targets instead of one. The man in the middle of it all just smiled and rose his glowing hands as magic traveled along them down to his arms and to cover him in an aura that kicked up his curtains and make Mathew throw up his arm. The woman had stopped dead in their tracks, one actually screamed and ducked, fearing attack, but Negi only put both of his hands in front of each other, as a ball of black energy, surrounded by what seemed to be purple lightning, coursed around it. He smiled as the magic blew back his hair every which way.

"Matthew, Matthew, Matthew... you never learn. I was your first and last teacher. You never got it. Sometimes, the rules aren't always right. Sometimes, the "right" way, is actually the wrong way. Look where we have gotten in life, trying to satisfy every person's very whim. Those who were afraid of change have caused this world to rot right in front of my very eyes! Well, no longer! If you won't listen, I'll just have to re-write history so you don't have too! I told you...you can't destroy the forth Cassiopeia, because it has no body! It is a spell!"

Finally, the very spell he had been thinking of, and thus incanting, this whole time, gathering power with it, for it was a long winded incantation...he let it loose, just as Matthew, eyes wide, jumped forward when he realized that the old Magus was not trying to attack or scare him, but his magical glowing hands were a mean of escape. Yet, as he slammed into the ground, hands empty, he could only allow his ears to ring with the final syllable, the glorious, triumphant syllable of that magus's voice.

"Chronos...Cassio…**peia**!"

+--1--+

"That's the gist of it."

Yue blinked. She looked down at the coffee that was in front of her. Yes, that's right, a coffee. In the presence of this Sensei and in the seriousness of the conversation, she had decided to go, for once, with a normal beverage, which in itself was odd, but besides the point. Nodoka kept her hand tightly locked around her cup's handle, her fingers were white.

Negi had told her, quite simply, that if he had time, they could talk alone if she liked later on, just like planned, something she had agreed to in a spurt of confidence Yue didn't know the girl had in her, but now, she seemed to be regretting that decision. Yue spoke up to prevent Nodoka needing to input into the conversation.

"So you are a mage, one of a network of mages on campus. What is your purpose here?"

Negi lifted his cup, a brew of strong Earl Grey tea, (Without milk, in case you were wondering.) and took a generous sip before he fixed Yue with those eyes of his over the rim of his cup. Those eyes would strike anybody sane, but for Yue, she felt ashamed that they had. She only hoped no visible indication of this was showing.

"My purpose? To teach you all English. No other reason. Just because a mage is here, doesn't mean something special is going to happen. You probably walk by five mages every day, and don't notice a thing. We are people to after all, we have lives to live."

This statement made her hurriedly answer, sputtering all the while, Negi stopped her by pushing her cup towards her, indicating she should drink and calm down before she tried again, and she did so, burying her face in the cup for a few seconds before reemerging.

"I didn't mean to imply that-"

"Of course."

Negi put down his cup with a bang that made the tea slope up in the air before coming back down neatly in the cup, a temporary pyramid of liquid to look at, which Yue did, focusing her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at the mage in front of her. Negi fixed his eyes on her hair, for that was what he could see if he looked straight across.

"Recently, my purpose as a teacher has been bumped into the position of bodyguard for one of my students, but I act as the protector of them all, as I should, being their teacher. My purpose here is to live my life, nothing else really. Nothing to be ashamed of...to many fantasy books. Now are you going to look me in the friggin eyes, or do I have to lift your head myself?"

The said head jerked up. Deep eyes of purple looked into the fire Negi showed them. One set showed abashment to the other, the other simply ate it and returned bold, harsh strength. Negi glanced up as a hand entered his vision, slipping unto the table before the body attached to it sidled into a seat next to him. Negi was not to happy to find that the figure was his mother.

"I was wondering where you went! I came here to spend the weekend with you, not to have you flit off at the first chance you had!"

Negi's eyes narrows, and one could almost see the sparks fly from them. This was going to become difficult, his mother was really becoming an extra wheel to cramp his style, wasn't she? He looked at her sidelong and then to the confused look Yue was giving him. He sighed, defeated, for once.

"This is my insane, recently re-discovered mother. Pay her no mind."

Obviously, this comment earned Negi a slap in the back of the head, something Negi turned around sharply after receiving and fixed the receiving end, his mother, with a glare. Again hazel eyes met fire red, the grounding force meeting fire, and the fire was refusing to be smothered. Yue could only continue to stare. His mother?

"I am NOT insane!"

A single eyebrow rose and a smirk followed it. He loved playing around with this woman for some reason. Maybe it was his vow to make sure she would find out how "unlovable" he could be, or maybe it was just him being him, a loner who was finding himself with some extra baggage he was trying to get rid of. His eyes rolled at that comment.

"Are you suuuure? You sure seem that way to me, mother."

Another smack upside the head, which didn't even make Negi's head dip, for he managed to hold it high. Negi only smiled all the wider, earning odd looks from those present. What kid smiled when their mother smacked them? Besides sick ones? Negi got up, picking up his cup to finish it in a final swig. Arika got up to, but Negi addressed Nodoka and Yue.

"Perhaps you all would like to talk with my mother a bit? I have some patrol duties to do, so if you'll excuse me...."

Negi was famous for disappearing before anyone had a chance to react, and he pulled off another one, practically flying away on feet enhanced with wind magic, kicking up the table clothes as he went with the wind. He left behind money for the drinks, which was a small blessing. Arika stamped her foot on the ground.

"Damn! He got away, again! Son of mine, I will catch you one of these days!"

+--2--+

(That was terrible, let's try again, shall we?)

A blast of magical power rushed through a quiet alley. A figure fell to the ground, and rolled, springing back up slowly, gracefully, but that grace was only a way to hide the painful rise the man was implementing. The magus rose to his feet slowly, and surveyed the surrounding his eyes allowed him to see. He shook his head. Of course. His granddaughter was about to implement her plans again. Right at the time he expected her too. Just like last time, he had been too much to her, she could not have tried to kill him and make her life easy. No, she had to come back to this time where she would be able to use the magical tree as soon as possible, while keeping him alive. A single twenty one years earlier, and none of this would be a problem. Not even his father would have caused her a problem if she had done that. No. So He had to step in. This time, he would be the one to implement something's. This was most likely the wrong universe however, what was different here, he wondered?

A blast of magical power alerted Negi to slam his body to one side of the alleyway. He knew exactly where he was, at the edge of town, near the forest, a clearing wasn't far from where he was. Negi watched as the beam of power sailed into the sky. An animal climbed up his shoulder, and Negi looked at it. Immensely old, for an ermie at least, the granddaughter of Chamo looked at him, deep in his eyes. A connection was made there. Negi silently detached from the wall and felt magic gather around him, incredibly fast, brilliantly powerful, beautiful power flowing through his veins. This was the difference that a few decades made. This was the power of the world tree effecting this city. He rose his staff and took a simple step.

The old man disappeared in an instant, performing not a shundo, but an actual teleportation, and reappeared behind a tree. He then laid eyes upon a sight that made his eyes go quite wide and for his eyebrows to disappear into his white front bangs. His eyes had lain upon the sight of his mother, and in front of her, his younger counterpart, bearing tattoos on his arms and magic coursing all along him. The two were staring down each other something fierce and then his mother flinched, and the magus saw the younger one thrust out his hand and his mother was blasted back, sent skidding, his voice, far to young, allowing the old Magus to notice that the body attached it was younger than it should have been, echoed in the forest.

"Come on Arika! You did say you wanted to train me in this art. What happened to all your skill? You can't tell me I have superseded you in skill already?!"

His mother did not answer, but Negi's eyes widened as an appendage of light purple magic was thrown from her, and, regardless of Negi slamming up a Deflexio, the shaft of purple magic shot through it, shattering it and sending him reeling backwards. Arika then barbed him with a mental attack, which Negi only managed to half-successfully block. The boy jumped back to his feet quickly and extended his hand again, and a deep red magic of a nondescript shape exuded from his body, and continued to do so, even as it shot towards the woman. Arika's own eyes widened and she ducked off to the side to avoid the energy, sending her magic to fend off the attack, but it was so large...she had to send off several of her own shafts before Negi's was disillusioned. He smiled as she gritted her teeth.

"Is that how you do it then?"

Her teeth were still gritted, so she answered him through them. The old magus shook his head as he listened. He had never gotten to train his ability to read minds, or divine upon the future, but to think it could lead to things like this! That it was his faucet for royal magic...! He listened as his mother spoke to his counterpart. He would never, ever get used to this feeling, seeing himself like this.

"How the heck?! First you pick up the telepathy on your first try, then you find ways to block mental attack from me, and now...! All I did was just show you that once! Already you've picked up on how I did it and are employing it against me! What are you Negi?! ...You are so different from your father, from me even. You absorb new techniques like a thirsty sponge, and you never seem to run out of room to put it all!"

Negi grinned, his eyes lighting up as more deep red magic formed around him. His mouth lifted again into that small smirk of his. This was his greatest power, perhaps. The ability to learn. He could learn incredibly well, always. Everything else came with practice. Skill, variety, power, all of it came with practice, but his ability to learn was his own. The magic condensed now, forming a more shaft like shape, and then went even further, to form an arm, with a large, gripping hand, which flexed its fingers as Arika watched.

"Would you like to see what else I can learn? Or would you like to see the second thing I do best? Development? Want to see me twist all I have learned so far from you into something you never even thought about? Heh...a professor to the core, watch me combine the arts."

Even as he spoke, the arm extended from him, incredibly quickly, and wrapped around Arika, placing it's palm right into her face. The mental magic burned lightly, but she knew it could hurt far worse. That was the worst part, even as she felt the memories the arm was made of. Negi was holding back the final strike. This was a combination, like he said. Royal attack magic formed into an arm to wrap around the opponent, burning, strangling and squeezing the life out of them while the hand, placed on the head, pumped the mental attacks right into them, memories and thoughts formed into an array of barbs...if he only let loose the full power of this attack...

The hand was just transparent enough for her to see Negi's face, that smile was so evil looking. Evil and crazed, as those bright eyes shone. He slowly retracted the hand, calling it back with a signal from him, allowing her to breathe easier. His face actually, for once, showed a somber look.

"Hmph. Don't tell me I went too far on the great Ositan Queen, Arika Anarchia Enthofushia. Maybe it is because I only met you about a week or so ago, but it seems you've gotten lazy, soft maybe...god damn. Fine."

His hands came together, and they glowed with magic, soft, white magic, a power that was very different from what Negi normally cast, harsh, deep colors normally exuded from those hands. Now however, the soft power came from them, a bit haltingly, but nevertheless generously. He spoke aloud to the air. A flower from the ground uprooted and came to his hands.

"Fragrantia...Floris, Meis, Amicis Vigorem, Vitalitatem, Auram Salutarem..Reflectio!"

_Tui Gratia...Jovis Gratia Sit...Cura!_

Perhaps this was his one weakness. His healing magic was nowhere near on par with all of his other skills. That magic came clumsily, like his original flight of telepathy, but Negi showed his care by making sure not to do too much, to overbear her with his power. He gritted his teeth in holding back that power. This type of magic was so different. He was used to just letting it rip from his palms, no control, no reservations.

Healing magic...it needed you to do the opposite, control the flow, to carefully direct it to where it had to go, it was a type of magic that needed to be babied. It needed you to feel it, let it flow through you to show not it's power, but to reflect your desire. Negi struggled with it a bit, but the magic itself flowed more or less smoothly. Still, Arika noticed the difference, and smiled slightly.

She never expected it to be so obvious, but a boy like him, one who fought so hard and trained as he did, who held so much bitter memories and hurt...it was hard for him to heal. Yet, Negi finished his task and she did, indeed feel much better, so she felt it unwise to say anything to the boy, but the boy had other plans.

'So, you're not going to laugh at me for my obvious weakness? I suck at healing, compared to everything else."

He raised an eyebrow to him, and her mouth stayed closed for about half a minute more, until both sets of eyes were locked and smoldering again. The magus behind the trees could feel the tension. This was the difference in the universes. This Negi met his mother about a week prior, him...well, he didn't want to think about that, it would distract him. This Negi was...powerful, but bitter. Young and bitter, younger than he should be, unless even more was different about this place. The voice of the mother cut off his train of thought.

"You chose to enter the Martial Arts Tournament, and you'll be in the qualifying rounds not to long from now. In fact, in a few hours, you'll be there. You are a fighter Negi. You can't be good at everything. No matter how hard you try. If you don't have a weakness, you can't be real. I'm not going to poke fun at it. I accept it. You are my son. I'll look at your flaws and your strengths, and love them all, no matter how much you try to push me away or hide them from me."

He scoffed and then turned around, away from her, to place his fists together. They sprang into a glow of magic that slowly intensified. His breathing was visible to her, the small shoulders still moving along with his lung's actions. She walked over to him and once again attempted the deadly action of putting her hand on his shoulder, but he didn't move.

"Nice speech there, Sherlock. Hate is my strength and my weakness. I told you, I'm a friggin unlovable b$+rd. Bitter and mean. Those who hate like me can't love enough to heal well. I take life, not give it... Cherish your son's weakness, for it makes him a tool. Nothing but at tool of war. I'm a firggin two-dimensional character in a book. The bad guy who's just a bad guy, and just because he can."

Her hand squeezed his shoulder, and the magus behind the trees decided it was time to leave. Negi Springfield, the older one, took another step, and not even a whisper of sound from the wind indicated he had disappeared from his spying spot. He did not get to hear Arika finish it.

"Not a tool, never a tool Negi...you're not a bad guy either. How many people do you have to help before you realize that? You are far deeper than just some cartoon character who's evil because his author made him that way. You are a real person. Accept that."

He looked sidelong at her. Goddamn. Try as he like, but his mother kept boring into him. Sooner or later, he might find himself loving this woman like a kid should their mother. Maybe. He could never live a normal life like they do however, that was long since robbed from him. He was only happy that she couldn't or no longer would, read his mind. If she only saw just how much of a tool he really was...

He was a catalyst, and they were born and created only to be used, just like that flower he had pulled from the ground for the catalyst of his spell. He had finished the spell and the flower had fallen, used up, dead and gone. He was the same, the universe was just saving him until it needed him, or was ready, and then it would use him up whole and leave him broken to be reabsorbed into the ether. Maybe it would make real people out of him next time...

"Another fricken weakness I have, A mother's love."

"You want to enter the competition? Are you sure you are...able?"

The magus pulled his hood further to cover his face completely. The woman at the booth had seen his hands and had focused on his old, wizened face. He indicated his head in a dip, to show affirmative. He was able alright. He picked up a pen that the woman had discarded because it had stopped working. Using magic invisibly, he crushed it in his hands and let the bend, squashed mess of metal and plastic fall from his hand. The woman's eyes followed it down to where it hit her desk and bounced off to the floor.

That same hand extended for a another pen, not to crush, but to put his name down, but she clutched it almost protectively. No thanks, she would write it herself. Behind his hood he smiled, and when she asked him his name, he shook his head.

"Kago Masato."

+--3--+

((Hope that was a bit better, but enough talk!))

Negi ducked under a kick that was sent his way and grabbed the foot of the sender, bodily throwing him by planting his feet firmly on the ground and using his strength as well as leverage to send him packing. He twisted around in mid throw to use the guy as a shield for another kick. Negi finished with his first victim and punched the other one straight in the gut, sending him flying backwards. A man in a robe stood not to far off, completely still, but when the one Negi had punched came his way, he stuck out his foot, tripping them up even more and allowing them to fall.

The same robed man spun around and stopped a punch from a young man, and proceeded to hold it tightly, crushing the fingers while the man screamed. He caused no actual damage though, just used the pain to throw him out of the ring. Just as he did so, he stepped off to the side to avoid two man who where sent flying by Negi. The man sighed inwardly.

He watched as the boy tripped up four men with one leg sweep and then kicked them with the other foot, sending them all skidding away. He grabbed another man's belt and used that to forcefully throw him, he wasn't that big after all. A large lumbering man came at him, rearing back a fist, but as soon as he threw it, Negi held out his own hand and met him head on, palm to fist, and the resulting shockwave blew back those around the boy, but the boy himself stayed.

Rearing back his own fist, the magus saw the magic swirl quickly before the punch connected, frankly giving the hulking figure wings as he flew away from the young boy. Negi proceeded to kick the fallen form of another man next to him and spun around, chopping him as he came up right back down, into a knee before Negi kicked him away.

This little boy was a true monster. He fought without a care who he harmed, or how much harm he caused. It was of no consequence, mercy in a battle was not in his agenda. If they stood before him, they fell, and soon, there were only three combatants left. Only two could survive. Magus eyed the young man who was eyeing him. He knew who was going to go out here. Him. He approached magus, probably because he didn't want to deal with the little boy, seeing his power. However, before the magus had a chance to react to him, the body pitched sideways, a foot having connected solidly with the joint of the knees. the magus watched as Negi dispatched him with a swift elbow to the temple and a kick upwards before sending him back down to get kneed in the gut. The boy tossed the body like a corpse, disgusted. He eyed the robed man in front of him, but the speaker interrupted him, Negi recognized one of his student's voices.

"The D-block qualification matches are over! Contestant Negi Springfield and Contestant Kago Masato are through to the next round!"

The magus, labeled as Kago, sighed. Thank god. The boy looked ready to start on him. Not that he doubted he could handle a younger version of himself, it was just he was so brutal, so small, quick and young, and he was an old man. Not only that, but this boy was powerful, nowhere near his power at full or skill, but still...he had access to magic he had never tried to tap. He was more conventional, this boy..he was all over the place. A true jack of all trades, only he had mastered a few as best he could.

The two of them stepped off stage, and the magus bowed to Negi, something Negi rose an eyebrow at, but , after a few seconds, returned the favor. "Kago" decided to speak then, to wish Negi good luck tomorrow, but the boy had already turned to walk off. He closed his mouth with a snap instead, and watched the retreating back with interest.

All the preliminary matches were over and Negi had finally finished all of what he should have done for the first day of the festival. The next day would be the fights themselves, which meant he had one night to train and rest up, brush up on skills and put himself to the final tests. All "systems" had to be go here for him to be satisfied, but before he could escape to train, some of his students grabbed him for a party. It was during this party that Asakura approached him and handed him a flyer, and, upon taking a peek at it, he saw it was the scheduled matches, and who he would eventually have to fight tomorrow morning...

((I wonder, do you notice anything...hmm..different?))

Tekane Goodman Vs. Mei Sakura

Ku Fei Vs. Mana Tatsumiya

Evangeline A K McDowell Vs. Kago Masato

Ku Nel Sanders Vs. Tankana

Kaede Nagase Vs. Nakamura Tatsuya

Kotarou Inugami Vs. Takamitchi Takahata

Setsuna Sakuazaki Vs. Negi Springfield

((Ah ha ha ha! I expect to receive a couple of odd comments because of this...heh. Remember, I don't do anything without a reason however...))

Negi slowly smiled. It didn't matter if there was a rule against bladed weapons. This...this was his chance. With such a prize at stake, and the girl fighting for whatever she was fighting for, Negi was certain that she would not go easy on him again, not this time. No, not this time. He would get his battle, finally. He would get this battle. No metal weapons, but that didn't mean you couldn't use wooden ones or some other material. Negi was, in this moment, loving random selection, or whomever had thought this up. If he won the first match...

Even if all he was here for was to keep an eye on his student, Chao, who had, out of nowhere, decided to sponsor this event, and who, out of nowhere, had pulled the huge prize money and the advertising. Even if the others were here for the same thing, he knew a small part of them wanted the prize too, and that small part of them would make them fight hard as hell, which is what Negi's small part of him wanted. He could care less about the yen, he already had a tidy sum amount of the stuff sitting in his account from his father's savings and the fact that he had so much over time pay from the school. It was the fight that riled him.

Negi saw Setsuna off in the distance, having received her paper, and he saw her eyes still at the final names listed. Her and him again. A small smile was on her face too, but not quite as powerful as Negi's own, just the typical confident smile. The girl had gone easy on him before, but Negi had trained like hell since then, been through Sukuna, Swallowthorn, Tuskuyomi, His mother...his skill in hand to hand combat and his skill in subtle magics had improved greatly, even in such a short time. He was ready, oh hell, no he hated the fact his body, being alive and human, would need sleep. He had a feeling that would be difficult tonight...

When the party finally finished and Negi had shooed his students to their dorm beds, he grabbed a broom stick, running out of his own dorm, where he had dropped off Asuna and Konoka, to go into the night air to practice with it. His daily routine would not be interrupted even by the festival and he had succeeded in catching an extra day in the process. Sweet for him, but it also meant that, after his training, he would really need to catch a few hours of shut eye. Ohh well. He hoped he would be exhausted enough for it...

+--4--+

The next day broke incredibly. Beautifully, but who cares about the morning day sun anymore? Not in this story. It's become a stall technique for the author, hasn't it? So forget about the sunny beautiful day for once! Today was crazy! People were running all over the place, mainly, to buy tickets for Mahora's most recently popular event, the Martial Arts Tournament, where an impressive prize was being offered, and the contestants were just as impressive. Of the main gossip for the day?

How they were planning to do all of this in one day...and what would happen if the rookie wonder Professor Springfield had to fight Chairman Fei again? Or the Death Specs Takahata against Chairman Fei. Would he fight a former student? Just who was this Kago guy? Who was the one who was rumored to be able to use the legendary "To-ate" technique? Who the heck was Kotarou? Natsumi's brother? Okay, who is Natsumi, and I still have to ask what the kid is doing here...right? Is there no junior section anymore?!

What about the one with the kendo stick?! Or the skinny little girl, what the heck is she doing here? What's with all the people in robes?! Is that a new style no one got the memo for?! Ohh, the scary gunslinger girl, but she's without a gun! Chairman Fei with wipe the floor with her! It was things like this that flew around the crowds like wildfires, ones that could not be put out with simple water. These people were excited. They were anxious, and they were throwing their money around for the best ticket possible. Negi's class got a break, some of them managed to snag the few free tickets the boy had. Some managed to snag tickets from their other classmates who were participating...hey, what was it with the predominantly class 3A participants anyway?!

Was it because the runner of the event was part of the class too? Or the announcer for that matter?! What about the commentary? No stupid, it's because they are stupid as heck, but strong as...heck! Stupid!!! Where did you get that from?! Springfield-sensei runs that class on a ship so tight you couldn't even pop a bubble without causing an uproar! Oh, and what are their grades like? Better than yours! Hey!! That's not funny!

Chisame sidled into the crowd and found her seat. She had nothing else to do today, might as well take a look here, right? The rumors about that little sensei were flying, and although she had never seen him fight, she had heard things about him from the start. Why not see if they were true?

Meanwhile, in the preparation areas, Negi wasn't paying attention to last minute details, he would be in the last match of the first round, so why should he worry now? Instead, he had Anya facing him and she had her fist clenched so tight one could see the white knuckles clearly on that shaking hand. Her eyes were equally clenched, tight in concentration.

Yet, in the next seconds, she opened them, breathing heavily and Negi shook his head, his hand on his forehead, massaging it as he thought. The girl in front of him took a deep breath and tried again until Negi grabbed the vibrating fist.

"Anya, you're not going to accomplish anything by trying to kill yourself in the process. Relax the grip on your wand and calm down. Feel for the magic through your wand. Concentrate on the flow, and when you think you gathered enough from the flow, then you can try to force it."

She stared at the ceiling, once again having her fist vibrate with the effort she was using to clench it. Negi shook his head. He pointed to her fist mutely and she unclenched it. Negi rose his own and closed it with a snap. An aura of fire sprang around it and quickly intensified. Soon one could not even see the fist underneath it all, the fire encompassed an area a half foot wide and about a foot and a half tall. Anya stared at it with awe. That is what he wanted her to learn how to do?

"Of course, you don't need it to be this big, I only made it this big for show. It's much better to use the same power in a smaller space. Makes the fire all the hotter and bright."

He demonstrated this without moving, and indicated Anya to try for herself. The boy smirked a bit as she tried once more unsuccessfully.

Yet, one should not count out Anya. As Negi was her official sensei now, he had gone to long lengths to try and improve her skills in magic. Mainly, he almost always took her with him when he went out ot train, only recently had he cut back during the festival.

She had managed to re-master her fire arrows, and had finally, after much grief, gotten down an odd, combination arrow Negi had been trying to teach her, a "Fulgoris Ingus" type, which looked like an ordinary fire arrow, but upon striking, burned _and_ electrified... potentially stunning an opponent. This fist of fire however, was nothing new. It just seemed she had the most difficulty with bringing magic into her body and channeling it to come out somewhere else.

Besides this, he had managed to strengthen her basic Deflexio a bit through practice and had managed to introduce her to "Capteus Flammeus", as it seemed the girl worked only with fire, except for the one combination the boy had taught her..but to do lightning alone? Not yet.

Yet still, he had managed to stuff in her head the basic disarmament spell, which actually had a fire based version, which he had employed in full to teach her, and had just yesterday gotten her to complete her learning of imbuing a weapon with fire, namely, for now, her wand, as he had yet to trust her skill enough to give her an actual weapon...

Negi shook his head after the fifth try from her. He nodded to her and mimed a punch in the opposite direction from her, and she paled, yet still, she rose her wand and slashed it down quickly, calling up a Deflexio, to which the boy reared back his fist and easily shattered it with brute force alone. She looked down, still ashamed at that fact.

He had taught her some basic martial arts, something he called: "The flight of Otter on the Bedrocks." Yet she didn't really get it, and could only struggle with the first level of it...yet still, even when she tried and forced as much magic as she could into her wand hand and punched straight out, all she ended up getting against his Deflexio was a vibrating funny bone and an aching set of knuckles.

Asuna could shatter it...well, when she was powered up by an ally contract that is, otherwise, she was no better than Anya...but when Negi powered her with it, she _still_ couldn't break it. Not that the boy cared, he only gave a half smile and told her it was okay, that she was still young and able to learn, but how young was he?!

To her, it seemed that, no matter how string she would get, no matter what she gained, he would have gained eight times more in half the time, and he would still be far out of her reach. No, she didn't want to beat him, but she wanted him to...talk to her like the others. Respect her was the word...right? The fact that she was just that much stronger than a regular nearly eight year old mage was lost on her. It didn't matter when it came to Negi.

You compare yourself to a peer Anya, and you are a ant lion among the ants. Don't try looking in Negi's direction however...He's the kid with the magnifying glass looming above...and even if he is eager to teach, don't expect to surpass him with his own tricks...

+--E--+

A bit short, but this is overdue I think, and I can't think to put something else here. Take it and run with it. I have to work with the next one. Why is it all the stories I keep track of aren't updating? I feel like the only one...ehh.


	27. Chapter XXVI: Power Rush

Can I really do this? Can I? I feel tired and lost from writing. Snow kept me from writing on Friday, so I have just submitted a chapter that is in my mind, late, Chapter 25. Life. It tries to kill me every day, neh?

I do not own Negima, but if I did...I probably would be insane by now...not that I'm currently not...

This chapter is most likely going to be either action packed and incredible or fall flat on its face. Think of it as a soufflé (Tell me is I spelled that right...)) If I don't do this right...well, it'll collapse on me... imagine me in a cartoon, cooking it while a rock concert is going on in the next room and the martial arts festival above my head. Yep, this chapter is doomed...or is it?

Again with the too being to. Roar. That's an issue I need to look over deeply, for I do re-read this, I don't have spell check, and so the odd typos have morphed beyond the spell check. *Narrows eyes at typos* Grr...they have evolved so spell check can't hurt them...stupid typos.

We all have our different universes and plots. Yes, this is an alternate reality, in which our actual Manga Negi is paying a visit and trying to mess with our heads. How different is this alternate reality however? That my friends, is still in my head, and I can't let that secret out, yet...

If you are looking for more Chao plans, read ahead my friends. Also...space station? Do you mean Magus Negi? Of course he fits more, he's the one we all know and love. Yes, I am more of a rocker or metal head, gothic music type of person at heart, but that doesn't mean I don't listen to other things. I have a CD that has, in order, a ninth symphony, Crawling in the dark, Time of Dying, This Love, Tourniquet and finally Every time we touch. I'm just crazy like that.

How cruel can this child be you ask? Incredibly. Negi is not like a child at all, I've stated this before, but he's like a bitter, middle aged man stuck in a child's body. When one views themselves as a tool, an object...there isn't much hope in those eyes, only purpose...or _**is**_ Negi really a tool with no compassion? That, is up to you all to decide...

Oh, I'm surprised none of you pointed out something wrong with the match ups for the tounament. I mean seriously wrong. Or do you trust me so much? Well, do so, because it's.."wrong" for a reason...but I'd still like someone to notice...next chapter I'll say it myself.

+---+

_****__**Chapter Twenty Six: Power Rush**_

+---+

A cheer was belted out by a crowd that packed the stadium sardine style, even as a body was sent flying out of the ring and rolled along the pathway they had come from, landing baldly in an undignified fashion. It was certain that if the law came, the whole operation would be shut down...occupancy by over xxx people is unsafe and unlawful? Who cared? The campus police were taking bets themselves! Mei's heart plummeted as the sound around her soared, She righted herself quickly, thanking whatever deity was out there that old habits of wearing pants in America died hard. The announcer called out the victors name, as Mei had been disqualified via ring out.

Well, no one could say, she had not tried. Her ojo sama was just too powerful for her, one Tekane Goodman looked a bit ashamed at her victory, maybe she had gone a little too far? Well, maybe kicking her straight in the gut before blasting her back with a quick, near invisible shaft of darkness was a bit too harsh, even if Mei had survived that one on ring edge. The finishing move though was a bit cruel on her part, but it was a tournament, she couldn't baby her charge forever after all.

The two left together regardless, for Tekane did feel a bit guilty. The two of them had caused no damage to the stage, their fight was purely physical, which was what one expected in a martial arts tournament after all, yet the two lacked action, which didn't satisfy the crowd much..yet they only had to look at the next round to get excited. The Chairman of the Martial Arts Tournament, the obvious favorite for the gold, was to go against Mana Tasumiya, a scary gunslinger relieved of her weapon, but no less intimidating, for no one knew what she was capable of without it.

The stage was set, and as Negi walked into the special viewing box put aside for contestants, Anya following not too far behind in his brown robe, he heard the announcer, a voice he identified as one of his students, call the mark for the match to start. His eyes looked down, and instantly, Ku Fei fell. At, least, that is what Anya saw, Negi saw something fly from Mana's hand and bean the other in the head. His eyes focused on a coin, which rolled to a stop near the edge of the ring. He couldn't see from here what exact value it was though, but who cared? Ku Fei got up after about five seconds, to most of the crowd's relief. She readied herself.

Negi watched carefully as Mana extended her arm, and from her sleeve, a slot of coins fell, like some kind of darn coin changer. Hidden weapons be damned! The marksman began shooting them off right at Ku Fei, almost like a machine gun as the other girl did her best to dodge them quickly. Those shots that missed shot through the very stage, shattering the boards and showing the power behind those shots. Negi gritted his teeth. Shit. Take away her gun, and she'll shoot fricken coins at you!

He could only hope at the end of it she'd have enough money for the flipping vending machine. Negi knew Ku Fei from his fight with her, and his time in the Martial Art's dojo. She was a close range fighter. If she wanted to win, she needed to lose distance like this, otherwise, sooner or later, one of those would hit her, and it would be all over. Yet, quite suddenly, she stopped, and Mana looked at her oddly as she rose a foot before stomping it down.

In that near instant, Negi saw the girl disappear, and his eyes flew wild to look where she went before locking unto Mana, where Ku Fei had simply appeared, and had missed in slamming her elbow into Mana's midsection. Her other hand came out to palm thrust the other girl upwards, but Mana blocked it with her elbow and brought her shooting hand out, a coin still in it. A single sentence came from her before the force of her shot sent Ku Fei actually flying up.

"I'm not limited by distance."

Negi's mind ran circles as he saw the girl go up and then come down. Mana didn't let up and shot down at the fallen form with deadly accuracy, beaning her in the head again and twice on the arms when she tried to block. She couldn't continue this technique, eventually she'd run out of money, right? Just like any gun, it's ammo wasn't endless. Negi had seen this before, in movies, but never employed as a full on technique like this girl was doing now. It was a distraction thing, like a horse hair spear. Yet, what had Ku Fei just done? Disappearing from one place to reappear in another, just like that? Was it possible the girl had gone easy on him to, just like Setsuna? No....

Negi was a close on fighter, and that technique was very deliberate. If she had tried that with him, he would have rushed in and used it as an opening. Disappearing from one place to reappear in another was an incredible thing, but it was useless here against his close on, all around technique, she had not used it because it would have been impractical...Negi rejoined the fight just in time to see Mana shoot Ku Fei several times in the torso and upper chest, if she had been holding a real gun, Ku Fei would have been Swiss cheese by now. The girl fell, yet still tired to get up, only to get beaned square in the joint of the arm and fall again. The boy clenched his fist.

No, a gun user was not superior to a close on fighter, not like this. It would mean that he himself in that situation would lose, for he would not dare use magic in this kind of tournament. Not before anyone else anyway. Ku Fei had pulled a trick, but it could be written down as just plain speed. Mana came up slowly, and fired off one more shot. Yet, from Negi's vantage point, he could look Ku Fei dead in the face and his gritted teeth showed.

_Get up you lazy bum...I know you're not done yet..._

The message from the eyes was clear and the clench of a fist was the only apparent signal before Ku Fei pulled on the cloth sash she had around her costume, smacking away the coin before sending it flying to wrap around Mana's face and her free hand, tight. She was caught now. Who would have thought Ku Fei had Fuso Jutsu with her? Yet, even as some began to cheer, thinking the girl done, Mana shot off a coin to break the cloth that had her tight, forcing her hand free from her face.

Ku Fei pulled back her cloth and began shooting it off at Mana from different directions, making Mana the one to need the skill of dodging now. That was until Mana shot off at Ku's arm again, right at the joint once more, making a pause in the relentless attacks. Yet, Ku Fei, in a final blaze, caught Mana's arm and pulled her, yanking her towards herself and letting go of her cloth. Preparing both hands, she slammed into Mana, knocking all of her coins away with an attack of hard chi. She was left staring at a polished nail, void of any coins left to ping at her. She fell to her knees, the battle having taken its toll, but this was her final act.

Pressing right in the midsection, she let loose the rest of her pent up energy, It would have blown Mana back had it not been for her strong standing. Instead, she tactfully fell to the ground face first. The count then came, showing that time always will continue no matter the intensity of battle. When ten finally came, Mana was still down, and Ku Fei, she was proclaimed the winner. Negi had to shake his head at that one. So that was the power the two of them held...brilliant.

Later on, Negi met Ku Fei in the temporary infirmary for the contestants, the stage had to be fixed after Mana had wrecked it, so there was a reprieve before Negi could get to see the vampire in action against the weird robed guy who had passed the preliminaries with him. Ku Fei was not happy with the nurse, who was attempting to ban the girl from further fighting. Upon spying Negi, she implored to him, trying to use him as a proxy for the girl's obvious stubbornness on wishing to continue.

"Ahh, Springfield-sensei, could you please tell this girl she can't fight in the next match!? She's got a broken arm and there are a few fracture lines along her other arm that aren't pretty to me!"

Negi rolled his eyes. The words people used these days, and the things they asked him to do for them. He sighed and folded his arms in front of himself as he walked up. He leaned against the pole that was one piece of the frame for which held the privacy curtail in place. He raised an eyebrow as he looked the two women up and down, his student and the nurse. He spoke first to Ku Fei, softly and with a sharp bite at the end of his tongue, the voice of authority. He then addressed the nurse in the same tone, almost carelessly.

"Do you think you can fight effectively against an opponent with two arms nearly disabled? What if you have to go up against an opponent who is mean enough to exploit that weakness? If I fought you right now in the next round, I would take full advantage of the fact your arms were disabled, only problem is I'm to damn short to exploit it. There is a large prize evolved in this tournament, you don't want to end up in the hospital after your next fight. Best thing is to count your losses and forfeit instead of lose because of a broken flipping arm...and you, can't you friggin tell her that yourself? Or do you need a baby to baby you? Ku Fei-san, I need to speak to you when you get out of here..it's about your match."

With that, the boy left, and as he closed the door to the infirmary, he picked up a suitor robed in brown, that suitor being Anya in his robes. Why she was in his robes was real simple, she wanted to come, only if anyone saw her they would ask questions, so she went around robed. She had none of her own, so she was treated to a scent halfway between fresh lemon and cool water, a kind of spring rain on lemon leaves smell she identified as him. He looked back at her, for she had her fist bared and it was circulated with hot air that he could see, the kind you saw radiating off a stove fire. She was almost there, almost. Once she mastered that flaming fist, he would teach her more. His main objective was to drill the basics into her head so she could pass the test, but why stop there? She would be with him for twelve fricken years, why not train her to be strong?

+--1--+

Deep in the stadium, several computers were hooked up to one network, and Chao slapped the monitor of one she was working on. Stupid thing moved slower than a snail. She couldn't help but compare the measly strength these things had compared to what she had grown up with. A flash drive with sixteen mega bytes of space? Hah, you laughed at someone who had a thumb interface with only sixteen Geopbytes of storage. (Approximately one million Yottabytes. A Yottabyte can be compared to the entire internet, as that is almost a Yottabyte by now...I think.) If something a Yottabyte big took more than a second to download, you cursed. She had to get used to the fact that technology had grown so much in the time of one life time, Negi Springfield's. Much of that growth was his fault actually, but she was getting off topic. An envelope rested next to her. Mana had refused it. Odd of her, but of no consequence really. She had no use for the massive amount of money he had acquired here.

Maybe she'd dump it on her magi-sensei to be, this Negi Springfield, when she left, in fact, she had managed to hack his bank account from the banks systems. It held a tidy sum already, but nothing to call the boy rich on, but he wasn't to be called poor either. She fiddled with the keys on the keyboard, wondering if she should transfer the funds or not. She had underestimated the amount of money she had, and even the prize money would not drain her dry, as she had originally planned.

"Computer, should I transfer this..?"

This was one of the key reasons she was referred to as a mad scientist, just like her friend Satomi..no, scratch that. Satomi had been an ordinary genius, bored out of her mind, it was Chao's influence that drove the girl insane, and had, by extension, made her all the more intelligent. She had twisted the girl's mind like play-doh with her persuasive techniques, all taught by her magi sensei, the Magus Springfield.

Once again, her hand came out and lightly smacked the monitor she was looking at upside it's technological head, and the display shivered slightly. She had once again forgotten that these computers could not think like that for her, not in this timeline. Sighing, she looked at the amount she had. It was a lot of money after all. In total, she had approximately seven hundred and sixty million of the stuff, but one had to take into account the hundred million yen prize, and the payments due on all of her projects funding. If you subtracted it all, she had originally expected the amount to be zero, but instead, she was still left with around two hundred and sixty million.

Blame Satomi for good budgeting will you? Don't blame her math. Satomi knew how to get a deal apparently, even when Chao told her to spend as much as she liked. Her finger hovered over the keys on her keyboard. Two accounts were open for transferring money with on her screen, Satomi's, whose she knew because they worked together, and Negi's. Satomi had quite a bit less in her own student account than Negi, which made perfect sense, she only got money from parents and the school funding her lab projects, Negi had a full time job with plenty overtime and substitution hours.

Finally, she set a timer as she heard the announcer, one Asakura, call out that the stage repairs had been completed. She had been interested in an odd robed man being in her contest, and wanted to watch on the screens. She split the money, giving Negi one and Satomi one sixty, set it on a timed release before calling to the air for a hologram, slapped her forehead in frustration, and finally typing on her keyboard before a screen pulled up, showing the ring. She then sat back, relaxed, and prepared to enjoy the obvious show she was going to be in store for. The computer beeped in time with the passing of seconds as the transfer counted down.

"Let's see what the famous Eva-chan has in store. Magi-sensei claimed that it had been Eva and Setsuna san. Must be a hiccup in the timelines. All the more exciting."

Back at the ring, Eva stepped lightly up to the platform, and the magus on the opposite side matched her light steps. His staff was in the dressing room, but on his finger was the ring that, long ago, this same Eva had handed down to him. He wondered if this Eva had given the Negi in this time line that gift yet. Probably not, considering the boy didn't wear it on his finger. The magus had passed him in the hallway, followed by a tiny robed figure, and the boy had waved a lazy hand in his direction, calling out some half hearted good luck. Then, the hand had been empty, but a dark blue tattoo was quite apparent on his wrist.

Now the magus stared down at the vampire who, even now, was still far older than he. He smiled behind his robe's hood, which hid his face. He had made sure it would not fly off in the upcoming battle, he had Velcroed it to his darn head. How? Don't ask. Please, just don't ask, you don't want to know. Eva looked mildly bored, but since when was she otherwise? The announcer blared her introductions, meaningless talk. When finally the starting signal was given, the magus took a quiet, invisible step in his robes and disappeared from sight, appearing in behind Eva to whisper in her ears.

"Try to hold on as long as possible, old friend."

Her eyes widened and she spun around, her hands extended, but long practice had allowed Negi to know exactly how those spindly threads the other was calling worked, and he spun quickly, disappearing from sight again to reappear behind Eva once more, kicking her lightly in the small of the back and pitching her forward. Yet, once she had spun around again, he disappeared once more to come to her back, a few feet away. She didn't try to attack this time, just cast a cautionary glance at her back, and indeed, there he was.

"Hmph. I have no idea what you are talking about, "old friend". You must have me mistaken for-"

In a flash, the magus filled her vision, kicking her straight up with a well placed knee and chopping her right in the midsection, sending her flying backwards. Yet he still managed to allow her to hear him when he spoke, and when she landed on her left foot and hands before jumping back up, she could only be forced to think. She rushed at him now, and he disappeared into the wind once more, prompting a verbal response from her even as he mind still tried to process where she might have seen him before.

"Stop running and hiding, this isn't some game of seek! Fight me like a man!"

_"You won't remember me, as you have yet to meet me in full my vampire friend. Just know I am closer than you think, and your curse, because of my hands, will soon be history."_

Eva extended those sharp, long nails once the man in front of her disappeared again, and he reappeared right where she hoped. She caught him in her web and she quickly tightened her hold, lifting him bodily up, but the man, in a brief and near invisible glow of magic, snapped the bonds and disappeared again, reappearing to kick her forward to fall on her face. The hell was this guy?! Once more she got up, and eyed him, as he was now on the other side of the ring, on the edge. He smiled at her from behind his hood, something she could not see. Yet his voice still floated to her, and only to her.

"This place is so different, it drives me giddy, so I feel no guilt in saying this. tell your friend to travel to the layers below the one he was in with the book. He must go alone, for otherwise he will end up in the same place. There, he will find your cure, and a curious power it is, but that is only from where I come from. The rest is up to him."

He disappeared again and another knee knocked her skyward before an elbow slammed into her gut, sending her back down. Eva landed on all fours and swirled away from another kick, and rushed him from the side, viciously kicking at his knees and bringing him down, for it was from the back and he had not seen.

She spun back from her sweeping kick to punch him straight in the gut, but he disappeared again, reappearing none too far from her once more. The crowd wasn't silent during this match, but they might as well have been, for Eva and the man paid them zero attention, and didn't hear them as they fought...

Finally, Eva brought him to his knees with a well placed kick and caught him in her bonds, lifting him bodily and this time putting quick a lot of effort into the art to keep him bound. She approached him steadily, and pummeled him thoroughly with several high kicks.

It took her a while to realize the man was not moving and that the some of the crowd was actually laughing at her. She felt a tap on her shoulder and, in spinning around, walked right into a knee to the face. Shadow copies, goddamn! She got up quickly though and launched herself at him, yet, in a smooth movement, he caught her and held her up like one would a dirty doll.

Once more that invisible smile graced his lips, one she could not see, and he laughed openly as Eva actually tried to kick him. She was obviously to short for the task, so only two came from her before she fixed him with a glare.

"Oh you don't know how much I enjoy this Eva. I can't do this to you ordinarily you know, so it's fun to play with old friends like this...ha ha..."

He let her go to drop to the ground and teleported away once more before she could react, landing back down a few meters from her back. His smile was still there behind the hood. Truth be told, if he wasn't so darn tired and old, he could have easily dispatched this magic less Eva, but this was more difficult.

The said vampire was rushing at his unprotected back, but he spun to face her at the last moment, bending down on one knee again to punch her straight in the middle, blasting her back once more. This was the only way he could really hit her with his fists...she was so short after all...

He had to inwardly laugh at that one. It had always been him who was short, but now, the tables had turned, hmm? It really was a pain to fight someone this much shorter than you and so much more youthful of body. A true pain.

The aged magus didn't stop teleporting away from Eva, which might have been looked on as unfair if it were not for the fact that Eva was far more energetic than he, and he was easily tiring. Yet, in a smooth move, he once more knelt on one knee and punched her straight in the gut, or he would have, but she had him this time.

Dodging it smoothly in that last minute, she tried to swiftly kick him in the temple, but his other hand came out, and that powerful, magically enhanced punch caught her in the kidney area, blowing her back once more.

She landed inches from ring out and jumped back at him, as he was still knelt on the ground, his hands on the ground supporting him, yet, at the last second before she could send her foot crashing into his skull, he extended his hand again, the magic he had been gathering springing into life.

It wasn't a punch this time, it was a fully fledged beam, which shot outwards, the shockwave from the collision sent the tiny vampire flying far more than the first had, and she landed right in the water, to which the man could only smack his forehead at... The damn vampire couldn't flipping swim! Yet, he had to wait...

Once the ten count was reached, he did run to the edge of the ring, but he had to stop at the water. He would have to throw off his robe...yet Negi, the younger one, saved him the trouble, running up to him and pushing him violently out of the way. His voice was a beratement, both the magus's soul and his pride. He couldn't help but feel ashamed as he watched the other plunged head first into the water like an otter.

"If you're going to get firggin cold feet at the last minute, get out of my damn way, I don't want to be writing any friggin reports about why one of my students drowned on my friggin watch!"

Negi located Eva, who was in the water with her eyes closed, but that didn't bug him as he grabbed the tiny vampire and tried to get back up to the surface. Who said the girl was light? Sure, she was, but not in water! Vampires were dead weights in water. Blame...whatever it was. Physics, the law, whoever, he didn't care. Eventually he did manage to surface with the girl however, and was welcomed with applause he did not particularly want nor need. What he really wanted was a hand to help him up out of the water, but that was too much to hope for, right? So he pushed out of the water himself and, dragging a frozen Anya, went off to the infirmary, making a long wet stripe on the ground with his own wet clothes and the action of dragging Eva along.

Of all the day's annoyances, I, Negi Springfield, name these. So help me god. As he dragged, the older Negi shrugged and walked off, still a bit shamed, but not in the least disappointed. He knew now that this boy had a kind side to him at least, or one that cared. Screw his excuse on duty, he had just jumped into a pool of water to pull out one of his students. That alone was more trouble than writing up a report of death or whatever paper work may come his way...

+--2--+

The forth match wasn't even worth mentioning, as Ku Nel easily dispatched the robotic Tanaka, even as his existence surprised many. A rocket punch throwing laser beam dolling robot? Japan at its finest huh? Too bad Ku Nel shundoed behind the thing and pulled it's plug. That match didn't even break the thirty second mark.

Negi wasn't paying attention to it, he was too busy arguing with the damn nurse again, telling her that all the girl needed was her lungs pumped, there was no blood tests to be taken. Oh, Eva would owe him for this, she would, he was fiercely trying to protect her race secret and prevent a riot. What was it about this damn girl and water? He had saved her from it twice. Back in his debt she was. Keehaul it all.

Negi managed to return to the ring only to realize that Kotarou was already fighting, apparently, two short matches had taken place and it was time for him to get ready. He left as soon as the match begun in full, to prepare, while Takahata began to play with Kotarou. He sent an elbow flying into his gut, sending him sprawling backwards before he put his hands in his pockets and just stood there. Negi didn't get to see Kotarou shundo away from multiple shots from Takahata, or to see Takahata shundo in response to get behind the boy and pummel him with shots.

Takahata brutally kicked Kotarou in the ribs, making him fly upwards before he jumped after him, punching him back down to slam into the ring, causing a crater there before Takahata began firing shots off at the downed form. True, he wasn't going serious, but he didn't want to lose either. He wanted to see how far Negi had come, and for that, he needed to pass this round, and hope the boy would pass Setsuna. Yet, the same want to fight the boy burned in Kotarou, and he got up and rushed the older man.

Negi was oblivious to how he brought out desire in those who wanted to test their mettle against him. He only brought up his kendo stick and began to slash at the air, passing it under his feet as he jumped and launching forward quickly, seeing how fast he could strike and pull back, like a snake. As he slashed at the air and performed a particularly difficult maneuver, Kotarou was once again sent flying from a punch to the face courtesy of Takahata. The old man was strong, he'd give him that much.

The boy found himself having to shundo away from even more iaiken blasts, yet a couple found their mark, and as more found their mark, hitting him in the chest and face, along with his legs, he slowed down. As Negi raised his blade in training, Kotarou jumped up, rushing at Takahata, and received an iaiken right in the face, yet he dropped and rolled closer, coming up to sweep his leg to try and trip the other up, but he simply jumped up and stomped down, catching his leg under his feet on a dime, making the boy wince. Takahata looked at the boy's face and shot a hit right in his face right as Negi himself jumped up in practice and slashed at a target, slapping it away to bounce off a wall.

Yet still, Kotarou got up by the count of eight, and began calling up his dog demons. All secrecy forgotten now, he launched them forward, and Takahata was forced to dodged them and slam up an arm to deter one of them as they jumped him. He threw them off when they all grouped together and mobbed him, and as he did so, he fired off shot after shot, firing with all the more deadly accuracy and power, showing little mercy here and now as he shot down Kotarou and brought him near the edge of the ring. The boy did one last shundo to come up close and punch him with all his might in the gut, making the man fly, but not far enough, Takahata landed almost at ring out, but not quite. He launched off from where he was just at Kotarou launched himself and they both met in a tackle that blew the boy back. He just didn't have enough weight or size to defeat Takahata here.

Finally, Takahata performed a shundo to get right in Kotarou's area and punched him dead in the gut, sending him flying backwards and adding a few iaiken shots for good measure to blast the boy out of the ring. Just as he realized he was ring out and tried to get back in before the time limit, Takahata fired off more shots and rushed at him to the edge of the ring, viciously kicking him and then slamming an elbow down with all his might, knocking a few screws loose from the boy's brain and knocking his lights out. He sank, finally allowing the ten count to catch him. Kotarou Inugami, out!

Negi heard a cheer and clenched his stick tightly. He had abandoned his suit, which had gotten wet, and wore a traditional martial arts garb. A deep blue, almost black, belt was tied around his waist and his eyes narrowed. This was it. He stood up quickly from his squatting position, so quickly, he startled Anya, but at that moment of being startled, her fist sprang to life with fire. Negi nodded at the sight, prompting the girl to look down and shriek. The fire dissipated almost instantly at that call, but Negi still had a half smile for her.

"You've won your match with magic, not it's time for me to win my match. Wish my opponent luck will yah? I want a challenge."

With that, the boy walked off, leaving Anya to stare at her fist. Wish his opponent luck? It reminded her of a long time ago, the first time she had successfully cast the combination arrow of lightning and fire, by accident. The two of them had been on a field trip, and she had accidentally peeped in upon one of Negi's training sessions. It turned into an opportunity to learn a new spell, the "Fulgoris Ingus" type magic arrow. She had failed then and Negi had expected nothing more.

Yet, later on, when a flank of demons had ambushed them from the side, taking hostage a couple of her classmates, Negi, as one of the seniors, had spun around and, upon seeing the attackers, gained a heavy, hateful expression. He began to fire of magical arrows, some of which bounced off their scale like armor, but most hit home. Anya had felt so helpless then, they all had, but she had managed to remember what she had been trying to learn the day before and raised a shaky hand with her wand shining bright. She spoke out the words Negi dared not to in public, his own combination spell for a stunning fire arrow, and the magic had obeyed her, springing up and boring right into one of the demon's hides, surprising them, drawing attention away from Negi and a few other seniors.

Negi took the chance along with a few other brave souls and attacked the demon's exposed backs, finally felling them, but, even with the victory, the boy had not been happy. They had lost one demon, and that demon had taken two of their own. When all the students had come away a safe distance and the teachers were calming them down, Negi broke from the rest, going back to scout. No one knew what happened that day, but the boy returned drenched in blood from head to toe, and none of it seemed to come from him, for he had no cuts. It was on that day that Negi finally cemented his legend to the first years she was part of, the simple fact that the youngest, smallest senior was by far the most dangerous.

That is what Negi had meant to her when he had made her practice that spell on her first day with him on a visit, he knew she could do that combination arrow, she just needed to regain confidence, to find that power she had unlocked upon the call of duty. Now it was hers, and as she thought that, she got up quickly and ran after Negi, going for the viewing platform even as the boy went for the ring. She would watch him and see his fighting in action. All of this training, but she never got to see him actually use it, unless you counted Swallowthorn, and that was more magical than physical...

A blaring announcer spoke over all the people as the finishing touches on a once again broken stage were finished, and the bets were being closed off, as the match was coming underway, the rookie sensei, known by all as Springfield, clutched a kendo stick opposite his opponent, also wielding one, the esteemed bodyguard of Konoka, Setsuna Sakurazaki. Before the match would begin, even as Asakura was introducing them, Negi eyed the girl with a venomous look. His face plainly describing his will to make sure she did not go easy on him this time. His whole body was tense, the training he had undergone all for this. The final match of the first round...begins!

+--3--+

Negi rushed Setsuna, easily, swinging his weapon high and bringing it down as soon as he was within range for a clean chop from shoulder to torso, which was blocked equally as easily by Setsuna. She spun to kick Negi, but he ducked and forced his blade downwards, breaking the block and trying to bore in on her middle, yet she danced away. The two faced each other again, barely moving from the exchange. One would think they hadn't even started yet...

_If you go easy on me again, I'll never forgive you Sakurazaki._

Negi shot forwards, striking out with his blade at some unseen signal to slash at the girl's torso, but she blocked it, yet, Negi retracted and became still again, as if nothing had happened. Setsuna moved her weapon so she could grip it with both hands, keeping it still in front of her. Negi lashed out again and she once again blocked, bringing out her foot to kick, but Negi detached once more, jumping back like a cobra's head and ducking the kick. He rushed back in by pushing off the ground, forcing his duck in to a charge as he brought his blade to bear on her knee, forcing the other to jump off to the side and slash at his unprotected back, yet Negi pivoted and blocked this standing straight once more to face her in the opposite direction they had started. Once again, the staring commenced.

_He's improved in his response time greatly, he must have practiced extensively..hmm?_

Once more Negi launched forward, only when she reached out to block, his stick slipped from one hand into his other open one, and that open hand, upon receiving the weapon, shot forwards, tabbing her right in the gut and blasting her back a distance. Negi ran to close the distance and swung his shaft for her head, but Setsuna, who had landed on her behind, ducked under this and rolled out of his way, springing back up. Still, Negi was almost on top of her in a near instant, springing sideways and spinning to face her, swinging out his blade for her knees, which she jumped over.

_His speed has increased too... What?_

She landed behind him, but he was already in half turn, his stick flashing out to slash at her torso, but she jumped backwards to avoid it. Yet Negi came at her still, forcing her to jump back further until she had proper grounds to slash at him. the two spent a few seconds battling back and forth with blades, and then Negi let his foot fall forward, almost performing a slip to leg sweep her, which he once again jumped over, but, as she jumped to get in back of him, he shot his stick upwards, stabbing her once again in the gut and throwing her off balance in her flight, so she landed awkwardly.

Barely able to spring back up in time to block his probing weapon, she pushed him back from his attack, and charged him to break momentum, but Negi sidestepped her and tripped her up, swinging his weapon to catch her in the midriff with a slash that made her gasp. She landed with her back to him and spun in time to block him from getting her lower spine and instead the two were locked in blade dangerously close to Setsuna's kidney.

_All this...for the sake of proving himself to __**me**__?!_

Negi pushed all the harder and the distance closed slightly, forcing her to break off and spin away, yet once again Negi rushed her to keep the distance near zero as he swung his blade high to slash at her triceps. He ended up taking a bit of her sleeve with him. He rushed her continuously, making sure she could only block or dodge, she had no time to think. Once she sidestepped and he spun with her, slamming his blade home into her kidney hard enough to make sure there would be a bruise there tomorrow. His voice rose above the clamor of the crowd, which was invisible to him even as they roared.

"Stop going easy you fool, or I will destroy you utterly here and now!"

Setsuna stopped on a dime and rushed him now, both to them swinging and locking weapons almost every instant, pushing against each other, disengaging, raging at each other with ploys and face offs. Negi palmed the girl in the gut, but even as she bent down she shot her weapon forward to bean him square in the forehead. She would sweep his legs from under him, but he would take hers with him and punch her right in the jaw, making her hear cracks. They didn't pay attention to time, not even as they passed the ten minute mark and made their mark as the longest match so far. There was a fifteen minute time limit after all, and, more for the crowds benefit than the combatant's, there was now a timer on one of the displays counting down the time they had left.

Negi disengaged himself from Setsuna with a heavy kick to the gut and rushed after her, holding his weapon high and dodging a kick she sent him, for she had managed to keep her vertical base. He got behind her and slashed at her knees, at the last second turning the slash upwards to catch her right in weapon elbow, making the bone vibrate and sting. He battered at her arm while she blocked or dodged it, not letting the pain from it subside any as he pushed her. She spun faster than before now, ducked with more fluidity, he was sure that this was her true speed and strength now, but still, he rushed her all the harder.

Unbidden, magic poured into his reflexes and speed, lending him more physical prowess to lay at the feet of this confrontation as he stabbed right at her gut once more, needling her there before kicking her viciously in the kidney area. He fell, sweeping her legs from under her, finally and making her land right on his elbow, knocking her right in the ribs and drawing the breath right out of her before he kicked her from near him with his right foot, his left handed weapon coming out to slash at her retreating form.

She came up quickly, slashing out and catching Negi in a block, sending him skidding back with the force of the exchange. Negi gripped his stick and twisted it, breaking the hold and charging in, past her guard to elbow her in the gut, bringing his weapon to whisper along her neck before she managed to push him off, for the elbow had not been enough to make her lose her ground.

She came at him now, eyes bright as she slashed to catch him on the neck, he ducked, but met her knee, which came up and slammed into his nose, sending him reeling and into the range of her stick, which caught him right in the upper chest, making him shoot sideways.

Negi rolled on the ground quickly, coming up in time to hold his stick out in front of him to bar a downwards slash. The slash cut his stick neatly in two. Negi gripped the two ends and swirled them around like nun chucks, rushing her back again with two smaller weapons to her one.

He knocked her feet from under her with one stick and jabbed her in the kidney with the other, drawing breath and making her fall backwards to land a small distance away. The time limit was nearly up. There was but a minute left as Negi rushed the form on all fours, she managed to get to one knee before Negi brought down his stick hard on her back, making her fall back down. He looked at her from his vantage point, a bit coldly.

She tried to get back up again and he let her, only to smack her hand with blunt side of his stick, knocking her weapon away. His other flashed out, stabbing lightly at her windpipe and sending her reeling backwards. He rushed at her again, blade out, only, his armament did not hit, his free hand, relieved of its end of the stick, came out right to the temple. Good night Sakurazaki. She fell just as the time limit reached zero and a horn was sounded off somewhere.

He was still staring as the count out reached eight, and Setsuna struggled, but no. The ten count came and she had not gotten up. Negi Springfield, win. Only then did he allow himself to take a breath, only then did he allow himself to star out into the open sky and see the birds flying high. Anya stared with a n equal intensity at him. She had barely been able to follow all of that, but what she had been able to see was...brutal. Utterly brutal. She saw Negi bend down and lift Setsuna up to a sitting position, it seemed he had become a teacher again and was talking it her.

That above all scared her. How could he be so powerful, so strong, so violent, in one seconds and then become concerned in the very next? It was as if he was a toy you flipped on and off. Negi Springfield helped Setsuna out of the ring, and yet still he had left a Negi Springfield in the ring, breathing heavily and looking down at the fallen form of Setsuna. Two modes. A warrior and a teacher, all in one. This boy was either insane or had multiple personality disorder...

+--4--+

The first round was over, and the results were in. Chao looked at them on the the screen. She still had no idea who the heck the robed "Kago Masato" was, but he was skilled, that much was for certain, and his presence was an anomaly. She replayed his battle as she entered the information on her computer for the randomizer to chose the next set of matches. He moved smoothly, and pulled off the teleportation technique with incredible accuracy.

She herself had never learned that technique, although Magus had tried to get her to learn it several times. It just would not stick. She was simply a mid to higher mid level spell user with her magic, but the world tree was her source, and thus her power was quite potent...only thing was that using magic harmed her, but she had hardened herself to this. She was certain she could battle with it.

She watched as a powerful magical aura came from Kago's hands and blasted Eva clearly out of the ring and into the water. He seemed to realize afterwards that he had just sent a girl into the water, one that sunk like a rock, apparently being unable to swim or to hurt to try, yet he waited for the ten count before rushing in...

Still, Negi-sensei beat him to the punch, nearly pushing him aside and jumping in like a pro to fish her out. It made Chao think on how different this place was. Eva was supposed to fight Setsuna, Negi to fight Takahata, Kotarou to fight Mei...Asuna-san was supposed to be in here, but here...she had yet to receive her pactio. No one had pacitoed with Negi in fact, according to her information...

By her calculations, she could easily win this one, not like, as Magus had claimed before, she had lost her edevours in his timeline. In this one, the Negi could not shundo or fly, which cut off quite a good chunk out of what he could do to her. Yet still, he managed to do things his own way, it was only a matter of the skill of his improvisation to overcome her plans.

By her credit, they were pretty much the same as to what the old magus had advertised to her, just edited a bit to provide more stability. Her plan was more sound than the last one's because she had insight from a source that had lived through it...or had the other one also had insight as such?

Was this one big merry go round until one Chao had a solid enough plan to break free from the chains, or was Negi and his team destined to win no matter what happened? She shook her head. Even for a genius such as herself, it was confusing to think about how time worked, and how her existence messed with it.

Basically put, to her, everything that was happening had already happened, and everything that could possibly happen did. She could only experience one possibility, but all the others existed. In fact, the universe had already ended, no matter what time line you were in. YOU just hadn't got to that point in the story yet.

Yes, that's how magus explained it. Time was like a big, comprehensive, game. The ending has already been decided, you just haven't gone that far yet. No matter what decision you take, there is already an ending planned out for you. It's up to you to decide what ending you read however...

It wasn't universes that split like poorly sewn seams all the time, that theory was simply idiotic... you expect the universe to split just because you didn't blink in one of them?! It was people who took one path or another path. Every moment in time, time, you take one of an infinite amount of paths before you. They all lead somewhere, but that's the horizon you can't see yet...

As for the universe expanding faster than light, stretching itself to the limits...poppy cock! Science established light as the fastest thing out there, how could something be any faster? Not only that, but the universe was infinite..how could something infinite get any bigger? It was simply that the light and all the other waveforms were traveling to fill up the universe, and sensors think that the universe has grown because we get to see things we didn't before. If it's infinite, that's it, no bigger!

The girl sighed as the recording finished for what must have been the third time. A beep interrupted her thoughts further, telling her, for perhaps the hundredth time, that it had finished matching up the contestants for the next round. She hit the button to re-draw them one more time. The results made her crack a half smile. This was interesting...

Ku Nel Sanders Vs. Keade Nagase

Negi Springfield Vs. Takahata Takamitchi

Kago Masato Vs. Tekane Goodman

The robed mystery one gets an easy shot, but the other two go all out. Ku Nel was Alberio, that much, from her knowledge of the time lines, was obvious...who the heck calls themselves after a fried chicken joint anyhow? Idiot. Still, this battle was one that she thought was supposed to happen. Negi-sensei and Takahata was overdue however, and she wondered how it would go, or if the boy would learn the shundo by that time and put a small hole in her original plans. This Kago had it easy, but just how easy? Now that magic was to be shown, as an unbidden signal from the dog boy, one could only wonder what was going to happen. Well, it would happen soon, as she had simply pressed fax to remotely print the results in Asakura's area so she could ship it out and prepare...the next set of matches would begin in an hour...shall we see what fate has in store? What path will they all take?

+--END--+

My, oh my, a crazy time we will have next chapter, for sure! Less battles, more detail in them, I can only wait and rub my hands in anticipation...wait...what am I talking about...those are your lines...I'm the one who writes this rag! Well...digital rag anyway. Hi ho, a chapter a day! Yet It won't keep a doctor away, just drive me sick and bedridden. Bad Final! Working like crazy again. One chapter one day, the next one the next day! Tell me if my soufflé (I still don't know if that is spelled right..) deflated or not, I can't bear to look in the oven...Galerians, did I mess up the "too"'s again? I hope not...I _**did**_ look...Any spelling errors anywhere?


	28. Chapter XXVII: Show Stopper

Mass writers block seems to have effected scores of writers Fanfiction wide. The silence is eerie as I step along the scarely populated pathways. I am one of the few continuing the fight. A form comes up to me, warning me of the dreaded writers block...

Ha, I laugh at your face! Tis a dream, nothing more. I wake up to the fact I submitted a chapter yesterday, and just submitted another today, a feat I pulled once before. What writers block?! I laugh at you! En Garde!

Oh, of course, what's wrong with my tournament? The number of contestants. At the end of this round, there will be three left...or will there be? Heh heh heh....

Ooooookay. I just had to get that out. Crazy me. Oh wow..I shattered the two hundred thousand word mark...opps. Did I hit it too hard? Too bad! The only thing this story has yet ot break in my record book is the number or people who sign up for an alert from it and the number of hits. That's it. Nothing else. Maybe the number of chapters, but that is well taken care of...that's my job. Speaking of which...

Galerians. Ku Nel is the "Mahou Sensei Negima" verison of his name. "Colonel" is the Negima Magister Magi version. I prefer to use the Japanese name here...ehh. Where did I get the Takane though? I only see Tekane...ohh, I get it now...another different Manga version problem. Tatsumiya is also the spelling used in a different version of the manga...soo..yes, all of those names are on purpose...and I must have an inert grammar problem with the too's. I need to go back and review English...Negi?

Oh my...now I have...TOO much detail?! I always had too little. If it's not one way it;'s the other, huh final? I'll attempt to find a balance...As for the technique, it wasn't one. She just had so much force behind her stick it spilt his...do you know how hard it was to say weapon all the time instead of blade by the way? Extremely.

Happy birth day to me, speaking of which, I had a terrible birthday. Do not pity me, I almost always have a terrible birthday anyway. 03/06 is my time, and now I am officially nineteen, unless my birthday is wrong on my certificate...something I kinda suspected ever since seeing the thing.

I feel like I am quite a dark writer. Maybe next time I'll try to get a happy go lucky story going....nah. I have a feeling it would turn dark. I can write fluffs and things like that, but not for any extended period of time I feel. Ehh. Oh well.

+---+

_**Chapter Twenty Seven: Show Stopper.**_

"Why the hell should I trust you?"

Negi looked up at the robed man, his eyebrows slightly raised as he stood leaning against a hallway wall. The man smiled behind his hood, a smile the other could tell was there, but he, of course, would never be able to see it. The man held up his hand, and a ring glinted in the light.

"Why don't I show you the use of this then? You can learn by example...Let's have our own..private match."

Those red eyebrows disappeared into Negi's hair. Their own, private match? Just so this man could show him this technique of his? True, Negi had seen Ku Fei perform it, but he would much rather learn it from her than this man. His seemed different also. Perhaps he was better at it, but it far less deliberate and far faster. The other man rose his own eyebrows under his hood.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of me?"

Negi's eyes shot towards that hood, burning deep to try and capture the elusive ones that were shrouded in darkness from the other. Hell no was he "afraid" of this man. How could he be? He gritted his teeth and pushed himself off the wall.

"Hell no. Fine. I accept."

_Caught you._

Kago grabbed Negi and Negi punched him straight in the gut, winding him, but that did not stop his teleportation, which took them both away from the crowd and the darkness, and into the light....

Kago gathered his power about him as he sent a knee flying into the other's gut, forcing him away and winding the boy. They were in a clearing of trees, far from the main action. No one would hear Negi scream, that was the main plan after all. He felt the knife in his robes...

Chao had not had the guts to do it, and as such, she was doomed to repeat her loss, and this time line would fall victim as well. He needed to die. He, Negi, needed to die in order for the world to be right, so It only made sense that the boy be killed. It was what he had come here to do. If you refuse to stop the child's birth, then kill the child before he causes any more damage than he already has...

Negi got up quickly, in fact, he never fell, he landed on all fours and pushed himself to his feet, rushing Kago, but the man disappeared from his view. Negi spun and blocked an incoming kick, getting blasted back with the force of it. His opponent Kago disappeared again, and Negi spun, blocking an oncoming kick from his side and then another as it tried to catch his unprotected back. Yet, in a flash, Negi was on the ground, and his body ached from what seemed to be a thousand hits all over.

Struggling up, he saw the man sitting on a stump, smiling.

"Time travel is a very useful thing Negi."

The boy's eyes widened. Time travel, like the Cassiopeia he had been given by Chao? The boy paled ever so slightly as the man reached into his robes and pulled a tiny golden shaped watch from the depths of his pockets. The eyes narrowed as his brief loss of control was alleviated.

"Behold the Cassiopeia, the first version that, until this very moment, was in your own coat pockets. Check them if you like, you won't find it there. I know all your secrets boy. "

Negi jumped up in the air to catch the man, yet in the next instant, he was on the ground again, his head under the other's boot sole. The pain was incredible. Negi spat and blood came from his mouth. The other threw off his hood almost exultingly, revealing the wizened face and a set of burning red eyes. Negi coughed out a statement to the dirt his head was being painted with.

"You...b$+rd!! Fight me like a man!"

The magus smiled down at Negi quite coldly, but the cold only went as deep as his skin, for inside, the man was empty, devoid of all thought and emotion. If he let himself think, he would lose this. If he wavered in one second, he would never regain the nerve to commit this odd form of suicide. He kicked the boy's head brutally so Negi tasted the bitter dirt.

"What man fights like a man when all he is facing is an unruly boy? You don't deserve me to fight you fair. My objective is simple. To kill you."

He teleported again, kicking the boy up to the sky before punching him right back down unto his cocked up knee. His elbow came down to complete the pincer, blasting the wind from the boy's lungs. He released the elbow to grab the boy with his other hand and toss him up like a rag doll, and punched him three times, hard, before he let him fall. The boy coughed while on the ground.

"Ohh...that's....nice..."

Negi got up again, painfully, but his body found the power to push him off the dirt. All his training in the past few months...it was not going to lead to this. He felt something akin to a thousand hammers pummel his back in an instant, and he fell again. Kago teleported near Negi's face and kicked him in the gut, sending him rolling backwards nearly two meters to slam into a tree, drawing blood from his mouth.

"Stay down boy, and die. It will all be over soon, you know? Your existence in this universe will cause terrible events in the future. It's best if you just die quietly."

Yet still, Negi, having curled up around the tree due to the force of his impact, uncurled slowly, painfully. He got up again, his mouth creating a steady stream of red liquid all the way down his neck and into his shirt. His eyes burned. The magus simply watched.

"You can't kill a tool."

The other rose his eyebrows at that. A tool? Whatever did he mean? Ahh, yes, that time with his mother, when he called himself a tool. A tool of war. Kago shook his head and smiled, drawing anger from the Negi in front of him. He took out the knife from his pockets and inspected it. He had energy for it, after all, he had received a good rest. The man still decided to answer his last point however.

"Not according to your mother. I'm pretty sure she would disagree with you. Poor boy. Goodbye, young Negi."

In that moment that the magus reached out and drew the magic to stop time, Negi rushed him and disappeared from sight just before the magic activated. The Cassiopeia was sent flying from the mages hands and his eyes were wide as the knife from his hands was slapped away. He found himself staring face to face with a bloody Negi, who gripped his right magic hand tight, spilling his blood on the magus's robes.

"Key mistake. You used your teleportation trick to many times. I've finally analyzed it well enough and implemented it...took me a while to start it though, as you saw. I cut it awfully close. You self centered b$+rd, I'm a catalyst, and thus, a tool, not even my mother knows this, but I will die before I reach twenty five, that's a near guarantee. I don't care if you try to kill me, but the universe won't let you, it needs me."

Negi's left hand came out, punching the magus straight in the gut while he let go of his right hand, blasting him backwards. Negi bent in a smooth movement and grabbed the Cassiopeia and the knife and when his opponent got up fully, he held the threateningly.

"My turn, b!+©h."

The boy disappeared from the magus's vision and Kago had to teleport away from a knife that slashed out for his kidney. Negi was still a bit sloppy in the art, even after watching Kago's match and seeing the man pull it off against him a few times, so Kago had a chance to dodge quickly with his own teleportation. Yet, the boy rose the watch threateningly and preformed what he thought the magus had done, guessing on how his attacks had been laid out.

He most likely went back in time a second at a time in a loop, probably due to extreme practice. Negi emulated this by placing a trigger spall on the thin and set it for every few seconds. The boy pummeled Kago was a series of kicks and punches that all came down within a single second's worth of time, knocking the man down to the ground. Yet the man, even on the ground, teleported away and kicked Negi from behind.

"Dirty mouth!"

Negi spun and tried to teleport again, but almost ended up inside a tree, for he stopped with his nose inches from it. More careful next time you fool. He felt something slam into his back, making his nose slam against the tree and allowing him to hear a crack as his jaw knocked wood, his nose bent like rubber.

He slid off the tree to the ground and he felt the knife get tugged from his hands and slam home into his heart...or he would have felt that, had he not reacted at the last second and allowed it to dig into his arm, slicing the bicep and triceps on his right clean through.

He spun back up, clutching his arm and gathered his mind about him, striking the magus hard with a mental attack and rushing to punched him with a magic enhanced fist dead in the gut, forcing him back into a tree, which Negi attacked with kicks and punches.

Finally the magus fell on the ground once more, facedown, and it did not looked like he was going to get up again soon. Negi panted and fell to his knees, hacking. Blood still came from him. The magus was down, dead? Who cared. He heard a cheer somewhere, it was faint, but obvious. The festival. There was an infirmary there, and his match, his students, above all, his duty.

He had to get up, but his knees would not obey him. Everything was tilting in odd directions. Woozy. Unbelievably woozy. Negi still struggled up and reached for him magic. Come on, don't fail me now. It slipped and slivered away from his grasp, but finally he lunged for it, both physically and mentally, and as his body fell to the ground, smelling grass, he got it, and silently managed to focus on the dressing room of the tournament before he felt the magic leave him and all go black.

+--1--+

"Goddamn..my head hurts like hell. My hands are frozen, my back is sore, my mind feels broken and my jaw is torn....and hell no I am not a poet."

Negi pushed himself up from the ground he was lying on, which felt moist and sticky. He glanced down to see it was wood that was stained by a large pool of blood, tendrils of the stuff still connecting him to the ground. His movement sparked an incredible fire of pain along his spine and brain, he felt like his body was in a million tiny pieces, a puppet's, only held together by a fine string. He looked up. It was still the afternoon. Cheering echoed in his head, pounding upon his eardrums. An announcer blared over the crowd that the winner of this match was Ku Nel Sanders. Hardly any time had passed. Negi reached, blindly, for his magic. It came to him haltingly, but still it came.

"Tui....Gart..blast it. Tui...Gratia...ughhh..shit. Tui....Gratia....Jovis...Sit..Cura...crap. Rastel...Mascir...Magister....god damn, I have to say this again...Tui...Gratia....Jovis...Sit Cura!"

_Tui Gratia...Jovis Gratia Sit...Cura! Tui Gratia...Jovis Gratia Sit...Cura! Tui Gratia...Jovis Gratia Sit...Cura...goddamn, how many times do I have to say the damn thing before it works?!_

Oh it worked alright. It came, grudgingly, painfully, but it came. The announcer blared that the stage needed fixing...again. So there would be a pause until the second match. Ironically, a knock came upon the door as soon as that statement was uttered, and Negi groaned. He did not want to deal with this, especially now. Godamn, he would need a doctor, this spell would not work to heal the kind of injury he had.

Yet, the person who knocked seemed to take that as an affirmation. What could possibly worse? Well, the person who walked in the room was Anya with Takahata. Negi's head fell to the floor again as soon as he recognized the foot pattern..it was only a matter of time before the two of them entered the room and when they did...

"Negi-kun, I just tagged along with Anya-chan to wish you go-wha...what...Negi-kun!"

Oh boy. Next was the high pitched scream. Negi closed his eyes. Life. It tries to kill me every day, huh? That's it's job anyway. He felt some wind and then something shake his shoulder. He opened an eye to see Takahata sitting there, looking at him. The man sighed, even as Negi's eye closed again. The boy took a breath, letting them know he was alive. He coughed again.

"Goddamn. I really need to work on my healing spells."

The boy coughed again and Takahata asked the obvious question to him, the "What the hell happened?!" Only, because of Anya and his continence, it did not come out quite that way. Negi grinned with red teeth at the question before hacking again.

"Let's just say I had a talk with Kago Masato, and he doesn't like me very much."

The boy to a drag of breath and focused on his semi-effective healing arts again, grimacing fit to put a gargoyle to shame. He pushed off Takahata's offering to bring him to the nurse. What was he, nuts? He had a match to perform in. Hell if he was going to let some smack down from a robed old man stop him. He only hoped the old fool would win his match and Negi would be paired with him next time. He wanted only to beat his ass right about now...

Negi managed to somehow shoo Takahata away and swear him to secrecy about his current condition, and told him that he had better not go easy on him just because of it or he would kill him later, and made him leave the room. The boy had manage to stand up now, and was looking at Anya, who was staring at him in an odd way, halfway between fear and extreme concern. The boy slid down the door to plop on the floor, earning a small squeak from his companion. He stared at her.

"Anya, please, look away. I am trying to heal myself, and I can't focus well with you looking like that."

She slowly turned away, Negi had to ask her again before she picked up a sufficient speed for him. He then began to focus on one of his more backseat arts, his chi. That energy was famous for being used in it's early development for the well being and promotion of health of the user, for healing and bettering of a bodies performance. He tapped into that art he had learned from his extensive training in martial arts now, just as he had used it's more visible manifestation during his fight with the demon who had attacked his village. Bringing it forth slowly, deliberately. Feeding it into his bones and body and eliciting a response. He had but a few precious minutes to do this before that stage above his head would be fixed, yet his mind was set.

Beat Takahata and advance to fight that fool old man, and if that old fool lost, find him, forget about your match, find the fool and smack him down. Try to kill him ehh? Kill him, Negi, who had been through enough already. Another one of his father's enemies maybe? He spoke of the future as if he had been there. Maybe he had, he used the Cassiopeia like a pro after all. Yet who cared? He needed to catch this guy, before he did anything else. He doubted very much his only objective was to kill Negi, or he would have struck earlier, in the prelims maybe.

His purpose was set. Finally, something else to look forward to besides just the fight. Purpose was everything they say. It made you bleed inside, think, feel, breathe. Negi sat there, letting his magic and chi flow. He would be ready for Takahata, maybe not one hundred percent, but he would be ready...Heartbreaker, not even in his hand, burned under its bandages. It could feel, even from this distance, the desires it's holder had. Little did Negi know just how far he was from mastering this powerful weapon, and what it was hiding from him...in time, he would, but now was not that time.

+--2--+

The magus got up slowly from where he sat, frowning. His back hurt, not from the punches the boy had thrown at him, no, his barriers had protected him from those, but simply from his old age. In effect, the boy was powerful, strong, but he had not gone through the hellacious training Eva had put him through, or Rakkan or any of the others who had contributed to his molding. It matter not how many years passed form them till now, that kind of molding stayed with him through the ages. You never could forget it or lose it. The battles he had been through, it hardened him to a point where this boy could not touch him. Here, he was very near invincibility, only his advanced aged body stopped him.

The boy had left, teleported away, and the magus could only kick himself for that. He was smart, smarter than he had calculated. So smart in fact, he was probably smarter than the magus had ever been. Quicker, smarter, and invariably younger. At this point, he would have been a cream puff, but this boy was a well cooked rock cake. Still soft, but oh so much more difficult to get, even as he was the knife. The man stood up straight and cracked his back backwards. He smiled then, just a bit, as he pulled out the Cassiopeia from his pocket.

This Negi may be intelligent, but he was still fallible. The magus held the artifact, created with the very hands that held it, still. The smile that graced his lips was gentle, even if one might consider the reason for it being there sinister. The aged magus had created a convincible copy indeed. The boy had taken the fake and used it against him, but the thing only had so few uses as he rated it, and it's endurance was woefully low. It wouldn't last. In fact, if the boy tried to use it at all during the martial arts tournament, he estimated it would break right then and there.

He shook his head. He had purposely with held some information from Chao too, knowing that she would attempt to modify the "original" plans of the past to make them succeed this time. He had withheld all the vital information, and he was pleased to find that with a bit of his poking around, his granddaughter's plan was very close the original's because of this, and her logic was very similar. Meaning that if the team this boy had about him also thought along similar lines...

When they tried to plan something to thwart Chao, and she countered... the faulty timepiece would fail to save them this time. He was glad to see that, as much as the girl was intelligent, she was still predictable to him. He had tried to mold her to be more intelligent than the first, but it seemed that in his failure to do so, he had still succeeded. Once more, he shook his head. He had just used the Cassiopeia quite a few times to rearrange some things to fit his liking and now his plan was approaching it's fruition. It was elaborate, and perfect. By his calculations, the Negi in this universe would need a near miracle to survive, some divine intervention. Yet, even then, he would fail to protect the world from the secret of magic. All the blocks were falling, a giant three dimensional Tetris game in which the pieces created a road from him to walk to victory.

It sounded so cocky, but he was certain of his success. This could not fail, if it did, then his life efforts, his true efforts after the war, all those years..they would mean nothing. Yet, it if did fail..he could always go back in time again...and again...and again. Until he succeeded, or he died. As a spell, the Cassiopeia was finally good enough to be called an ultimate technique. The man took a quiet step, and disappeared from the quiet grove again, still stained with the blood of his adversary. He reappeared inside a computer lab, in which he quickly cast a spell to become invisible. He couldn't help it. The girl sitting by one of the computers glanced up into empty air.

Brown eyes locked on the spot he has, behind a large server. Chao sighed before returning to her work again, muttering something about needing fresh air. The man grinned. There she was. No matter how many times he had remembered her picture, or took a glance at his old class planner from that fateful year, he could not ever have prepared himself to see the beautiful girl in front of him. This was his granddaughter, who had flourished in this time line and made it her own, grabbing control of it as a child might the wheel of a tricycle. Sitting on top of the hem of her lab coat, she shook her head and her hand came lazily out, smacking the monitor lightly. Technological abuse. What was one to do? The girl was still odd in that way.

Satomi burst in through the doors, almost bashing the magus's nose in. The scientist had a piece of toast dangling from her mouth and a pen stuck in her right ear. Her lab coat was half on, handing off her left arm, but that didn't bug the girl in the least. A massive amount of paper was balanced precariously in her arms. Chao first fixed her eyes on the piece of toast after they had taken a trip all around the room, in the act of rolling.

"How long has that thing been in your mouth...neh?"

The girl looked up, surprised, The paper tower in her hands dropped with a dull thud on the table she had below her hands. She blinked a bit and seemed to find that question to be the eighth wonder of the world. She spoke through that said slice of toast now.

"I don't know...I don't think I made toast this morning though...."

Chao sighed and Satomi tossed her slice on top of the papers she had just put down.

"You didn't baka. You made toast three days ago. You've been picking up the same slice every morning and you still have yet to eat the blasted thing, neh."

Once again, the scientist blinked before shrugging in a non committal way. She picked up the toast slice from where it was on the ream of paper and bit it. It resisted her teeth quite impressively.

"I suppose you're right..."

Chao got up from her computer quickly and forcefully, a sign of her frustration, for her chair skidded back about a foot or two to lightly crash into another one.

"If I don't feed you, I swear you'll become more of a stick than you already are Satomi. Can't you at least remember you have to eat?"

Yet still, the girl being spoken to seemed to be enjoying the three day old slice of toast with quite a gusto, regardless of how stiff it was. It made Magus want to laugh, the sight was quite remarkable.

"Mmph...too busy to eat much. I have dissertations to do at the college and seminars to attend and the festival preparations, your plans..."

"Enough already, just come with me and for god sakes throw away that thing...neh?"

"But it's still good!"

Satomi followed the other like an obedient dog out the door, making the magus shake his head. Perhaps the Satomi in this time line had been a bit more susceptible to the tricks Magus had Chao in mental augmentation. Or perhaps his techniques were more effective than the ones the previous Negi had dolled to his Chao. Whatever the reasons, at least Chao managed to keep her apparent human "pet" well enough cared for. The magus sighed and accessed a computer, hacking into it easier than he might have been able to do with opening a bag of chips. He then pulled up the matches of Negi's from earlier and studied them, all the while he tinkered with the "random" selector of matches. It was soon set and the magus pulled away his thumb interface easily. All the information any one of those computers in a system held was now in his interface.

Another step, and his presence there was just a memory. When Chao returned however, leading one Satomi who was finding her teeth in something far more palpable than a simple slice of toast, she was surprised to find that her systems had been blatantly hacked, and that the person had left a blazing trail with red flags everywhere. Her eyes widened a trifle as she looked over it all. Obviously, it looked like the work of a rookie who knew nothing of what they were doing, but that was a deliberate thing.

No rookie could break her systems security. It had to be an expert of the highest order. Someone who had the speed or technique to make them equal the speed of, Chachamaru, and the skills of someone who had either come from her time or Chisame. The fact that they left red flags everywhere was just spite. She grimaced. Whoever it was, they had copied...everything...absolutely everything, meaning they had to have a huge server base, or an empty one the size of this school's own. It was disturbing...what was worse was that, as she looked, she saw something that caught her eye.

The person who had copied everything and hacked into the system had done it in a deliberate pattern. A certain registry at a time, a certain file in a certain order...it was deliberate. If one arranged the pattern in a certain way...it formed a message. It was a new age technique, one that was old in her time, but yet to have been employed in this time line. It could be no coincidence. The final piece fell into her puzzle when she smacked her forehead. Her desktop had been changed, and she had yet to notice it. It was a simple white background with a blue message.

"Hello my little carnation blossom. How are you holding up? Don't mind me. I'm just reviewing your plans. You didn't listen to me to kill me...so I am just making sure the job you are doing is done properly. I really want to meet you, but the time is not right."

...There was only one person who called her a blossom. Only one person who she had been told by to kill them...only one person whom she had refused to listen on that point, only one. Now that she saw it, only one person had the speed and power to copy all of this systems information so quickly and with such a deliberate pattern, whose message she could not read. The Great Magus Negi Springfield, her grandfather...was here?! How...how did he follow her here? How long had he been here? Where?!

A final thing came smacking down on her. The randomizer had been fiddled with. It no, no matter what, would match up Kago Masato with Negi Springfield, no matter how many times she retried it...Kago Masato. The name burned. Literally, it meant something along the lines of "Protective force, holy man, the one who watches over, true man, in some cases, love. Leave it to him to pick a name like that to give her a clue, one that she had ignored until now. The skill, the speed, the power, it now began to make sense...and why he wanted to fight Negi...was it to kill him, or weaken him so badly that he could only fail against her plan?

She would have to speak to dear grandfather about that one...

+--3--+

Another stage was set, another round of roaring fans, another match to fight for the entertainment of those surrounding him. Negi walked out of the darkness slowly, he had not time to wipe the blood from his clothes, so a small hush had come once those present saw his appearance before the battle.

The boy was covered head to foot in his own blood. Sticky, dark blood, that stained his cheeks and pasted his hair into odd spikes. His hair was dulled by this paste, so it hardly shone where the blood had overtaken it. His eyes were no less bright however, and they burned with no less of a fierce violence and determination. This was his nature, and this was his element, a ring.

Takahata already stood in the ring as Negi made his long procession down to join him. He didn't look to happy, but the boy clenched his fist visibly. His eyes locked with the other. There was no going easy here, none. The boy wanted to pass all tests, put down all upstarts against him, drink all the blood in the cup of war. Nothing else would satisfy him here. He was to fight his "friend" and then he would go on to hopefully fight the one named Kago Masato.

The silence had abated, some whispers followed, but the cheering had returned, somewhat. It seemed that at least some of the crowd didn't like that Takahata's opponent looked so damaged, seeming to give the other man quite an edge. Yet still, the marker was set, and once the match begun there was a flash. Negi disappeared from where he was, and reappeared behind Takahata, making him turn around in surprise, but Negi held out his Cassiopeia.

It shone quietly in the light before the time around Negi slowed to halt, the boy implementing the trick he had with Kago, he infused his fist with as much magic as he dared and chi, flowing it into a small space in the endless amount of time he had. His left fist, then his right, and finally his feet. He allowed his grip on time to loosen, so that his motions to the outside world would seem incredibly fast, but still visible to the naked, trained eye.

He pummeled Takahata with several blows, an array nearing the hundreds, as fast as Negi could implement them, and watching as his opponent dodged in slow motion. He felt he was pushing his artifact to the limit, he felt it hiccup in his control, and when he stopped, with a final kick to Takahata's ribs, sending him skidding backwards quite a distance, the thing in his hand sparked.

Oh well, who cared if it was damaged, not like he needed it for anything important anyway. Negi rushed his opponent, who was bent low, breathing heavily, his eyes wide. He looked up and only just managed to shundo away from the boy coming at him, appearing behind him and having his fists in his pockets, but the boy spun on the spot, throwing up both of his arms to block his face and bending down to one knee for the counter attack, which blasted him back.

He had more practice now with his Teleport and implemented to get to Takahata's side at close range, surprising the man as he punched him hard in the kidneys to follow an elegant leg sweep. Negi's elbow came out and slammed home in Takahata's gut as a final to that combo, and before the man could React, Negi was back to the edge of the ring again, standing ready. He gave a half smile to the man before he spat into the lake next to him, that spit being red.

He grinned again before rushing his opponent once more, teleporting behind him every time he turned around or to his side, Takahata tried to shundo, and at one point he, by mistake, tried to trip Negi up, thinking him using the same technique, but Negi proved him wrong there.

Unlike a shundo, in which you travel extremely quickly to a place in space and thus one can trip you up, teleportation is instant gratification style. It's only weakness is the same as the shundos inability to change destinations, and thus, vulnerability to whatever lie at your destination point.

Negi brutally kicked Takahata's legs from under him and, as the man's face came closer, he aimed upward a powerful, magically induced punch. Takahata let it fall. It was true that he could have gotten out of the situation he was put in, it was true that he could put up far more of a fight than he was, but Negi had surprised him in the beginning with that crushing blow of his, and Takahata was well enough satisfied of the boy's strength.

As the hit landed and the arena shook, the magus in the stage shook his head and walked away. He had a match to prepare for after all, and it seemed that Negi could only be stopped by him. Yet he had work to do, and it would all come to fruition soon. This boy was his target now, and Negi would not fail in killing himself....as silly as that sounded...

Takahata was punched brutally into the ground with all of Negi's might and magical power behind the punch, making a crater that encompassed the boy as well as the man and kicked up dust. The stage would need repairing again, but the crowd was cheering. The wounded boy was smacking down his opponent like nothing it seemed, and when the ten count came, the boy was standing tall, and, his eyes narrowed, he stared down at Takahata. The man had gone easy, but Negi expected nothing less from the man who never took his opponent serious.

Negi took his hand away from Asakura with a bit more force than needed, but he was justified in his response. He spat into the lake again, tinting it just a tad deeper in red. From her vantage point, Chao smiled. Indeed, whatever her grandfather had done...seemed to have left a mark on Negi. She had been surprised that the boy had come out looking like that, and had instantly attributed it to, correctly, to her grandfather, yet it made her pale. If he was alive, Negi, and her grandfather had tried to kill him...what had become of her dear elder?!

A quick look with the security cameras eased her fear. The robed man Kago Masato was watching Negi's fight with interest. His robe was soiled and there was blood on it making fellow spectators give him a wide berth, but he was none the less alive. Yet, even as he watched the fight, his hood slipped a bit and then he decided to toss it off completely. A sheet of familiar white, brilliantly vital, hair was shown. It was no doubt now as to the identity of the robed man.

+--4--+

"Grandfather...welcome to my control central."

The man looked about at the wide open space in the blimp he was in, nodding his head appreciatively. A bit bigger than the other one, and more fortified, which was substantial. This one could fly all the higher, a key point in how he had been able to get up here last time. The calculated increase in height would have made it impossible for him had it been a simple, exact timeline.

"There is no need for such formal introductions my girl."

Of course there wasn't but she felt she had to anyway. She told him so too. It had been such a long time since she had seen him last, but now, this was her realm, she had control, and regality...

"I know, yet I feel it is justified."

He cast his eyes at one of the large bolts exposed in the room. He stared at it as he spoke.

"You have done well. This force is sufficient to carry out your plans. I have been observing your forces from afar until now. The Cassiopeia has helped me in that endeavor."

"So are my plans sufficient to win?"

"Once my own plans are launched, your success rate should stand at 80%, if we launch them at the correct times, in sequence, together, that success rate becomes a solid over 99%..."

"Only?"

"My dear, you have to leave at least that much out for extra, completely random and circumstantial things. Imagine a flying pie got inside your Hindenburg's motor and stopped it dead for example...."

".....Please Grandfather, I am no longer susceptible to jokes like that."

"Yet I saw a smile there, did I not? Ahh, there it is again. I joke you not, things can happen. Perhaps not a flying, sentient pie, but a flock of birds. Or that Negi Springfield, clever as he is, manages to construct a pair of mechanical wings to fly up here and stop you, or he manages to teleport up here, against all of your magical precautions and the fact this thing keeps on moving steadily. Your computers could be hacked, like I did to them, only by a clever hacker of this century...never underestimate Chisame....I have taken the liberty to trash her main system by the way...and I have, by essence, completely destroyed the innards to her laptop for anything but light web surfing..."

The magus turned around from his vantage point by a window of the blimp they were on. He smiled lightly at Chao, who couldn't help but give a small accent of her own. She had not remembered about Chisame...now she saw it as a grave error. The magus turned around and began to outline his plans to her.

"You must manage to catch the boy with the weapons I taught you how to create, the time voyagers. Have a set of snipers, your finest team, trained on Negi. I will engage him again, during the festival. Time it right. I will give you many opportunities..but make sure one of them strikes him. If not, I have my own methods of making sure he cannot interfere. His friends too, will have to be eliminated..."

Chao looked up. She could enter into this one. As this timeline was drastically different on this point. She outlined to him how, in this time line, Negi had no known partners, something the magus waved away. He went on to explain that it mattered not. They still needed to be detained to prevent the boy from caving in and using them as an option. If the time shift failed, the Magus had already explained that he had switched the boy's Cassiopeia model with a fragile beta one, and he would force the boy to use it often during his match against him, thus eventually breaking it and leading him powerless in that area.

Even if this failed, it would not have the strength to carry the boy back in time a week, using the weakened world tree, it was a beta and required more energy than that...even if he managed to go that far, and still manage to allow the thing to survive the fall from miscalculation and tree power fluxuation, it would not be able to stand up to Chao's version. It all else failed time-piece wise, the magus could always use his power to take her and himself back in time to try again, and again. Yet there was more elaboration still to the plan, this was just the time piece part of it. The magus would, during the battle against Chao's forces, play a background role, fortifying her defenses. His role in the fight was purely supportive, but there were things he still withheld from Chao.

Like the fact that he himself had been gathering magic into catalysts he had brought with him, always being in his robes. He was preparing to launch a massive amount of magic into the forms of guardians to station in all the places and openings he remembered he himself had slipped through last time. He was filling in all the blanks with his forces, reinforcing areas he knew his forces had broken through, even if this Negi did not have the same force at his disposal..He planned to flood all the backdoors with invisible reinforcements, set up false weak points...

As a tactician, the magus was not to be fiddled with. Yet, he had a match next, and once he won that one...he would go on to try once more to rid the world of a menace. The boy was a fly on the wall, one the magus well prepared to swat. No missing allowed.

Have we not heard that line before somewhere?

+--5--+

"The final matches have been decided! Those who wind these will advance to fight each other in an all out brawl! Randomly selected, Ku Nel Sanders shall have a freebie for this round, and does not have to fight, only prepare for the final match! Meanwhile, the mysterious hooded man, Kago Masato, must go one on one with the powerful Negi Springfield, whom some have begun to dub the demon eyes! In this fierce combat, only one can survive to the final round!"

Asakura might have continued to outline the two combatants, but her words were stopped short by the simple appearance of Kago Masato in the ring. He had simply materialized out of nowhere it seemed, his robe stained lightly with blood in the front.

Meanwhile, Negi walked again through the traditional pathway down to the ring, taking his time, and letting his injuries be known to all. He had changed into his burgundy red suit, the one he had had on in coming to the school. His eyes flashed about to the audience, and those near actually shrunk back from the look that was in them...

Demon eyes indeed. It was a name that Negi found cheesy, but none the less got the point across to his opponent. Those eyes locked in, boring deep into a hood that, in the sunlight, allowed him to see two pinpricks of faded red staring back at him. Red on red, blood shall be shed...

Such a silly line, but it repeated endlessly in his head, making him clench his fist all the tighter. He managed finally to get into the ring, and the crowd around the two combatants roared. Kago reached back and yanked off his hood, silencing them. His age was apparent now, a fight of the generations, the present to the future, Negi Vs Negi...

Begin!

+--E--+

Hey, hey, that was to short! That was short, I need to see the battle you...you! No fair!!!!

Ha ha, sorry for that one, but I am severely overdue in my mind. The next one will rattle bones...and I need it to begin with a battle with such a magnitude as this. Next time....


	29. Chapter XXVIII: Hiccupping Rivers

Havelock Vetinari. I am honored to have caught the attention of a "veteran reader." I will try not to disappoint, which means I will exert quite a bit of effort into the climax for this one. This arc has several points I want to cover, and I've a very few amount of chapters to do so...no, I don't have a planned amount of chapters for this story people, but I did originally want to finish the Chao arc on my thirtieth chapter. (Not by the site's count, my chapter count.) Oh, did you know that on the second of this month, you all broke the four hundred hit mark?!? The first you shattered the three hundred, the second annihilated the four hundred with over half way to five hundred...holy...I have never had such a spike in popularity for anything.

Soo...how do you plan on doing that? The Chao thing...? Easy. By working my tail off. "Ohhhhh." Let's go.

I don't own Negima silly. I doubt I ever will. Akamatsu is making too much money off it...speaking of which, do you know what has been plaguing me? I mean, really been plaguing me? I have told you already how long this story has been around...well, in that time, I already know the end of this story, but the middle, this stories written part, is still a cloud I pull back little by little, and yet, the story in my head is so progressed, I can see far into the future of it...I think there will be a...sequel to this. Yes, I said it. Don't take me on my word for it though. Pray I lose the battle to hold this story in my head if you want a sequel, or at least, pray that when this one comes to its conclusion, that I can't hold the second part in my head...

Oh, by the way…My "Challenge MFT" story is not dead, I just have no time to do my challenges! It's hard to find a two hour block to just sit down and complete a challenge. Fear not, when I do get one, I will devote it to that…unless this story grabs it. Right now, it's burning, on fire. It pleads for my attention! Galerians...yours is on it's way, once I put together all the pieces I have for it. That's the one I have to finish _first_...Lengthy is indeed a word...and like I said, I must have been taught the word "to" incorrectly. Negi, get over here and proofread this rag!

"Do it yourself you lazy bum."

Battles scenes have always been a weak point. I feel they are stronger now, but still, not strong enough. I'm planning after the conclusion of this story to launch something else in my head, and that requires a lot of battle scene power...why? Because the fan fiction will be an Advance Wars one...it's only a _plan_ though...

Magus chants in bold, like Swallowthorn, K?

+----+

_**Chapter Twenty Eight: Hiccupping Rivers.**_

Negi teleported right into Kago's face, in midair, punching him dead in the nose with a magically enhanced fist. The man skidded back but a single space, he himself teleporting to Negi's side and grabbing him out of the air like a Frisbee and kneeing him in the gut before teleporting away. He rose his Cassiopeia threateningly, but before he got a chance to activate it, Negi landed on the ground and teleported right next to the man, slamming a fist hard into his chest with his left and knocking the Cassiopeia away with his right with a slap.

_Coutlouce, Ego ingenero vos, cavo profundus in mihi. _

The Cassiopeia glowed slightly as it flew, and when Negi landed on the ground again, he could see the magus was standing, holding the thing in his hand again, as if it had never left. Negi's eyebrows rose until they hovered just below his hairline.

_Vigoratus , Curo , restituo mihi universus. _

"The hell?!"

The man smiled here. He held the device high and it activated. He rushed a still Negi and brought out his knife. Screw the rules, no one could see him use it anyway. Something stopped him from striking at the heart however. Instead, he sliced at the arms and stabbed it twice into his gut. He slipped the thing away just as the magic from his first strike faded.

"Gah...shit."

Negi stumbled away blindly, or so he made it appear. Grinning to the stage as blood fell from him, he teleported silently to Kago's back, and unleashed his unincanted spell as he rose his own Cassiopeia high.

_Ego scisco vestrum is, restituo!_

He had been practicing. All in the preparations for his fight for Takahata, all in the fixing of the ring afterwards. during the magus's match and afterwards in the rest period. Even before, with his mother. No one said his healing magic was on par with the rest of his abilities...

...But it did not come haltingly like it had always come before either. This powerful healing spell exploded around him as the time slowed to a near stop. Negi clenched his left fist, the one that had the Cassiopeia in it. He was right next to the magus's one, and his was sparking dangerously.

If he couldn't use it, he would make sure the other could not either. His fist closed and began to glow with his pent of magic, and his chi, the concentration almost becoming solid with the intensity. He sent that fist forward, crushing his own Cassiopeia in the process, sending a blast of magical protest to add to the power of his blow.

He sends the magus flying with that blow, all the way to the other side of the ring and over, and a crash like breaking china was heard. The man managed to stop himself, an inch from the water, floating there as if he were standing on water. He held the broken Cassiopeia in his hands, grinning.

"It seems I have underestimated you, Negi Springfield."

The magus tossed off the remains of the crushed artifact in the same motion as Negi, who slipped his crumpled Cassiopeia in his pocket and out of the way. The magus teleported quickly behind Negi, but the boy had, in the same moment, tried to teleport behind the magus's back, so the two ended up facing each other on opposite sides of the ring again.

"Hah. Perhaps I should have never showed you how to teleport, boy."

The man teleported again, only this time, Negi stayed still and kicked up behind himself, eyes closed. His foot connected with the other's gut solidly, making him grunt. Negi teleported forwards before the other could grab him, and again, the staring match ensued.

"You didn't teach me anything. I learned by observation alone."

The next instant, the Magus rushed him, and Negi shot off to the side, only to run into Magus again. He was booted right in the forehead, and he dropped to the floor, where he had to spin up to avoid a stomp aimed for his middle.

"Oh really...?"

When the boy stood up fully, he was surrounded by Magus's. There were eight of them in total, ringing him. He held up his fists and assumed a ready martial arts stance, eyeing them all. One spoke, and then another, all in turn.

"You see, now I have decided to get a little serious. I honor you, be happy."

One of them smirked while another shrugged his shoulders roughly.

"You don't know my real name do you?"

Negi stared into one of those faded eyes and he shook his head.

"Oh, I know perfectly well who you are."

Magus expressed disbelief, but then he smiled. Ahh, he must mean the name he used here, perhaps the boy had not heard him correctly...

"You are me."

The magus's eyebrows rose...all sixteen of them.

Negi pooled magic in his hands and let it loose, charging it around him in a soft blue ring and letting it shoot outwards into all those around him. It passed by them harmlessly, but in the next instant, Negi shot forwards between two of the ring of men in front of him, and he spun, kicking one hard in the kidney.

**"Ras tel, ma, scir, Magister.."**

All the others disappeared as this one spun with the force of the blow, nursing his side slightly before standing erect. He held out his hand harshly and called out a sharp Latin word.

_**"Confuto!"**_

Negi halted in midstride, his feet suddenly cemented to the ground. His mouth was still working however, and he grinned and called out, even though his head would not obey his orders to move.

"Ha! It all makes sense now, foolish old man...or should I be saying senile? I would never become as stupid as you willingly! The talk of the future, the Cassiopeia, the talk of me ruining the friggin universe... the spell release...you...you are a stupid old man who doesn't want to take responsibility for what he has done...sooo..."

Negi sent a powerful mental spear flying at the man, more powerful than any one he had ever sent previously. It slammed into the natural shield the Magus had erected and then wreaked havoc on his mind, but the effect was not as great as any of his other attacks on the mind...he was after all, fighting a mind as powerful, if not more, than his.

"...Sooo you come after me, trying to rid yourself from the time line. Oh no, I won't take responsibility, I'll just murder the infinite number of other me's out there! Who will care, huh?"

This attack was different from all of his previously conducted one for one more reason besides power. It had a string attached to it, in which Negi, now free from his constraints due to loss of concentration on his opponent's part, pulled on with all his might, trying to unseat the mind from its platform, yank it and take control of the body it used. Yet Negi found himself pulled forward, and he had to disengage. The gravity of the mind was far too large. The age behind it...his attack had lent him a small portion of the man's memories, and he looked upon them while trying to sort out his own head.

**"Tria Fila Nigra Promissiva..."**

One recovering from the recoil of his own attack, and one recovering from the attack itself. The magus recovered first however, and teleported right to Negi, punching him up into the air with a magically enhanced fist.

**"Vos Limitationem per Unus Dies!"**

Negi's eyes widened and he poured his magic into creating a platform in the air, solidifying the very particles to have something to kick off of and teleport away. Negi had yet to master this kind of thing to well enough teleport in midair, and he had not time for that at the moment... He smacked down on the ground as the ribbons of darkness flew up in the air at nothing.

_**Sagitta Magica, Centum et Trignita....**_

That spell was normally used for self binding, but the Magus has switched it up, making it apply to Negi with "Vos" instead of "Mihi." A dangerous and intelligent tactic, one Negi almost got caught in.

_**Spiritus Lucis!!**_

Yet the boy had no rest, in the next second the magus shot off arrows of light at Negi, one hundred and thirty of them, in which Negi had to call up several unincanted Deflexios for. Yet, as he was distracted with this, the other teleported behind him and charged up a powerful punch. When Negi finally realized his opponent was no longer in front of him, he spun around and teleported away...

Or he would have, but the other followed him in step and punched him straight up with the powerful blow, knocking the wind from his lungs, yet, now Negi was tired of playing around...he took a breath as he went up in the air.

_**Sagitta Magica Centum et Nonaginta Novem...**_

_Sagitta Magica Centum et Nonaginta Novem..._

In the air, Negi cupped his hands together, gathering the power for the spell. On the ground, the Magus had once hand extended out, glowing brighter with the magic's condensing. One used two hands, the other, one...

_**Spiritus Lucis!**_

_Spiritus Ingus!_

Spear like arrows rained down from Negi, as larger shafts came from the magus below, raining up, meeting in the middle, fire and light, the magic met in an incredible explosion of light and sound. Negi managed to teleport back to the ground again, where he gathered his magic while calling aloud.

"Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes! Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!"

_Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonaginta Novem, Fulgoris Ingus!_

The magus recognized the scene before, only he had fought a very different opponent when this kind spell was uttered. He decided to complete the cycle...going for the one he originally chose...

**"Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!"**

Kago, the Magus, shot his spell forth. I was far larger than Negi's...it barreled down towards the boy, but he shot off both his arrows and his spell, and that compensated well enough for the difference in power. The stage under their feet was blasted apart in the middle, sending a hail of splintered wood everywhere.

He didn't even have enough time to wait for the dust to clear. The boy was already in his face having jumped up from the ground he had shot to. He elbowed Magus's chin up with a magically enhanced elbow and sent a chi infused fist into his chest, blowing him back, he was near the edge of the ring, but Negi had sent him sideways, so he landed in the opposite corner of the ring from where he was. He was still only on the edge.

Negi lunged at him there and began trying to pummel him ring out with fists of pure fury wherever he could reach, becoming a near blur of movement, constantly jumping up in the air to reach higher, but the magus just stood his ground and blocked them, or stood tall. He finally got an opening in which he blasted Negi away from him with a well placed punch to the face, however, when the boy jumped up yet again for another strike.

The mage rolled away from the corner as the boy came at him after rolling with the punch, and teleported to the other side of the ring. Negi came after him, but he fired off a continuous stream of a few arrows at a time, keeping the boy at a distance for a precious few seconds until he had enough energy gathered.

_Sagitta Magica, Novem, Spiritus..._

The boy lunged him, and aimed at his gut with a kick, which the other blocked and spun away from. Negi continued coming at him with assaults, spinning his kicks as high as his height allowed and jumping away from counter attacks. The magus teleported behind him and sent him flying forwards, jumping after him to trip him up and coming down with a hard elbow, knocking him into the ring, making boards vibrate.

_Obscurans!_

The arrows came up, giving the magus a face full of darkness. He sprawled backwards, for the arrows clung to this skin at such a close distance and he had to scrabble at them, clawing to free his eyes. Negi spun back up and spun to kick the man in his temple, but he managed to clear his eyes enough to teleport to his back and knee him forwards.

Negi spun around and kicked the man away brutally, making him go near the edge of the ring. The magus's eyes shone.

He shot forward to the middle of the ring, his eyes burning a fierce desire to now put this boy to bed. He began an incantation Negi had only read in books, and he knew its power, so he surprised Magus be beginning to chant another spell of its level, making the mage pale, but at this time, he could not stop...

**"Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. **

**(To sumbolaion diakoneto moi, basilisk ouranionon. Epigenentheto, apoleia keraune hos timeis pteirei. Hekatonkatis kai khiliakis astrapsato.) **

"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία!

**(**To Sumbolaion Diakonētō Moi, hē Krustallinē Basileia! Epigenēthētō, Taiōnion Erebos, Haiōnie Krustalle! Pasais Zōais ton Ison Thanaton, hos Ataraxia!)

The chants were long and the magic gathered in swirls between the two mages. It was obvious that this stage was not big enough for the both of them. The magus called the spell up easily, Negi's hands glowed and his channels rose, but he was still able to call up the spell, even if he struggled to gather the power necessary for the blow...

**"Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!" **

**(Khiliarkhou Astrape!)**

"Κοσμικὴ Καταστροφή!"

**(**Kosmikē Katastrophē!)

Ice shot forward, turning the entire ring into a freezing zone as lightning rained down upon it from the heavens. The ice was sent flying into the pool from the harsh bolts, the same electricity sending that pool afire with a charge.

It was only extreme luck that Magus centered his spell unto the ring, and shot down Negi's spell, making it cover a controlled distance, or even the shielding around the ring would not have stopped their clash. One thing was certain..the stage was wrecked, completely and utterly.

The dust cleared and Negi was on an island of wood on one edge of the ring while Magus was on the other. The magus was smiling, but Negi was panting, on his knees. That spell...it wouldn't kill him anymore, but it sure as heck drained him utterly. The magus called out to him, just as the display switched from random information to a five minute count down.

"Hah, boy, I really _**have**_ underestimated you, haven't I?!"

Negi pushed himself up off the ground as the magus charged his fist for another round. He could still cast the thousand bolts...after all, he had once controlled two simultaneous instances of it at once in his prime easily, without thinking. This Negi was drained utterly with one end of the world level spell.

Yet, even as he watched, the boy extended his arms, and they began to shine...no, not shine...

It looked as if sparkles in the air were being drawn towards him, condensing into a steady stream which became a shine upon touching him with the intensity it held. He felt the boy's magic, completely drained before, slowly raise, regaining stature...his eyes widened. What manner of a trick was this?!

"Poor old man, never tried this, did you? In the beginning of magic training, they teach us to reach for the magic of the world, draw it through our wand to cast spells...yet what is stopping us, once our channels are open, from treating our own bodies like a wand?"

"...Drawing magic into it to speed up the natural refueling process, or to simply draw magic into ourselves to supplement what we don't have, using the world's magic directly to cast a spell instead of waiting for the body to draw that magic into us...It doesn't matter how powerful you are. In the end, it's all about durability, versatility, innovation, strategy."

He held out both hands now and they glowed a brilliant red.

"Sagiita Magica....Quattor Centum...Spiritus..."

The other's eyes couldn't get any wider, but he sent both hands forward, calling his magical arrows to him as quickly as possible.

**"Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonagitta Novem, Spiritus Fulgoris!"**

"Obscurans!"

Negi surrounded himself with hundreds of arrows as he kicked off his island of the stage, causing it too to crash into the water below. He shot at the Magus, teleporting at the last strip of land while incanting a spell.

_Incendia...Laqueus!_

His arrows shot forward, one hundred and ninety nine to meet four hundred neatly canceling them all with brute power, but Negi landed next to him, his open hand pressing down upon the Magus's stomach, sending him backwards with the force of the blow and making the bars of his magical cage materialize. Negi closed his fist making them contract quickly until they burned the skin, yet the Magus made no sound.

Negi saw him smile and gritted his teeth.

"Stop smiling like a friggin teddy bear you old fool!"

Yet, this only made the Magus laugh, and Negi allowed his spell to grip the man tighter, cutting into his robes and skin. Yet, Negi's eyes opened a trifle wider when he saw the man's fists turn black...

In a single shake of his body, he broke the threads by swinging his arm, dissipating the magic as if it were nothing. Symbols began to show on the man's hands, but he forced them away with a grimace, and sighed, seemingly exhausted.

"Ha...been a long time since I needed to access _that_. Decades in fact, you are quite remarkable, Negi Springfield. Yet..."

Negi launched himself at the man, and they began to fight with just fists and feet. Negi constantly tried to leg sweep the other, trying to bring him down to size, making the magus flip like a crazy jumping bean. He smiled in one particular exchange of fists whose shockwave nearly made Negi loose his balance and fall into the water below.

"Idiot, shut up and fight."

When Negi finally managed to bring the man to his knees with a successful leg sweep, he aimed for his face, but the magus, his fist glowing threateningly, slammed his own into Negi's oncoming one, causing yet another shockwave. By now, both of the heads of hair in the ring were in quite a mess. Negi, skidding to the edge of the little island they had at the corner of the stage, shook his head violently, making splinters of wood flying from his hair. The magus spoke again.

"I will speak whenever I like little boy. Including now. I'm done playing this game..."

His hands glowed bright as the clock entered the region below three minutes.

"You are not good enough yet to defeat me."

Negi dodged off to the side to avoid the punch and ducked low under the resulting kick. He wasn't shy to kick right upwards between the man's legs, making him elicit a muted yelp...yet in the next second, he had Negi by the throat.

"Been kicked there a few too many times to have it hurt that way my boy."

Negi may have been held by the neck, but he still managed to smile. His foot came up, magically enhanced and shot him hard right there. The man dropped him like a hot potato.

"Hell, you see what you made me do? I just neutered myself you damn old codger...by the way..what kind of friggin statement is that?! Been kicked there to many times..you some kind of pervert? Only way you would get kicked there so often!'

Negi ducked when Magus lunged at him for that comment, yet he did not expect him to spin around and shoot off a few magica arrows he had been saving in reserve. Negi had to dodge those...

It was then that the panels under them shook yet again. Negi's eyes fixed on them, and then, in a quick move, he shot under the magus and behind him, kicked him in the shins, and when the man turned around, he tripped him up. The magus fell, but he managed to stay just above the water with that odd floating techniques of his. He looked up to see Negi...

and saw a fist coming right down into his nose, causing an explosion of power. Yet, in the end of it, the Magus was still standing, and Negi was nowhere to be seen...the man smiled...but then, something alerted him to look up once more...

There Negi was, coming down, magic circling all around him, he yelled out to the other, just as Magus came up higher with his levitation technique.

The boy had used _him_ as a solid ground to teleport off of! It was the only way he could be up there! Remarkable!

"Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach! In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Centum! Iaculatio Fulgoris!"

_Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!_

For one last time, he extended his hands upwards, thinking this would end it. He called out the same spell, a challenge.

**"Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach! In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Triginta! Iaculatio Fulgoris!"**

The clash slung the magus down into the water, all the way to the bottom of the pool, while Negi landed lightly on the last bits of the stage. He glanced up just to hear the buzzer. Now they would count, and if he could not get out of there by the count of ten...

They got to eight before the water began to bubble...but nothing happened... By the time they counted ten and Asakura opened her mouth to announce Negi was the winner however...

She only got as far as: "Contestant Negi Springfield is-"

A blast sounded throughout the arena as the water rose in an incredible torrent, a huge geyser. Atop this monstrosity, sat the magus Negi, surrounded by several dozens of arrows held in reserve. The water fell back down almost un-naturally into the pool, making huge outwards ripples but not touching the stage.

Magus shot out of the water, and landed, soaking wet, on the platform, kicking right at Negi, who dodged off to the side and tripped the wet Magus up, slamming him down on what little there was of the stage, and making it shake again, and toss off a few more boards... He looked disgusted. His open hand condensed quickly with chi.

"Stay down you imbecile. You lost."

The other's arrows, held in reserve, faded from view as the magus on the ground breathed lightly. Negi, for the first time, witnessed his student Asakura speechless before she snapped back to reality to continue her announcements...

"C-contestant Negi Springfield is victorious, as his opponent could not answer the t-ten count! He advances to the final round against Ku Nel Sanders! N-now...this might be the time to say we have a stage in need of repair..but I think the appropriate thing to say is that we have a stage that needs..._rebuilding_..."

((Half the story is taken up by this....wow. Hope I didn't revert back to the too much detail thing...or was the battle just that epic...no...your battle scenes have yet to grace the term 'epic" MFT...))

+--1--+

"I'm just like Takahata in the end, aren't I Chao..?"

The aged magus sat in a chair next to a computer, his hands resting lightly on the keyboard. His head was resting on the back of the chair, pointed skywards, so his eyes zoomed along the ceiling. From off to the side of him, Chao shook her head.

"You weakened him greatly grandfather. But your battle was to intense, none of my team could take a shot without risking getting you. Even Mana had trouble aiming in. There were a few times when she almost pulled the trigger, but then Negi-san moved..."

The other shook his head a bit demurely. He still had his eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"I weakened him none. If anything, I strengthened him. I know myself Chao, I have failed to perform my part of the bargain. He will emerge all the stronger for this, which means even with the exhaustion from my fight and Alberio's, the boy will still be strong enough to put up a fight. I will have to take a more frontal role in your plans my girl."

Chao got up from her chair and paced the room a bit. The magus simply listened to her footsteps without bothering to look where she was.

"I suppose you are going to send your own forces out then?"

He closed his eyes at that comment. It was obvious, but Chao was not stupid. She was asking the obvious question because she wanted details. He sighed deeply before he spoke.

"Of course. In all the holes that yours cannot cover. I will, with my forces, create false strong points and fake "back doors" with traps and more protection than the false strong points, forcing the enemy to take the path they think is easy, only to find out too late they took the difficult one, is a key to wearing them down..."

The magus began to glow slightly, as he focused his magic lightly upon what little damage he had received from the fight. Believe it or not, all the real damage had been caused by the magus to Negi...Young Negi had hardly scratched him...except for the foot to the jewels...that did hurt for a spell longer than it should have...

He finally opened his eyes to look at Chao, who was looking out the window to the arena below her perch up here, in this "second base." People where hauling boards unto the stage as she watched from high above. Chatter and calls for whatever kind of refreshments were being sold could be heard, but not through the glass Chao was looking through, no, the only thing she could hear was the hum of computer towers.

Magus sent a flick of revitalizing magic her way, making her spin around and lock eyes with him. His face fell a bit at that reaction.

"I would have hoped you wouldn't have let this world harden you so much...that you would save a little softness there for me. I suppose that life is the way it is then, huh...?"

She blinked. At first, she made a motion to turn back around to the window, but thought better of it and turned to walk away from it to stare at the door from the middle of the room. She didn't speak originally, and the silence stretched.

"I...It's really....harsh here...magi. Harsh. It's hard to keep a small bit of softness in your heart if the world aims a million daggers at it every day."

The other looked down o the floor before putting his hands on his knees to help him get up. He walked towards Chao, but just before he could touch her shoulder, she walked forwards and faced him from about a yard away. He blinked and sighed again.

"I know that much my girl...I lived through this era, if you don't remember. You've spent two years in it, and it's been a shock. This was my life...I strived to make it as best I could for the next generation, but in the end, I boxed myself into a corner in which society wanted to please everyone, and not one which would do what was right, only popular. We already see the signs of that today, but I pushed it to the edge with my merits for peace..."

He spun to walk to the window himself, and watched as the stage, nearing re-completion, was being worked upon. He continued his train of thought after a pause.

"...That is one of the main reasons I need to be rooted out and destroyed here. I know how to curb a society into a proper mold now, but I can't fix one I've already taken so far. I need to delete the original influence and take what remaining years I have in the future of this timeline to fix what the world will become so it can be...proper."

He looked back at her for a short few seconds before his face became a poker face.

"I will outline to you my suggestions. We need to re-think before we launch this plan forward. Changes will need to be made, pieces of this chess game moved around before we set forth with our game. Small and large, all must be considered. This is crunch time, execution is in pending. My forces are yours to command, and I hope yours are mine to operate. Now, lay it all down on the table...."

He walked to one of the tables and looked up at her. She took the message and came to him, pulling up an intricate diagram and several text documents, plus other drawings of movements, simulations, probability rates....the magus's eyes zoomed over it all, his right hand clenched into a hard fist. His eyes narrowed as he pointed out what he thought was a weakness. Instantly, Chao edited it and implemented a change in the simulations. The aged eyes continued to zoom as she did so.

"...We have a reality to save..."

She nodded to this statement, even as he was certain that she had not fully heard what he had mumbled, or, if she had, comprehended any of it. Satomi walked into the room just as Magus pointed out where he would deploy his own safe guards...life moved on as a blaring mike sent it's ring into the air. The stage was complete, and Asakura was about to announce the preparations for the final match...

(Speeding forwards, is there any stopping the team who's ally is time?)

+--2--+

"Oh come on...It's my treat, and it's just a drink. Why so uptight?"

Negi's leg swung out and the boy in front of him fell down swiftly. Negi's fist connected solidly with the bridge of his nose, and blood spurted freely. It always amazed him how much blood could spurt from the nose.

Negi's knee came out and shot the boy a quick on in the gut, knocking him into an adjacent wall with a very audible blow. He looked up at the victim, having been one Nodoka Miyazaki, curiously away from her normal protective group. He sighed and waved away her sputters. His ears perked up to the sound of a microphone's feedback. If Asakura was picking that thing up, it must be nearly time for his last match.

He winced a bit when a sharp stab shot up his spine. He would need a long rest after this one, and some proper healing magic. No matter his practice, he still didn't know how to control the stuff well enough to do much. He walked past Nodoka, raising a hand when he heard something akin to a stuttered good luck, or thank you, whatever it was.

He couldn't pay much attention to things like that right now. He had work to do, or a match to fight. He gritted his teeth. He had gone easy on himself, as weird as that sounded. He knew for a fact that the old magus had been injured by Negi himself...

Hardly at all, he realized. The magus had drawn blood, his spells were far more powerful then Negi's...if they had been fighting on the street, with no time limit, and the only way to win was death, then Negi was certain he would have died a painful death. Yet...it made him so angry, that this man had such power, and yet still could not save his own timeline from destruction the old fashioned way. He had to go back into time to mess with his, Negi's, life.

Still, it only made sense that this was not the man's timeline. Otherwise, he would have capped Negi easily. He instead expressed surprise at several points, saying he had underestimated the boy. Meaning that here, at this point in his life, Negi was more powerful than the magus had been, for whatever reason that may be...

Yet that did not matter, as the boy reached the stage and stepped calmly unto it. He could see a few people standing by. Workers, ones who had just finished rebuilding the stage. He felt sorry for them in a way. They come and build it, and he comes along and wrecks all their hard work.

He faced forward to his robed opponent. He himself, being back in his own robe, for his martial arts outfit and suit where still out of commission with blood or tears in need of mending, took a ready stance, his tattoo stood out lividly on his bare arm. He had taken the time to repaint it during the break, figuring he wanted it at top frame for this opponent whom he knew just grazing nothing about.

All he knew was that they had defeated all the others this contest had tossed at them, and they were still standing tall. Negi had taken the time, finally, to clean out his hair and get rid of most of the residual bodily fluid on him, so he stood clean and sharp opposite to the other. Robe to robe.

"In the final match, we have our very own Contestant Negi Springfield! A proven skilled master of his martial arts, he had shown us his incredible power! But will it be enough to take down the mysterious and equally impressive Ku Nel Sanders? Or will Contestant Negi rip off his hood like he did Kago Masato's?!"

In the crowd, finally, Arika managed to find the contestant's viewing area. It was empty by now, not because the contestants were no more, they had taken to the side of the ring. She had become tired of her seat and needed to stand and take some air, this place was the best one to get both that and a view of the match...

"...Ku Nel Sanders had displayed both incredible physical prowess and a mysterious ability to make an opponent defeat themselves by crashing into the ground! Many suspect he can control the very gravity around an opponent and make them collapse! Makes you really wonder about the truth of that bathroom scale, doesn't it?!"

When Negi had come out bloody and disheveled, it was needless to say she had been worried...and he was still going to go fight Takahata in that condition! Yet, he had surprised her, pulling out a trick she had never seen him do before, one not even any member of Ala Ruba had been able to master.

"This match is different than the rest folks. The fifteen minute time limit is final. No extra count outs or instant messaging decisions, so you can put those phones away. The contestant standing at the end wins this one, no exceptions. Also, if any of you might have notice, I have less room to walk around here...the stage has been expanded in its rebuilding. It's not much, but it's a sixteen by sixteen meter area now, and I'm such the contestants will use every inch of it!"

The teleportation technique. Ala Ruba had stuck to the shundo, it was easier to implement and required less thought and deliberation, and, if there was an object where you had to go, you slammed _into_ it, not ended up _inside_ it. Teleportation had its flaws, as did Shundo, but teleportation was considered more along the lines of perfection. It had less flaws in a battle and a simple one extra in circumstantial.

"The final match is about to begin folks! Betting is closing now, so take your final picks! Contestants, on your marks!"

The use of that technique at this age in his life means that Negi has accelerated so fast and so far, it made her think. It made her think of an old ledged, long taught to her and cherished in the royal line. Yet now it terrified her. The voice of her teacher told her it through his own words, for she had never understood the rhyme...

"Then let the final match of the Mahora Martial Art's Tournament..."

_A child born into chaos. A child who's light burned so bright it was all consuming. This child would take all the darkness of the life around him, absorb it all into themselves. Removing pain, suffering, woe and fear, and leaving those around them whole..._

"BEGIN!"

_Yet, with every soul healed, with every darkness taken in and seen through those eyes, the bright soul would become darker, and darker still, until the darkness would form a cloak around the bright light, blocking it, strangling it. The darkness would continue to mass, for the heart inside would still be noble, even as the continence of the being would fall as it took on more of the darkness aorund it...._

Negi rushed at his opponent, but the man jumped back and began to speak, making Negi skid to a stop, for his words burned deep into a hole Negi had in his soul.

"You really do love your father don't you...?"

_That child would mass power about themselves, for they would find that, in order for them to heal others, they needed more and more of it. Yet, as their personality grew darker, so too, did the power they gathered to themselves..._

"The hell?! What the heck makes you say that, or think that? What do you know of my father...Don't tell me you're another one, a fool about to spill another piece of my past for me to see!?"

_Soon however, they would take on a power so dark, that it would corrupt the very soul. The good would fight and battle with all its might, but in the end, all the accumulated darkness would overcome it. This child would become, with their power, a sacrificial missile, which could be aimed and shot off, a suicide force to do one last good for the world before vanishing from sight. They would use up all their soul, darkness and light, in this fight, and die alone to save their world._

Negi stood at alert why the other pulled out a card Negi recognized as a pactio. His hands came out in fists as he locked sights with it. He rushed forwards again, and the other shundoed away, and Negi stuck out his foot....but he phased right through it!

_Still, this child, if their power is great enough, they will live forevermore in hearts, and maybe even in life. For the legend says that if they take upon themselves the act of releasing a changed darkness back into the world, they will be gifted with a undying life...never to suffer that fate... It is said that this child will only come about in the right circumstances...but it will be tied to Ostian Royalty, that is one thing we do hold dear._

"The hell are you? A ghost?! For the love of-... great, just great, I got to fight a fricken ghost. Call the flippin ghost busters, why doesn't somebody?!"

The other smiled as he held his pactio high, and power surrounded him.

"Not a ghost, no. Just...elsewhere...but that is about to change..I've been hoping you would make it to me, Negi Springfield...have a promise to keep with your father..and it starts like this..."

_"How...?"_

_"Born of two powerful forces, one considered light, and one considered dark my dear. One royal, and one sublime..."_

_"Sublime...?"_

_"Not necessarily royal but extraordinary...or perhaps of a royal line named Sublime...the sublime IS capitalized in the ledged after all...but I get off topic. This child will be born with both sublime and Ostian Royalty in their veins...hmm, now that I think of it, it does make it seem like Sublime is the name of the other line...never heard of any Sublime royal line however...ahh, I get off topic again...."_

The magic surrounded the man, and when it subsided, Negi was staring at Anya, holding the book tight in hands a bit too small for it.

"The hell?!"

Of course, when she spoke, Negi got the point instantly. Anya never spoke with such...a depth of purpose. Only an adult sounded the way she did now, even as her voice was coming out.

"This is my artifact, Negi. The _Fyuron Biographicon."_

Negi's head instantly translated the phrase, and his eyes narrowed. His opponent did not neglect this fact. They transformed into a familiar face, one Negi had only seen clearly in his dreams. His fist clenched tightly as he looked upon Nekane, his foster sister.

"Don't you dare mock her dead memory…"

"Every person I have knowledge of has a book here, of which I can use to become that person for a while. Their memories, their personality, it is all perfectly copied...but..."

Once more, the robed man stood before him, reaching out to catch a book he could not grasp with Nekane's height. He brought it down to him, and Negi could see the cover quite clearly. It proclaimed boldly:"Nagi Springfield."

"If the person I am trying to emulate is more powerful than I am, or dead, I can only become them for a total of fifteen minutes. After that, the power is drained from that particular book, and it becomes simply a biography. Meaning it's kind of useless in a way. After all, why would I want to become someone weaker than myself?"

He smiled as he held the book high. The power he had called up came to him again, cloaking him in mist. Negi narrowed his eyes, guessing at what was coming next, and his eyes only burned all the brighter.

His breath quickened and his fists began to shake. Desire...burning desire, was overtaking him. Until this very moment, he never had realized just _how_ much he both hated his father and how much of the man was a mystery to him.

"Today though Negi, I have a promise to fulfill. I told Nagi years ago that, in the event of his disappearance, dead or otherwise, I would give him his fifteen minutes with his son to talk to him. I've saved this book, and have never used it...until now...as a testament to one of my best friends...here we go."

A blast overtook the arena, of light and sound both, and Negi threw up his arms instinctively. Yet, when he took them down, he saw nothing but a bunch of feathers covering a man, and he couldn't help but have his mind play a dark little joke on him.

_You see, your father really __**is**__ a chicken..._

The man in front shook the birds off, and he spat out what appeared to be some small down feathers from his mouth. He spoke aloud to the air, berating the man whom he was...oddly.

"Dammit Al. What's with all the feathers?! Always with the weird entrances. Where the hell am I anyway...hmm?"

The famed idiot took a gander around, and then his eyes set upon Negi. They widened just a tad and then he smiled.

"Ahh, Mahora Festival! The martial arts tournament! Huh Al, you sure worked hard to get a big stage for me to talk to him. A closet would have sufficed you know...ehh?"

Nagi spun around when Negi disappeared from in front of him, and he saw Negi off to the side at his back, facing away. Originally, Negi had planned on getting to his back and kicking him straight in the arse, but instead he shot past him and stood there at the edge, breathing. Just breathing. Nagi looked at his back and the shoulders, which showed just how hard he was pushing out those breaths.

"Ahh shit...you're Negi..right? Was that just the teleportation technique? Sweet. I never liked that one though...preferred the shundo, you know?"

Negi didn't turn around his body, only his head turned half way to look sidelong at the man behind him. He was just as he was in the pictures, and truly an older, more bodily matured copy of himself. He sighed.

"You...have a lot to answer for... I hope you know that."

He turned around, and Nagi saw that the boy's whole body was shaking, not to mention the boy's aura sprang up until it hit a point he assumed was his peak, Nagi looked the boy up and down. He was like a mini-me. Yet, that much power...how old was he?

Negi didn't give the man time to think much. He rushed him, yelling out as he did so.

'You'd better not disappoint me you b$+rd! You who saved the world, but neglected to save his own family!"

He rushed him, and Nagi easily deflected Negi's punch when the boy jumped up in the air, but Negi used that block for leverage, and ended up going up and over the man, kicking him right in the neck and sending him stumbling forwards. Negi began a chant, his magic coming forwards as Nagi spun around, surprised.

"Rastel Mascir Magister, Sagitta Magica, Quattor Spiritus Lucis!"

_Sagitta Magica, Centum et Undecim Spiritus Obscurans! _

Nagi jumped off to the side, calling out his own spell release, and not giving Negi a chance to release his arrows, yet, even as he called out his famous "Man Man Terro Terro," the boy rushed right into his face, and let loose both set of magical arrows point blank. Nagi only just managed to slam up a strong deflexio, yet still, the force of the impact of magic with shield send him sailing upward, where Nagi, holding unto his staff, took flight. Negi grimaced. and jumped up in the air, stomping on the ground quickly as he came down to teleport up into the air near the man.

_Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach..In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium...._

Needless to say, Nagi was impressed as Negi pooled wind magic about his legs and solidified the air just underneath his two feet, providing a platform to stand on. Negi collected more magic in his hands, preparing an unincanted spell, meanwhile, Nagi spoke, but he two had an unincanted spell being thrown together and at the ready.

"Huh...you're not much of a talker are you, Negi..? Not only that, when you do open your mouth, you curse! That's a bit more man that I'd like you to be though...at least right now…how old are you anyway?"

Negi's hands gathered more magic, sparking now. Nagi himself prepared himself, for he knew when lightning magic was about to strike, but once more, the boy surprised him.  
_Cum Spinis Centum, Iaculatio Grandinis!_

"Shut your mouth. I'm six years old, and in those years, I have done nothing but pick up the mess you have left behind!"

The lances of ice ripped forward, and Nagi called up a quick Deflexio to stave them off. His shield may have been a simple one, but his power far exceeded that of Negi's after all.

"Whoa! That's impressive, especially for your age...huh?"

_Of obscurum quod flamma ... _

Nagi realized when he set down his shield that the boy have vanished from his sight, and he looked down. The boy had landed on the stage about ten feet below, and his hands were glowing again, this time, quite violently.

_adveho quod vultus mihi a telum et..._

"You don't know the meaning of impressive."

_Haurus...Abyssus mucro!_

Negi's hand extended outward, straight, as magical power, of darkness and fire, came to it, wrapping around his apendage.

"Oh come on kiddo. I'm a famous mage, the thousand master, I know what's impressive for your age. Heh, you're reminding me of myself in a way..."

Negi jumped up again as Nagi was coming down, swinging his arm, which had been extended by three feet with a deep red and black magical blade, which Nagi had to stop with a quick and powerful gust of wind and force.

"Holy crap!"

It reminded him so much of Eva's executioner's blade, it made him wonder. The boy swung the thing around with abandon, quickly rushing him to a corner. Nagi jumped over the low swing of the blade, but Negi changed its direction, curving it upwards when he jumped.

"Nice...almost got me there...but not quite...watch this."

_Shit. I forgot about that. These things had no real weight to them, so it's real easy to shift their directions, as easy as it is with your own arm. _

Nevertheless, the mage sent a power charge of lightning running through his hand, and forced it downwards, blocking the attempt to slice him in half neatly and landing behind Negi, where he kicked outwards, but the boy spun and blocked the kick with the magical blade, rushing in once more.

'Shut up and just fight... and I'll show you what I'm made of, you pompous fool!"

Nagi was forced to push lightning magic into his own arm, reinforcing it and meeting his blade head on. The two locked for a few seconds, one staring up and the other down, into the opposite's red eyes.

At the side of the ring, Arika didn't know where to look, or who, indeed, at the moment, she should be cheering for. She knew it was only Al down there, but right now, for the moment, it was Nagi...and the opposite was her son. Tough choice huh?

+--E--+

Cut! Goddamnit, I said cut! Stop rolling the film on this camera...I don't care if you want this shot, the other camera's got it! Cut!

There. How was that? Was there enough of a balance between dialogue and action? Was there to much detail in the fights again, or was it just fine? Did the fights fire you up, or did the missiles fail to deploy? Tell me my friends...I need to know! I'm trying to become a better literary chef here...was this overcooked? I fear it might have been.


	30. Chapter XXXIX: Faithless Execution

Now, anything is possible. Is Negi the object of an ancient Ostian ledged? Is he only a subpar holder of the weapon HeartBreaker, one whom the weapon only tolerates in waiting for a more impressive, fitting master? How deep will this silly author go to impress his readers? Only one way to find out, and that is to read! ...Unless you have some different way to learn, like having someone orate it for you...

In other news, I have finally compiled a spell list of the ones Negi has used so far, as I grew tired of going back in my previous chapters and copying from there, or searching for them...or messing around with my knowledge of Latin.

This one may seem a bit shaky during the first half, even boring/confusing... I'm not sure, but mark me, there is a reason for what I am doing...this chapter even surprised me. I did not go in planning on writing was I now see as a major turning point here. I'm glad last chapter was a fine dish. The next course is the one after this...

I don't own Negima! Enough said!

+---+

**_Chapter Twenty Nine: Faithless Execution._**

The arena was in a chaos of sound, assaulting the ears with cheers and shouts, yet the two combatants they were rooting for paid little mind. Nagi was normally a crowd pleasing guy, but in the face of his dart-like, down-to-business son, he had little time to pull fancy moves...

Negi found himself blasted backwards from a powerful gust of wind, as Nagi held both his hands high, lightning magic coursing through them. He let loose a powerful spell, slamming it down upon the area Negi was. The boy only just managed to slip away and witness the destruction it wreaked upon the stage.

_**Sagitta Magica, Undecim Spitirus Fulgoris!**_

**"****Κενότητος**** ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ ****τεμέτω****! ****Δίος****τύκος****!" **

**("Kenot****ē****tos Astrapsat****ō**** de Temet****ō****! Dios Tukos!")**

The powerful axe sent loose charges flying everywhere, making Negi feel very lucky indeed, as he rushed towards his father's back, that they were _above_ the water.

His father nimbly turned around and swung his axe high, calling into power again to slam into his son's blade and slice right through it, making it crash against his barrier and sent him flying backwards once more.

He landed on the stage about two feet away and gritted his teeth. He was getting nowhere! Against the magus, the man had played with Negi, letting him on into the illusion he was doing damage to the other, that he could actually win the battle, but his father...

His father simply put him down at every turn, proving to Negi just how weak he was compared to a man of his stature. If the boy wanted to make this man pay for what he had caused and done, he's need a whole lot more push to his throw...

He charged up his magic in his hands, and prepared a mental attack as well, yet even as he spoke his spell out loud, and prepared his unincanted one, his father kept pace, rushing at him, making the boy dodge and weave like an otter in a river.

"Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonus novem, Spiritus Obscurans!"

**"Unas Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat!"**

_Flet Une Vente! Flans Saltatio Pulverea!_

The clash shook Negi's standing and sent him sliding away, but he unleashed hell with his mental rake at his father, only he, once again, did not use his normal techniques. He put his soul into this attack, raking at Nagi's mind for information.

Nagi stumbled back, and Negi came away with nothing really useful, well… actually, he came away with the enchantment for a spell. It came in the form of a memory, which sparked another thing inside the boy...

"That remind me, Eva told me to tell you hi, she tried to attack me because you didn't remove her flipping curse."

Needless to say, the man was a bit jittered at that statement.

"Gah? Wait, I didn't remove it? Ahh shit...ahh, ahh..."

Negi shook his head as he ran toward the man, but Nagi sent him away easily with a well placed, quick kick.

"Goddamn, I'm in trouble, aren't I...huh? Arika?! Wait...what are you doing here...gah shit, there's only seven minutes left in the damn battle, and this kid won't quit..."

It was true that the former queen had come all the way to the arena's edge, watching as close as she dared to the fight, stretching the rules perhaps, but not breaking them any. She had managed to stop Eva from running in when she barreled down the entrance like a bullet headed for the red haired man however.

"Nagi!"

Man, the arena was crowded today.

'Ahh! Shi...Eva~! How nice to see you! ...What the hell?!"

He turned around and one could almost visibly see a sweat drop materialize on his forehead and slide down... he ducked off to the side to avoid a mighty swing from a newly formed magical blade of Negi's, lightning now coursing along it. The boy swung it horizontally to roll with Nagi's dodge, yelling as he did so.

"Oii! I'm your fricken opponent, so eyes on me!"

_Crap. I forgot about him for a second there..._

Coming out from his roll, Nagi sent magical arrows flying at the boy, making Negi raise his blade ot take them or deflect them as he ran towards Nagi to close the distance. Nagi shundoed away to the side of Negi and grabbed him by the waist, but Negi's blade came right for his face.

_Note to self, don't try to catch a kid around the waist when he's got a lethal, over three foot long weapon in his free hands._

He disengaged from Negi with a blast of lightning magic to the middle, making him double over and lose his magical blade. He growled deeply at the blow, but when Nagi rushed him, preparing to come down with an elbow to his back, Negi dropped to the floor and tried to leg sweep him, yet the man jumped easily over it. Negi sent magical arrows shooting upwards right at that moment however, making Nagi use his natural barrier to deflect it and land in a roll, which took him to a side of the ring.

He looked up to see the display was now officially showing the time limit. Crap. Crap, crap, crap. He spun just as Negi was about to kick him in the head, catching the foot in mid air and making Negi dangle hopelessly in the air, but the boy only blinked twice before his left hand glowed and Nagi had to let go, otherwise he would have gotten a few arrows in his face.

Nagi then saw the boy smiling, and his hands charging up with energy. He spoke to him one simple sentence.

"Hey...you know an end of the world class spell don't you?"

Nagi's eyes went wide there. The hell was he trying to say? Yet the boy was obviously not about to cast that..He couldn't be able to cast that..and the devastation it would wreak...Yet Negi put his father's mind at ease with his next chant, yet his statement made him feel no better.

"Well, so do _**I**_. Chant yours, _**father**_....for it's the only way I'm going to let you win this one just like that. Aestuo continuo in nox noctis meus flamma incidere per obscurum valde levitas, convenio...ego sum vestri famulatus rip continuo, Abyssus...Levitas!"

_Veniant Spiritus Terreteres Florentes! Cum Flore Somniali Sub Caelo Percurrant Una Tempestas! Veris Tempestas Florens, Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!_

Nagi had no rest, as he called up his axe of lightning, supplementing it with magical arrows, he paled when he saw not one, not two, but three large spheres form from the boy, one in both of his hands two next to them, on either side. Nagi came down with his axe none the less as Negi fired off all three of his beams spells. Time seemed to slow down as they raced at each other, but with a shake of his head, Nagi realized the boy was already in his face.

_Shit! I forgot that one has a hypnotic effect!_

The stage, as he looked down, had been wrecked by their collision, but Nagi managed to land on it well, and dodge Negi, catching him around the waist and drawing him into a bear hug, where his arms coursed with electricity, and the pressure of the wind around them beat down upon his lungs, strangling him. The boy struggled against the power, and Nagi looked up at the clock, cursing the fact he only had two minutes left.

Yet, in that instant Nagi had laxed in his concentration, Negi was free, panting.

**"Confuto ****Κενότητος**** ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ ****τεμέτω****! ****Δίος****τύκος****! Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus Lucis!"**

_**Sagita Magica, Centum et Nonus novem Spiritus Fulgurans!**_

"Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonus novem, Spiritus Ingus! Deflexio! Deflexio! Incendia Laques!"

_Sagitta Magica, Centum et Novus novem, Spiritus Obscurans!_

Once more, their collision shook the stage and kicked up a spray of water and dust...

"God!"

The magus turned away from the window, shaking his head. He cast a glance at the screens all around, that showed the status of readiness for the plan Chao was about to implement. He spoke out the same word again when Satomi looked up at him, confused.

"God! Look at him go!"

Satomi gave him an odd look, one that clearly showed that, for all her intelligence, she had no idea what the magus was talking about. The man shook his head and made a "koo koo" sign at the side of his head, screwing up his eyes for good measure. The girl simply turned back to her work, and the man sighed in exasperation.

"I don't know what Chao did to you, but she screwed you up good. Oh well. I'm talking about Negi down there. You're not watching the match are you...?"

Hakase, famed for being the mad scientist, looked up from something she was trying to analyze, a pair of magnifying glasses swinging free, for the thing was in fine print. The mage blinked, for her face plainly told him that while she heard him say something, she had no idea what it was that he had said. He sighed heavily. Chao chose that time to walk in, looking disturbed.

"Negi-san is out there displaying incredible endurance and innovation, just like you predicted Magus-sensei."

He spun around, looking his granddaughter up and down before indicating Satomi with a hand.

"You've destroyed her ability to focus on more than one thing, and have driven her abstract thinking skills to a near zero. It's nothing but singular, one track technical processing there...and as for Negi, you expected me to be wrong?"

Chao screwed her face a bit and looked to Satomi with mild interest. The girl let all the talk of her mental state fly above her head as she analyzed her data...it wasn't uncommon for Chao to hold whole conversations and not have Hakase notice a darn thing.

"She fits my needs the way she is. Yet you are correct, outside this line of work, she is quite literally useless. I will have to leave her within the care of someone when I depart...otherwise, she won't eat or sleep on her own...she's like a battery in a way. Hook her up the right way and off she goes, but leave her out of the circuit and she just...sits there, useless. Yet, I have things to do Sensei...and I need a word."

She handed some data over to Chao and indicated outside the room. Shaking his head, the magus left it to follow her, leaving Satomi all alone. She didn't really notice however, she was a bit to busy with her work...

+--1--+

**"Confuto, ****Κενότητος**** ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ ****τεμέτω****! ****Δίος****τύκος****! Sagitta Magica, Quagnita Spiritus Lucis!"**

Negi put up several layers of Deflexio to deter the power of the spell that his father and his arms sparked with lightning as the axe cleaved through them all. He caught the axe neatly in his sparking hands, the force of the blow making the ground under him compact and form a crater, yet he still stood tall.

'Is that all you can friggin do?!"

He wrenched the axe spell from his father's hands and tossed it off to the side, gritting his teeth as the man had closed the distance, using the axe as a distraction, and punched him straight in the gut with a powerful electrical fist, his other arm holding his neck so Negi could not fly away.

The electricity wreaked havoc on his body while it absorbed the power of the blow. he gritted his teeth all the harder when the man grabbed him after the punch and put him in another bear hug like move.

"God damn..you are nothing but a one combo man. The hell happened to your...thousand...spells?"

His limbs were unresponsive...paralyzed by the electricity he supposed. He managed to grunt that final statement out before his eyes closed from the shocking pain.

Negi bit his father's arm, tasting electricity, but he bit down hard to draw blood before he finally fainted. That would leave a mark...Nagi stepped back, an unhappy look on his face as the count began. He turned to a silent Arika, his eyes asking an unspoken question for him.

"He grew up without any one of us until perhaps a week or so ago Nagi. He's bitter..."

She glanced up at the clock, which was showing t-minus a minute and eighteen seconds. Yet, when she turned back, Eva had grabbed Nagi's attention from her, and he was sputtering some excuse about not having released her yet. Still, both ignored a floored Negi, until he coughed at the six count. He kinda rose halfway off the ground before...

"God...damnit!!!!"

He fell back to the ground, apparently muttering curses into the splintered wood where his face was situated. The ten count caught him, and Nagi shook his head, turning to Arika. He shrugged while Eva tried, unsuccessfully, to rob his eyes from his apparently widowed wife.

"I hate the fact I've got no time left. Take care of him, will yah? He's a feisty one...wished I could have been there to make his life easier...hell, I can't even give him this staff like I planned to, it's gonna be gone in the next minute..."

She shook her head. Nagi unconsciously put his hand on Eva's head to shush her, it always worked before when she got all hot and bothered in kiddie form, and apparently, it still worked now.

"I'll try. He has some strong walls though Nagi...and I'm afraid he the object of that old story I told you about..."

Negi was down on the ground, the count having come and he had failed to rise. A kind of roar, deafening if the man had been paying attention to it, rose around Nagi. For once though, he was not playing the crowd pleaser. He was only half joking as he answered Arika.

"That thing? Didn't we find out if was nothing but an old story book tale some old fart thought up way back when?"

A swirl surrounded him, and the man threw on his hood, uttering a single curse.

"Shit! Goddamit Al, can't you hold on for just a few more seconds?! Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Tell Negi to keep fighting, he's a heck of a good one right now, better than I was at his age...hell, I was still wasting my time in that bum out school. Too bad I'll never get to train him....see yah!"

The mist surrounded him, and he still had his hand on Eva when it consumed him totally. It cleared to reveal another hooded figure, but no one besides the remnants of the group of old friends, and Negi, knew that the man under it was a different one. Negi finally pushed himself up into a sitting position, stinging all over as he got up, a thousand pins and needles assaulting his skin, but he brushed off his mother when she tried to approach.

"Leave me be. I can lick my own wounds, thank you very much."

Meanwhile, a comedy routine had broken out between Eva and Al, the former or which was yelling at Al to get the hell off her if his transformation was over with. Negi sighed and walked in the other direction, or tried to, but he was bombarded by the awards ceremony and then, people who wanted to congratulate him, have an autograph or the like. Negi simply focused on his dressing room, and teleported away from it all. No point in getting any more tired than he already was...

Yet, away from it all, above the crowd, in Chao's secondary base, Magus nodded his head to Satomi, who was hovering over a computer screen. When she did not respond, he looked to her more obviously. She was focusing on the readiness of the forces, and had not seen him. Sighing, he cleared his throat. Once, twice...finally, he just walked over and grabbed a walkie talkie from her loose hand, and spoke into it, relaying that the festival had been concluded.

"Oh? So who won..?"

"You Hakase...you won the tournament."

The sarcasm flew over the girl however. The magus sighed and mentally kicked himself. For all the intelligence, this girl was helluva dense.

+--2--+

Negi had stripped off all of his dirty or torn clothing and had set them to wash as he sat in the empty bath. Cross legged in the water, his eyes were closed and he was simply sitting there, breathing deeply, and muttering spells under his breath. He was drawing in from his inner resources of chi and bringing them forward, not in a visible state, but in its more natural inner one for healing.

"Tui Gratia Jovis Gratia Sit Cura... Tui Gratia Jovis Gratia Sit Cura... Tui Gratia Jovis Gratia Sit Cura...Tui Gratia Jovis Gratia Sit Cura...

_Coutlouce, Ego ingenero vos, cavo profundus in mihi. Vigoratus , Curo , restituo mihi universus. Ego scisco vestrum is, restituo!_

He called these spells up, but he did not release them as he would in battle, or, indeed, how he had ever released them before. He held them in reserve, allowing them to drift around him, surround him in a kind of cocoon of invisible energy. He breathed in deeply. This was the way healing magic was meant to work, at its own pace, peacefully, completely, yet Negi still had to keep a firm hold upon his work, or lose all of it.

He had been drained, physically drained and magically stretched thin. That tournament had affected him more than the boy had realized. His whole body was aching somewhere or other...

The silence was about to be shattered however. This boy could never be at peace, and this day, even after such hectic battles, was no exception. This time, the force of chaos was Chamo, slipping into the water and dashing towards the boy. News of magic, being spread through the internet, was his message, and the pictures from the Mahora Martial Arts festival were all over the net...not only that, but it seemed that, out of nowhere, areas in the campus had been shut down...

Negi did not move however. His eyes only slowly opened to stare non committal like at the ermie for a few seconds. He claimed something in Latin, something the ermie didn't get. He looked at Chamo.

"That's it. The spell. The one my father cast on Evangeline. I caught it from his memories...anyone can remove it...but they need power...a power equal or greater than the power he committed to it..."

Chamo however, let the statement fly over his head. What did he care about Eva's curse? They all were about to be turned into Ermies! Well...he was already one, but all the mages here...and he was worrying about a friggin curse?!

"Aniki! Mages, all over the internet, spreading the fact magic exists, Takamitchi is missing, this is big Aniki!! ...Aniki!!"

The ermie found himself underwater for a few seconds as a hand came down quickly and calmly, slamming him into the water. The boy still, miraculously, held his magic to him. Yet, when Chamo came back up, Negi was once more reciting in Latin, cementing the spell his father kept chanting over and over during their battle in his head.

"I remember seeing her when she was about to cast End of the world, Chamo...that shock of lightning she received...it wasn't lightning..."

The healing magic left him in a burst of gusting wind, still invisible. The boy's eyes flashed upwards towards the door, and his face settled back down from a calm peace to a determined, grim one. He uncrossed himself and shot out of the water, landing on the edge of the pool, holding out a hand to pair of clothes on a bench.

It didn't take him long to change, but when he came out, he looked at Chamo.

"Let's go then Chamo...I'm ready. Unless you want to be made into a piñata for disturbing me for no damn reason."

He walked out to leave the ermie to splash out of the water in pursuit...

Negi walked through the hallways, going over the spells he knew in his head. The one his father kept chanting popped in his head, and he grinned. He had, during the time he spent in the bath, been tinkering with that one, and what he could pull together with Greek. His father used magic arrows to supplement its blow, but Negi had synthesized a variation of the spell so one would to need to do that. He allowed his smile to become a more suitable smirk.

He had been alone for two hours to rest, change and take care of things, and now it was late afternoon. In those two hours, that axe had not left his mind. It was the only really new thing. Combining it with Magical arrows made a short chant relatively long, but his variation, while longer than the original, didn't need the fortification, so it was shorter than the combo...and in one language to boot.

_Next time, __**dad**__...next time, I'll show you the wrath of Negi Springfield. You can summon your "Axe of Lightning" all you like, but you'll have to deal with my "Eclipse Axe." Not only that, but the next time you come around, if you're still around, which I don't doubt for a second...you'll find that I've picked up all the rest of the mess you left here...the only dirt left to clean... will be __**you**__._

Yet, that was far off, if ever at all. The boy focused on what was here and now, and the situation at hand. Chamo caught up with the boy and began to jabber away about the situation to him, and the suspected instigators. Chao's name came up.

Again with her. Well, she was the one who instigated the tournament, and she was the one who supposedly had not allowed pictures, yet miraculously there are pictures all over the internet. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was behind that one. Yet still, why? What was the purpose, why did she want to reveal magic to the world so damn badly?

After all, when he had saved her earlier, that is what they had been accusing her of trying to do, only now, this was an even more elaborate thing. Try as they might, there simply were not enough mages to take down the epic net spam Chao was pulling off.

How many people were working on this with her, he wondered? Can't have been to hard...just chuck a bunch of Harry Potter loving fiends on the net, and arm them with this. Get all the others in on it too, the witch hunters, the flipping maho-romantics... sooner or later, you've got about a hundred thousand people spamming the net with this crap.

Somebody's gonna hav'ta believe it, and then they'll start spamming it all over the place too...You can only kill so many noobs, it's pointless to continue trying. They keep coming and coming, dragging you further and further down until you become one of them...you gotta kill the source.

Negi could easily hop on the computer and try his luck on shutting down that source, but he had a feeling he would get no luck on that one. So the only thing was to go at Chao herself physically, and find Takahata while he was at it...for all he knew, the dude probably went to the bathroom and some idiot panicked, but ehh.

That was life after all. Negi ran along the hallways now, looking left and right, the place was eerily empty...everyone was outside. Yet, occasionally he caught sight of a random person, whom he blew past. There was no real time to stop. That was until he skidded to a stop near his dorm.

He'd need HeartBreaker and his other weapons after all. He dashed into the room, heading for his bed and the sacred metal weapons that lay on it. A whole arsenal, laid neatly out. Negi picked up them all and unceremoniously stuffed them where they belonged. He grabbed HeartBreaker last, and it glowed faintly in his hands, vibrating.

It was ready...was he?

He left the building and plunged into the sea of people, setting his aim on finding Takahata first, and then dealing with this mess. Yet, he found himself bumping into Asuna, and the girl only had to look at his dark, excited look to know something was up, and she attacked him with the basic question, what the hell was up now. He just smiled and told her to continue to have fun, for it might not last to much longer. That got her attention, and when he tried to shoot off, she grabbed his collar.

"You're not leaving me out of this one."

Calmly, the boy turned his head to look at her, his shirt collar pressing against his neck, for Asuna had lifted him up.

"I never get to leave you out of anything, don't I? Okay, if you don't hurry, the whole world might just find out magic exists...and you can only imagine the kind of chaos that will cause...especially when some loose cannon mages will no longer have to hide their powers..."

Negi landed on his feet when the girl just dropped him from that comment. The whole world finding out about magic would indeed cause a huge mess...hell, she had a hard enough time understanding it, it turned her whole world upside down sometimes...imagine all the others suddenly finding themselves upsides down...and some of the bad guys taking advantage of not having to hide anymore too. Holy...it was not a good picture...

Negi sped off while Asuna contemplated, but she jumped right after him. This was bigger than anything she had dealt with before, but the kid couldn't deal with it alone...regardless of his performance in the tournament...which she did not get to fully see she might add....maybe she might sneak a peek at the pictures all over the internet while she had the chance.

+--3--+

"Grandfather, are you sure this is a solid tactic? It seems very...aggressive, and risky to boot."

The older man smiled as he pushed more power into the device in front of him, storing the power for what was sure to be one heck of a battery drain. He smiled at her sidelong.

"Of course. This machine works in a similar way to an age pill. Only the changes are more lasting in nature. It's not hard to cast an illusion spell. Neither is it hard to cast a spell capable of reversing the age of a daisy. A human is just a bit more complex, but the same concept applies. This will also cause a temporary black out. This give you time, in this setting sun, to get your units into position without much of a fuss. You'll have more preparation time than before."

Chao's lips almost became a squiggle with how much she twisted them.

"Still...you've refused to use such a device before, and that was at home, where there was ample power and safety measures...here, this ragtag version that would draw enough power to black out the whole city and still need more..."

The man waved away her worries with a irritated flick of his hand as he forced the rest of his magic into the energy compression tank at the side, slamming the canister shut with a push of a button.

'If this works, I'll be able enough to fight, and, I can get rid of the boy in one blow too. Imagine that, if he gets as far as our base, I manage to make him swallow a condensed form of this power, a pill? All I have to do is make him curse at me and throw it into his open mouth. Poof. He'll become nothing but a soup of amino acids to get whipped away in the wind...

She swallowed at the thought.

"You are so eager to destroy yourself Magi-sensei, it's almost disturbing... if I didn't know any better..."

"Yet you do, my girl."

He slammed the compartments shut and stepped under a large, deactivated magnet, he pinged at it with his fingers and then bent down to check the platform he was on. The machine used a powerful magnetic force, along with magic and known agents of illusion.

It wasn't that the man would become younger, just that his body would be refreshed and renewed in a way for a period of time. A mixture of illusion and actual change would give him the semblance of youth regained.

Unlike a pill, this lasted generally for about a month before it began to deteriorate slowly yet noticeably. Yet it took a lot of power to do this, power that not even the whole city of Mahora had. So the magus had used his own magical power to fortify it. Chao would have to use hers in the synthesis process.

She had no idea how the extra magical energy to substitute the raw electrical power might affect the process. She had no idea how well this scraped together model would work. Magus Negi had a perfect model at home, hidden deep in his house somewhere, but he never used the thing, saying he had been through enough in one youth...

The man looked to her, making a sign that he was ready as he set himself right. She walked to the controls in a stoic way, the complicated displays where made simple by a two button and lever control system. Her finger hovered over a polished silver button, it's mirror consistency allowing her to see her whorl finger prints.

Why was she paying such attention to such small details? She was a scientist, the world meant little to her besides when it involved her work. The only times she exercised such scrutiny was on an experiment.

Just press the button. Her soul had already been sold to science, this should not make her hesitate...she could tell herself that all she wanted but at the end of the day, when she tossed herself unto her bed, it was her pounding heartbeats she heard, not humming machinery.

She pressed the button and the displays became a blur of information she was supposed to be monitoring. She grabbed the lever and for the first time remembered she had red nail polish on. Since when? No idea. Pushing it all the way up to the max, the blur became an unintelligible stream that, if she had been paying attention, she might have been able to follow. A grimace graced her features as the swirl of power clouded her vision, blocking the magus from view. Yet, it was too much, too fast.

She realized that too late. Realized to late that the machine was beeping it's electrical head off, the screens spider webbing with red blood. Her hand came to the lever far too late, grasping the object just as it all hit critical mass... The blast that consumed the lab wasn't heard on the outside, but its effects where felt when all the power in the whole city suddenly, completely, shut off. Not only had it been completely drained, but it's systems had been overloaded by such a sudden draw...

Somewhere, Negi cursed as all the lampposts in his sight popped off. He gritted his teeth at the setting sun and he felt a surge of power creep up from somewhere. She may not mean it happening, but Eva's power had just been released, and was slowly unfurling its tentacles... Negi didn't know that Eva had not planned this however. He saw it instantly as an attempt to take advantage of what was going on.

"The hell is this crap I have to deal with now?!?"

He stopped suddenly where he was and did U turn for the forest, telling Asuna to go one ahead to find Takahata, unless she wanted to become bantha fodder for a vampire. She took the message. Negi sped off now going for Eva's cottage, having no idea he had just left his students to a much more sinister fight than a placid Eva. How could he? He was but a victim of his magus counterpart's plan.

Speaking of that very magus...Chao couldn't help but cough at the steam that engulfed the lab back where she was. Nagi had not explained that his plan would also include the temporary distraction of Negi and Eva, two powerful sources, but he had thought it obvious...yet she wasn't thinking about that..she was cursing the hunk of junk that caused this mess...that was, until she heard a laugh far to robust to have come from an old magus's throat...

+--4--+

Negi skidded to a stop near Eva's cottage, kicking up dirt and pebbles in a spray. Eva was already outside, staring up at the sky. An appropriate cape was tossed on her back, flapping in the wind lightly. She turned around when he skidded to a stop, her keen ears having picked up his coming meters away.

The two stared at each other, one placid, and the other angry. Yet Negi's anger faded slowly as he continued to watch Eva. She wasn't doing anything, just staring at him. A slow blink finally convinced him. Comprehension dawned on him as his anger returned.

"It wasn't you, was it...?"

Eva shook her head, a small smiled forming on her lips. She looked to the sky.

"How I wish I could just fly away right now. Just leave....but no. Your father's curse still keeps me here, and I'm not after anyone's blood this time. I still owe you, twice over now, remember? I'll say one thing though...whatever knocked out the power...is big. At first I thought it was you, but the aura is different.

"You mean the magus."

"Bingo, boya."

Negi sighed and his brow furrowed. Goddamn, he had gone and done what his stupid father was famous for doing, charging in without thinking. Goddamn it all!

"Him and Chao...I've got a bone to pick with."

He spun on the spot, attempting to leave, but Eva's voice stopped him.

"He said you should go to Library island, alone, to fulfill that promise of yours to me. Travel deep."

Negi's foot was only a few centimeters from the ground, but it still hovered there. His mind ran through the message. His older counterpart was a tricky man, and it might be a trap, that message. Yet, If Eva was telling him, there must be a reason. The vampire was old enough to be worth paying attention to when she said something. He simply nodded without turning around.

"I'll keep it in mind, but I can't make any promises there...If it comes to fighting him...will you participate?"

She blinked. It was an obvious question, but a binding one too. This was perhaps the one chance she had to slip away without relying on anyone. Yet, it could have a dire consequence to the world...but when had she ever cared about the world?

"...I can't make any promises there either."

He still didn't turn around, but his eyes narrowed just a tad.

"Fair enough."

-----

Out of the mist walked a vision of the past, of the future, and certainly not one of the present. The man tossed a lock of hair from in front of his eyes and smiled, red eyes shining bright. He raised an auburn eyebrow to Chao, his smile twisting into a half smirk.

"Well. How do I look?"

The mages robes fit well. Perfectly in fact, as it billowed back in the mist while he walked towards her. His long hair was still in the pony tail he had placed it in before going into the machine, but it shone now with that trademark color. He stood tall, just above the six foot mark. Those eyes, circular like a lions, burned with a playful fire. Every movement was of his father, but his aura was his mothers. Nagi was a hard cut figurine. This one was whole. Softer edged, but no less powerful, or clever, and all the more real for it.

"It's...it's...a success..."

He smiled. Raising a hand to his face, he flexed the fingers experimentally. Science was a real wonder. His face became serious as his mind began reassessing the plans they had set out, with a younger, faster brain, no less wise. He nodded his head. It was solid enough. It left some room for maneuverability he had not thought of before however. Room for improvement and a few ploys. He looked down upon Chao. Satomi chose that moment to enter the room again. A small flash of something not singular minded, something human and emotional, flickered when her eyes settled upon the magus...but it was gone when the man turned around and waved her over.

As the sun began to set, Chao began to send the signals for deploying units, and the darkness saw to the erection of an army overnight...but these forces were not the only ones being deployed, even as mages set to guard the points of which the world tree could grant wishes were disabled and the defensive forces of Chao were placed, her enemy was not blind. One set of eyes saw this coming, and one set of eyes watched it from their dorm room window before raising an alarm to the mages, those set of eyes calling a meeting over the phone, while calling another meeting in person.

Burning red, these eyes had no choice now but to involve others in this situation.

+--5--+

Negi cracked every knuckle on his hands while he cradled a cell phone between his shoulder and right ear. His eyes looked up at his mother, and the small group he had gathered about him. He set the phone to speaker and set it down on the coffee table before turning to the collection of people in the dorm. It was time for him to formulate his plan, as it was obvious now that Chao was eliminating all the mages governing the world tree's unstable spots and setting up camp. Whatever it was she was planning...

Scratch that. He knew exactly what she was planning. It was obvious. The world tree's power could grant wishes. The wishes had to be deemed worthy by the tree however, but if you took control of all the areas under it's vicinity...you could, theoretically, use its power and exploit its mind. You could grant any wish you wanted...and Chao seemed obsessed for some harebrained reason, upon setting the world afire with the knowledge that Magic existed...but one tree effecting all the worlds people was very risky, even with the power it held...

So she had flooded the net with these pictures...all she needed to do was make people...susceptible to the idea. The pictures would take care of the rest. At least, that was his take. It seemed the only thing she really could be trying, and he yelled this over the cell phone at a stubborn Hitashi-sensei, who seemed adamant on the idea she wanted to take over the school for academic gain. The hell would she need that for, she was already a top student!

So it had lead him to this. A select team of people whom he exercised a measure of trust. Sakurazaki, Konoka, Asuna, Anya, His mother, Nodoka and Yue. These knew his secret, so it was safe to banter about with the idea of magic. He had toyed with the idea of Chisame, considering the technological need, but her computer was kaputt, someone had attacked her directly. She was still here though, having nowhere to go, a sensible person thrown into the world of magic to be fried. Her only life line was the Sensei turned mage Springfield, who was as acidic and logical as she and more.

The boy licked his lips to stall time. He needed to think. Chamo popped up calling out about Pactios, and Negi slapped him off the table and into the bathroom without really looking to see what he was doing. The ermie was an annoyance. Yet his mother brought the topic back up. It was a logical tactic after all. They could not just go into a battle unarmed, especially the ones who did know any magic. A tick began to play in Negi's eyes. Then he did a quick calculation. The window sent a draft to pass through all of them.

"...If there are no other ideas, I'll consider it. Taking that into consideration... ... ... ...My plan is this... There are five mages here and four mundanes. Four pairs and one alone. I'd elect for myself to be alone. I work best alone, and I plan on traveling fast, to the core of this, having someone with me might put them in danger and inconvenience me. Sakurazaki, you are with Konoka-san, you two will be the least suspected there..."

"...Asuna, you are a mage here, I taught you at least three spells, so you can stand as a magi...pick someone, and don't give me that damn look. Anya, I'd suggest giving Yue a pactio card, you two as someone else..after all, I'm a single unit and Konoka and Asuna are also mages here, so Yue's your best bet. Mother, you chose someone. You're gonna stick out no matter who you're with. The mages are being taken down, so we need to move silently. If you want pactios in this, fine, but use them carefully. We'll form them now, and you have all night to analyze them..."

The window sent another draft, and it was only then when Negi realized he had closed it before walking in this room. His eyes widened and he ran to the window, but he met Eva at the entrance to the room.

"Chachamaru's gone missing. If I hear right and this is all Chao's fault...she's got my servant in her hire. That's the last straw there..I need my tea you know."

Negi stared at her, his left eye was still ticking and it became more pronounced as he stared.

"Suuuuuure. Okay then...looks like I'm stuck with you then. Ten people, no one leaves here without either a pactio card or a pactio partner. This is an emergency I even realize."

They broke up in reluctant groups as Chamo was rallied by Negi. He was more or less undamaged. He had crash landed into a few towels when Negi had sent him flying. When he came back, the groups were set. Setsuna didn't look to happy standing next to Konoka, but that was from more of an embarrassment than any disgust. Anya looked like she had seen a very large, very slimy slug as she looked at Yue. Yue was blankly staring back, he wondered what was going on throught her head. His mother seemed to be the only one having fun, even as Chisame was looking for an escape route while the ermie hopped off Negi's hand and pulled out from nowhere a trusty piece of chalk. Nodoka seemed to be trying to hide while standing next to Asuna. Asuna herself had a look that described Negi's mood: "The hell I have to go through every day for the sake of the world..."

Negi's eyes locked upon Eva's. Who would have guessed life would toss this lemon his way? Oh well. There was once a wise man who said: "When life give you lemons...squeeze them in your enemy's eyes and laugh as they scream from the fire." He took his place as the ermie drew his circles. It was a quick in and out right? Just a simple kiss...Anya tripped on hers…she was just trying to go in slowly, and she just had to trip and nearly knock Yue over. Arika had grabbed Chisame before she could cop out and forced hers. Konoka had to lunge Setsuna, or lose her too, for she was a deer ready to bolt in headlights. Perhaps the only normal kiss was Nodoka and Asuna, even if Nodoka was shaking like a leaf.

Eva grabbed Negi, but he placed his open hand right on her middle to keep the distance, his eyes burning. Hell if he was going to let her force him. He initiated things goddamn it. He moved forwards and caught her lips. It lasted but a few seconds, and he was forcing her away, a mere brush of the lips...yet that didn't stop her from realizing he was a far sweeter fruit than she had first estimated. The harder they are to capture, the rarer they are...

Setsuna, Chisame, Yue and Nodoka received cards, and as Negi forced Eva away, the set of cards exploded outwards, and one floated to both of them, glowing a brilliant silver...normally they glow bright purple or pink...The glow faded to show a card very different from the others....Eva's cleared first, revealing Negi, wearing something one might call a vampire's classic cape and suit, but his cape, while black with red insides, didn't have a collar, but a thrown back hood. His eyes were half closed, showing the red pinpricks that stared out into Eva's. His hands were outstretched as if he were raising them to the gods, glowing blood red, in between them floated a large, pitch black skeleton key. It glowed the same color as his hands. Around him, symbols floated in a magic circle.

The main difference from most cards however was the fact his was not white, but more of a softly mirrored silver, laced with gold trimmings to complement in place of purple. Negi stared at his card. The key seemed to be his main weapon, but what was up with it being a different color from the others...? Arika however, allowed her eyes to widen at the sight of the card. Chamo pointed an appendage at it, nearly spitting with the force of his emotion.

"An ultra rare! An ultra rare!"

Negi looked down at his familiar with a kind of disdain.

"This ain't a baseball card convention Chamo."

The ermie shook his head violently, grabbing all the cards that had been formed through the pactios and reaching for Negi's. He handed it over mutely.

"No, no, no Aniki! Pactio's have their own system of forming. Each pactio is different, even if a ministra is shared between different Magi. Here, let me show you..."

The ermie rose Yue's pactio card, which was an off white with a purple lining. He pointed to this lining eagerly, explaining.

"This card, just like any other pactio, is powerful, and has its own abilities, but it has a type. This one's normal. There's nothing really special about it, the typical run of the mill pactio. You can expect if Ane san had a dozen partners, they'd all be the same. This one to...the only difference here would be how powerful the weapon is, depending on the mage the ministra is drawing from..."

He rose Chisame's card here, and pointed to its lining. Then he rose Setsuna's and Negi noticed it was a cleared white, and had a gold lining.

"This one though, is rare. It might have to do with both Ane-san's power, but I think if Sakurazaki-ane san were to make another pactio, she probably wouldn't get this one again. The kind of people who get this pactio card are adaptable and skilled, powerful even, or the magister and magi together make a team like that. This pactio is probably real useful in combat...this one too...*Here he raises Nodoka's* Yours though Aniki....it's an ultra rare. You'd be lucky to see one of those in ten lifetimes...It signals an extremely powerful team, skilled and useful in almost any situation. The two of them together could be expected to never be stuck in a situation where they had no options, only lack of power..."

"...This kind of pactio card...it's powers and practical use are probably through the roof...not only that...this kind of pactio normaly signifies an incredible gravity. Most pactio cards give the partner and magi a telepathic bond when put to use that way, and the master and summon the partner wherever they like with one, but a card like this is bound to have an extra, hidden power, meaning it's even more useful outside of battle than regular ones....but there's still more..."

He pointed to a second layer of gold trimmings.

"This signifies that this pactio is, somehow, a _permanent_ one. It means that McDowell-ane-san can't make any more pactios after this one. It also means that this has an added complexity, and a greater amount of magical power behind it. Permanent pactios have another power too...they allow the master to know exactly where their partner is, no matter where they are, with a touch of the card...the ministra can find where their master is too...and...it depends on the distance, but you can get a feeling of what they are feeling too..."

He tossed the card at Negi, who caught it neatly. The ermie turned to Eva.

"Call him forth Ane-san! We need to know what this one can do!"

The vampire gave the animal a dark look. She didn't like being ordered, but nevertheless, she rose her copy of the card grandly. She licked her lips thinking before she called out the release. Why had her pactio with the boy been permanent? It was true that she had never made a pactio, only constructed completely obedient dolls, but to have that doorway she never walked through closed suddenly made her want to rebel and walk through it.

"Sim Mae Pars! Per Centum Secundās! Minister Evangel, Negiius Springfeild!"

(With both teams executing their plans, this grand game of life inexorably moves forwards, only one force will be victorious. The fight explodes...next chapter!)

+--E--+

Darn it, I won't make it this way, unless I have a mass of power and action in one chapter next time...This chapter confused me, but it was needed. As I said...it all will come forth, next chapter. That one, all of what I've been trying for this arc will become clear. What does Negi's Pactio do? How will the fight go now with the force we once rooted for so fiercely is so disadvantaged? What will happen now with Kago Masato? What's going on with Negi's heritage? What's going on with his weapon? Heh...that's all I can say.


	31. Chapter XXX: Exploding Era

Refresh, renew, and restore. I am ready now. Let us go. It's time to have all this come into being... do not own Negima. For other things I do not own, see the bottom of this chapter. I'm trying something different for this one...

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty: Exploding Era._**

+---+

Negi awoke with a start. The sun wasn't even up yet, it barely graced the sky it's influence to turn it a deep purple. The boy instantly shot out of his bed and ran to the window, jumping onto its sill to look down upon the street. There were dozens of golems as far as he could see at certain points in the campus. Last night had not been a dream. It was a real thing, and he was not going to have any real rest until this was taken care of.

Negi had spent many sleepless hours last night, debating with the mages that had still managed to hang around. Negi was the one who had the gall to point out to all of them that all their niceties and diplomacy didn't count a slugs tail when it came to those very visible golems. He had proposed an "End of the festival event." As cover. Simply put, those golems were part of a game. A giant video game. They would call in a large order of temporary wands and distribute them with mages robes. It was simple. Protect the school from the invaders.

The real mages would be dubbed "Hero Units, and would have "Special powers" I.e Their actual magic, to combat these fiends. This was Japan, he claimed. Most of them would lap it all up. Others would soon be convinced. Mob psychology. The strategy was up to the residents, but it would be advised not to fight the golems alone, to stick to their hero units.

Because of his sensibility, the mages were in no panic...some had suggested a few other things to supplement his idea, banners, holograms, the whole shebang...Chao, with her forces, would make this farce incredibly easy to keep. All she had to do was act the way she already was, like some evil warlord with her forces massing the school.

Negi grabbed his clothes, going casual today, jeans and short sleeves for optimal movement as he tossed on his robe and stuffed HeartBreaker in his belt. He then picked up his pactio card and stared at it. Last night...he had been too busy to really figure out what the thing did. He only had time to admire the suit up it gave him.

Negi actually began to hum a song as he put the card away into one of his robe's pockets. This wasn't a happy song though, as you might expect. It was one that had been plaguing his head since yesterday, and had begun to play as soon as he woke up. He laughed to himself when he caught himself humming it. He didn't stop it in his head however...he'd need it sooner or later...

Negi met Asuna outside the dorm, and she saw the look on his face. It was set and ready, as always, but it was still disturbed. She stopped him right there, for it was rare to see the boy disturbed, and it disturbed her hundreds of times more.

_"How can you see into my eyes...like open doors?"_

He smiled and shook his head.

"You've known me too long, that's the problem with you. Don't worry your little head. I'm just concerned if the ragtag plan we managed to come up with can stand against Chao's careful, well thought out one. Not to mention that our magus friend has been through this before, and will be prepared for tricks we might pull."

Negi saw, in his mind's eye, that Magus staring him down with those red eyes. He saw his father's eyes join them, and then his own, from an older, adult body. Those eyes, they became a labyrinth of mirrors in which his enemies hid. He was blindfolded, seeing through an odd form, perhaps he was a bat, seeing through sound...red pinpricks pierced him from every angle...He shook off the vision. This was no time to be disturbed.

_"Leading you down into my core, where I've become so numb..."_

Negi looked up at Asuna and his left hand closed in upon his right fist, cracking his index's knuckle in the process, yet the boy took no notice. He cast a glance down the hall, and spoke to her without turning around, setting off at a pace.

"You ready?"

Was she ready? Well, as she would ever be it seemed. She had been practicing most of the night with the pactio release incantation. Yet she was glad that her ministra Nodoka could summon her own weapon if it came to that. She wasn't sure if she got the thing completely. She clutched the cool handle of a blade Setsuna had given her for this battle.

Negi met with Anya and Yue next outside the building. Anya looked like she had just seen a ghost, but Yue's eyes were set a glow. She had only imagined such things as the things she was witnessing now...only allowed them to rampage in her head from a book. Now they were here, in front of her eyes, and she had no idea where to look first.

She made the mistake of looking into Negi's eyes first. Sunken from lack of sleep, hard set due to determination, haunted do to the weight of the idea of failure...they looked like empty caskets.

_"Without a soul...my spirit sleeping, somewhere cold..."_

Those things would sober even Makie's bouncy self in a single second. Her short lived joy had no chance. Negi looked up at the appearance of Konoka and Setsuna. They began to walk to the planned meeting place, the fountain. To anyone outside, it looked like a simple meeting, the teacher going out on a walk with his roommate, and meeting other students along the way.

Evangeline was waiting with his mother and Chisame when they got there. The sight of his mother and his new Magister Magi brought back some of his sanity and spark. He managed to form a smirk at least. He looked about. They were missing one...ahh, but there she was, coming up reading a book...but it wasn't an ordinary book, Negi recognized it as her pactio item. She was ready then...

_"Until you find it there and lead..."_

The boy smiled then. It was time to execute the plan then. Silently, he outlined a few final details to his operation. He would use the proposed "Battle Game" as his cover for their operations. They all had their places, and Negi had taken into account all the areas the world tree had power over. His objective was to win over just one and make a stand. They would split up into five groups, Magi and Ministra/Minister, and each of three select groups would attack three of the key points, a certain three, Negi made sure he carefully picked which points he wanted to target based on what he knew of the campus's layout."

_"...it...back..."_

Final deliberations were made, they spent at least an hour by the pool deliberating their plans, making sure they were very visible, a simple group meeting, nothing new, as the small teach always found himself surrounded by students, and he used this fact to an advantage now. Yet...how much he wished he was at home where he didn't have to worry about any of this...but where _was_ his home? Wales? America? Germany? Japan? Anywhere else he had placed his hat for any amount of time? He'd been so many places, tossed away from them so quickly like a banana peel into the garbage. Yet, like a lucky penny, he always managed to find himself somewhere else. Negi split from his group, walking along with Eva for a space, then he split from her to go off into the alleys.

She stayed in the sunlight. Off to the distance, a speaker that had been hooked up a temporary generator sounded off its feedback. Eva felt for her magic, which rushed to her obediently, almost giddy. Locked up for such a long time, only to be let out for a brief space, it was eager to serve its master. Of in e distance, someone began calling for attention...

_"...home..."_

+--1--+

"There are a total of twenty hero units. Of these, four are captured by the enemy already! Two hero units are considered rouge units, they have no team, and it is best advised that, if you meet one of them, stay out of their way. Those two, along with eight other considered recons, are elites. Protect them with your lives, they are your only hope! You have received your instructions...so..."

Negi didn't listen to the rest of the message. Pictures on a ragtag holographic display flashed his picture as he turned around. He had elected to be one of those several rouges, but only two were left now. Him and Eva. The rest of his group were undercover operators, so they, thankfully, had not been labeled as hero units, and were able to slip under the radar. Him and Eva could handle the attention however. He pulled out his pactio card as he stood on the top of the roof and placed it on his forehead.

_"This area is clear."_

He suddenly got a sense of her being somewhere off to the south of him, near the bookstore where the world tree was situated. He got the sense she was pissed, but beyond that, he wasn't too sure. Her mental growl came to him.

_"Well, this place is swarming. Some of these guys are absorbing my ice spells...I smell a rat."_

Wait..they were absorbing her ice spells? How? Why? Wait...his mind sent out a single response, a growl.

_"The magus...I'll be there in a second."_

He focused on a spot near the library, and in a whisper of wind, he was entered into a fray of chaos. He would probably never get used to that effect of Teleportation, the instantaneousness of it all, almost as if one had just changed the channel on a giant T.V Negi was a part of. He had simply jumped from one channel to another...like a dream.

_(Wake me up.)_

Negi found himself in the middle of a convention of summoned fiends, massing upon the bookstore, where Eva stood her ground, about fifteen people behind her...not that she was actually protecting them, she just wanted to rid the area of their ugly faces..(Of course, she was talking about the golems here.)

Negi kicked one of them in front of him in the back, and brought out HeartBreaker, slashing another in the process. He twirled his blade, making it spring into brilliant life. Inside him, his fighting spirit was brought forth, his battle lust waking from its slumber as his hands began to spark with lightning magic, coursing along his already deadly blade.

_Wake me up inside._

Negi spun in a circle, his blade becoming a disc of red and brilliant blue silver. He mind professed the same thing his mouth was, calling to his magic to join this battle.

_Omne Flammans Flamma Purgatus, Domine Extinctionis et Signum Regenerationis, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Flagrantia Rubicans!_

"Omne Flammans Flamma Purgatus, Domine Extinctionis et Signum Regenerationis, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Flagrantia Rubicans!"

The fire came from him, just as Eva extended her own hands, calling up arrows of darkness to shoot down others. Yet darkness wasn't very effective, and as she had claimed, ice was completely nullified. It truly was like a video game, in which one encountered enemies with absorb abilities, or half damage to. Negi's fire, while weaker than her spells, did more damage.

It seemed endless to him, slashing, calling up fire arrows, fire blasts, even fire disarm spells. He found that electricity didn't work to well either. He gritted his teeth as one of his enemies got past his guard with a huge fist, and mobbed him as he was sent flying to slam into the ground. It was like a nightmare...

_(I can't wake up.)_

"Reprobo inter mihi , impendo extrarius , praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! Nova Contego!"

Around the boy, a shield of fire energy condensed quickly, covering him all over before thickening into a opaque wall, which exploded outwards from him, sending his enemies flying off. The boy spun up quickly, his hand outstretched.

"Sagitta Magica, Quattor Centum, Spiritus Terra!"

_Igneus Ambitus! _

That very hand began to circulate with red spheres as Negi ran towards his enemies. His arrows, gravelly and slow in nature, but all the more powerful because of it, managed to snag a few hits, and Negi jumped up, raising his charged fist to the largest one.

_"Wake me up inside..."_

His fist hit home, sending shock waves through its body as the fire exploded upon it's skin, covering it in the blaze. His original spell had improved in effectiveness with his training, he was more powerful now, so it to, had become more effective.

_(Save Me.)_

A scream echoed to him, and the boy turned to witness something that made his blood run an odd cold. It was Misa, who fell away from a golem that he grabbed her. That wasn't what got him however. What made his blood run cold was the fact that she had a stone spear sticking through her, spreading throughout her entire being. It was a prettification golem...Sakurako was in its other hand, still. His blood boiled.

_Don't tell me it's happened again..._

He unconsciously drew his pactio card, and through her own card, even if she did not have it in her hands, Eva felt the anger radiating from him, the sheer hate. Yet the intensity of the emoticon was such that it mixed with others...she wasn't sure in that moment, what had happened. His voice echoed in her head.

_Call me forth._

He rushed forwards, his hand glowing with arrows that simply bounced off the hide of the summoned being. It turned around to focus on Negi...

She was busy with keeping the golems back, he could do whatever he needed to without the pacito, couldn't he? Her irritation paled in comparison to his pure anger though. It swallowed her puny annoyance and crushed it like a fly under a blue whale's weight. He ran at the golem, his card at the ready by his shoulder.

_Call....me...forth...NOW Evangeline! Before I lose it!_

_"Call my name and save me from the dark..."_

She stopped shooting of arrows at the advancing golems. Those behind her showed fear, thinking her finally done. Yet she pulled out her card, and tossed it forwards. She hoped the boy knew what he was doing...in her hands, the card burned all the more fiercely.

"Sim Mae Pars! Per Septem Centum Secundas! Minister Evangel...Negiius Springfield!"

_(Wake me up...)_

The blast that enveloped him was incredible as the boy jumped up. He turned heads as he flew, a star that had fallen to earth and was trying to rejoin it's great trail. A golem in front of him was cleaved neatly in two as he sheathed HeartBreaker in his belt. He didn't land on the ground. He floated lightly, his cape billowing backwards as his eyes burned.

_Τ__ὸ__ συμβόλαιον διακον__ῆ__τω μοί, __ἡ__ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! __Ἐ__πιγενηθήτω, τα__ἰ__ώνιον __ἔ__ρεβος_

He felt the power flood him as in front of him, a key took shape, a huge, pitch black key, that sprung to life with a red aura. Eva's magic fortified his physical abilities, and his magical, as he floated there, his hand grasping the key. It twisted under his grip, shrinking down and thickening, until he held a sword in his hands.

_"Bid my blood to run..."_

_α__ἱ__ώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωα__ῖ__ς τ__ὸ__ν __ἴ__σον θάνατον, __ὃ__ς __ἀ__ταραξία! Κοσμικ__ὴ__ Καταστροφή!_

"If there is one mistake you have ever made..."

He stood there, power swirling about him, coming into being he felt invincible, unstoppable. He extended his free hand, and it glowed an incredible blue.

'It was that trick you just pulled... Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε...!"

_(I can't wake up...)_

All around him, it surged, beat and threw. He gathered up an incredible force, lightning and ice both. They swirled together, destroying each other, building each other back, stronger than one, no longer ice or electricity. He sent the power raging forth, on them all, the golem, the armies of others, he just let it all lose as he spun his sword in an arc, teleporting himself to the edge where Eva was, where he unleashed hell with his weapon. Any enemy it touched, it dispelled in a blast of magical energy.

The sheer power he unleashed ripped through the middle of the army surrounding them in the large clearing, rushing outwards and tearing apart all it reached. The wave of power came towards Negi and his party, but he rose his blade, calling out a simple word, almost laughable against this force.

"Deflexio!"

_"Before I come undone..."_

Yet the word in his hands forced his hands up, into his own spell, yet Negi not fight it, even as he knew his spell would be destroyed...it felt natural. The magic circle sprung to life around him, it's symbols leaving the circle to swirl around his weapon. He felt power fortify him, his spell, all of this energy, making his feel every cell in his body, alive, burning, powerful.

His one deflexio held off the blast without a single flinch, and yet, all those who had stood before him were gone. Yet, so were his two students. The golem had dropped one before being demolished, the body shattering upon impact with the ground...his spell had blown the bits away into the wind.

The other...

He rushed towards Misa. Kneeling down, he saw what he feared inside was confirmed. She had been completely encased in stone, down to the core; she had become a simple piece of elegant furniture, a showpiece. His left hand, holding the sword his pactio item had become, shook and he dropped his item. His fist balled tightly. The statue was impossibly cracked.

Again, failure. Even now, with all of his power, he had failed. His fist came down and smashed right into the statue, demolishing it into pieces with the force. His right hand unconsciously reached for his sword which came into his hand at his call. Once more, it shifted underneath his fingers, becoming slimmer, it's blade becoming nothing but a sliver of silver, it's black hilt becoming winged...

It had become a near exact copy of HeartBreaker.

Yet, it felt different, but it too burned a blood red to match the actual artifact which he unsheathed and held in his left. To the eye, they were identical, but Negi could tell the difference. He had held HeartBreaker to many times…he knew the touch of its aura.

Negi still burned, afire with the power the pacito lent him... he turned back to Eva. Those eyes stared through Eva, bringing with them the first shiver of fear the vampire had felt in a long, long time. He spoke to her, his voice bordering on a grunt, an angry break, he sounded as a man does right before he snapped.

_(Save Me.)_

"I'm going ahead...this bastard has to pay for making me an indirect assassin to my own students."

He spun on the spot, his cape flying outwards, his black dress shoes lightly tapping on the cement. He disappeared before she had a chance to come up with any witty remarks. She still felt him, drawing hugely upon her magical reserves, but as of yet, the loss was little to her...yet was it safe for the boy to take so much for his own?

+--2--+

It was lost upon Negi, the fact that he had just, incredibly, cast two end of the world class spells at once. It was lost on him, the fact that he had hardly been drained at all. It was lost upon him, the fact that his body was on fire with energy, alive with such a power he felt he would explode with the slightest provocation. It was lost upon him, all of this and more. He ran, as fast as his magically charged body would take him, both of his blades, his pactio item and HeartBreaker, flashing outwards to any golem he met, felling them. He was, as it would seem, invincible. His power was impossible it seemed. Around his pactio blade flowed the symbols depicted on his card.

They strengthened him even more he felt, but inside, he was nothing again. All that he had built in his time here, it was gone, ripped away with a single stone statue. Every time he erected a new barrier, a stone statue had to fall and bring it down...

_Save me from the nothing I've become._

"Status."

"An entire fleet of our ally Magus Springfield's forces have just been eradicated instantaneously. We have confirmed that Evangeline A.K. McDowell is on the scene, but our sources say it wasn't her. However, the power was too large for the current Negi Springfield to have put forth. Singular units and small groups of erected golems from our forces are being wiped out in a steady line..."

Chao almost developed a tick in her eyes, but instead only managed to look half disgusted. However, her grandfather shook his head, looking out the large window on the observation deck of the blimp. He smiled secretly and looked to the informant, a girl of little importance, so much he didn't even know her name.

_Now that I know what I'm without..._

"Forget statistics. If it's not Evangeline, the only force on their side strong enough to pull something like this is Negi Springfield, meaning, by process of elimination, it is he. He's headed for the world tree. What he plans on doing when he gets there is beyond me. Have you manned your snipers with their special cargo?"

Chao looked surprised. Her face, when the other looked around, plainly conveyed her confusion that he would think her so slow, not to have done so already, after all, he had told her to start with them, did he think she did not listen to him at all? Perhaps.

"Obviously grandfather, did you think me ignorant of your instructions, yo? Most of the mage teachers have already fallen victim to them. The only ones left are of no consequence.."

He turned around fully at that part, and Chao already knew, as the robe swished about, that he was about to call her on that blunder.

"Except Springfield. I failed to have found him on the identified victims of that one way ticket to the future." Also, I failed to have seen any one of his inner circle hit either. Of all of them, all you managed to capture is Anya Coclove, Yue Ayase and Nodoka Miyazaki. None others are accounted for, and I am sure, from your information, that is roughly a third of his ring wagons."

"Yes Grandfather."

"I'll deal with Springfield."

"Neh? But Grandfather...we need you to summon your..."

The man walked to the window and looked out it, grinning. They needed him to summon more of his forces to re-fortify the impressive amount that were being destroyed. Only his seemed to have the power to stand up to Eva after all. He rose his hands out to the window, and he indicated Chao to come over. He took her hand, leading her to the very top of her blimp, grabbing his staff on the way out.

_Adeo mihi , Rex rgis per Levitas. vox superum , donatus unto mihi , vox of levitas tractus per vestri vena. Vestri vox non compositus , vestri vires un possideo. _

Once there, he let her loose. Satomi was there, looking over the book in front of her, oblivious to the heights and to the gusting winds around her. Her only task was to read the texts when told, translating them from their ancient Greek into her native language. She looked up only when the magus raised his hands...

"Ex plagiarius ut Sakuna sileo , vestri vox est altissimus mons montis. Adeo mihi , maioribus vernula per Thor!..."

The power that came from him was incredible, raising straight up into the sky and out, undaunted by the winds. It's force was wider than he, expanding outwards into a sheet of power. It shot through the clouds, turning them black, forming a storm. That storm spread quickly, forming clouds, extending them outwards, soon all the clouds around them where coursing with electricity.

"Perkunas!"

A bolt of lightning, impossibly large, struck downwards right in front of the world tree, creating such a sound of thunder, windows shattered within the vicinity, car horns blared, people left temporarily deaf, the force of the wind blowing them back. Yet the lightning stuck to the ground, forming arms and legs, wrapping itself upwards into the form of a demon, the largest summoned one yet. Even from their perch in the sky, Chao could see it clearly; it stood taller than even the world tree.

The magus grinned as Chao's eyes widened, if she had any less control, her jaw would have dropped. As it was, she could only turn to stare dumbly at her Grandfather, who only grinned in response... He rolled up his sleeves eagerly as his staff snapped into his open palm. He jumped right off the blimp from the railings, yelling to her as he did so;

"Take care of him will yah? I can only summon a limited number of those for you, my girl. Now, if you'll excuse me my blossom...I've got a little upstart to take care of."

He flew off as the humanoid shaped beast in front of the tree took a step, sending shockwaves of electricity coursing through the ground, burning all the grass in the area underneath it and electrocuting a stray cat about ten meters away. Poor thing...The mage, flying alongside it, directed it forwards.

+--3--+

_You can't just leave me..._

_"Don't worry...I won't leave, silly.."_

Of all the things to pass through Negi's mind as he slashed down yet another Golem, it had ot be that. It only drove his anger further. His foster sister's words, all that time ago... He had told her...begged her not to leave, and she had left life anyway. It wasn't her fault of course, but he still was angry, at no one if not himself. His failures. That's what his life was made up of, his failures.

He almost stopped when an incredible bolt of lightning slammed in front of his vision, several dozens of meters ahead of him, near the world tree. He almost lost his footing when the sound raped his ears drums. The wind blew him a few meters back, flying. Yet he landed on his feet and gained more ground in the same amount of few seconds he had been flying than he had lost.

_"Breathe into me, and make me real..."_

In front of his eyes, that lightning came to life. Wrapping itself into limbs, forms of muscle, ears, eyes, mouth, it was a demon of pure lightning, no, not a demon, a summoned beast on the same level as Sukuna...a thing Negi only had the name Demi god for. He moved forwards faster still, covering distances an average highway speed car would have trouble doing so.

He felt his pactio item surge it's power through him, fortifying him and when he stopped at the edge of the plain the being was walking towards, the symbols form his blade exploded outwards, circling him once more. He narrowed his eyes at a flying figure, high up, near it's shoulder.

_Bring,...me...to life.._

The beast stomped closer, and Negi gathered his energy to him. He felt it surge, and reached for it, jumping upwards as hard as he could, putting his concentration into a teleport up into the air. He found himself floating there, on a bed of solidified air, hundreds of meters in the air, staring right at his father.

The man hovered there on his staff, and it took Negi but a few more seconds to realize it was not his father, but he, the Magus. The two stared at each other. One under the power of a staff, and one under the power of another. The magus laughed, a bright, light and brilliant laugh, the laugh of a man who had dedicated himself to being a hero. This had to be a dream...Now, above the trees, Negi started to wonder how he was going to take down a beast of this magnitude, and the being who had so easily summoned it, rode along with it even.

_(Wake me up)_

Negi rose both of his weapons threateningly, and the symbols around him swirled all the faster, coming around his blade once more to coat it in their glow. The magus smiled and shook his head.

_**Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. **_

"You really are something Negi Springfield. I don't say that as a comment to myself, but to _you_. How did you gain so much power in one single day? Don't tell me you made a pactio...Only one who could have possibly give you that kind of boost would be...Eva. Whom is at full blast right now, huh? Ha ha... That's my fault, isn't it?

_Wake me up inside..._

_**Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. **_

Inside Negi, whatever control over his emotions was lost. His fists tightened on his blades and in the next instant, he was in the magus's face, slicing down in an "x" formation to cut right through his neck. The man disappeared from view and popped up behind Negi, slamming him down, all the way down, with a powerful blow, condensing this blow into a single fist.

_**Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!**_

It's one thing to cast the spell. It's another to absorb it into yourself. Yet the magus had forced the entire power of this spell into a single punch, and he had let it loose right into Negi's back, slamming him down, to travel hundreds of meters to the ground, a pancake in the making... yet, the boy's eyes snapped open even as the other's power coursed through him, his own magic beating back the potential for damage.

_(I can't wake up...)_

He did something he had never been able to do before, not in real life anyway. He caught himself in midair, able to slow his fall to the point where he could land lightly on the ground, his magic combating the electricity coursing through the ground, looking for purchase. His pactio came forwards again, shifting once more, back into the key it originally was. He spun it as his adversary came down low enough to enter his vision if he craned his neck about forty five degrees up. It was still glowing a red, but the blade edge of the key was shining.

"Wow. You're still standing. Not even a real scratch. That must be one heck of a pactio. Not surprising, you're not like me, a pactio is probably going to be a rare thing in your life. This might be more difficult than I first thought."

_"Wake me up inside."_

Negi blinked as a bead began to form on the edge of his key's blade, expanding into a full sphere about he size of a baseball. The bright pink thing continued to grow as he spun the thing. He really had no idea what it was doing, only knew it was drawing a huge amount of energy from him, waking him up from his anger and his burning state.

_(Save Me...)_

What was he doing here really? Against this beast of a man, against the pitiful display of his power behind him, Negi was nothing without the pactio in his hand. With it, he wasn't so sure…his key disagreed with him however, snapping forwards to show the basketball sized sphere on its tip, which almost instantly expanded outwards fully, becoming as wide as a large beach ball.

"Ha ha, what are you planning on doing with that, may I ask? Not shoot it at me or Perdunas I hope. That will get you nowhere, and you know that...hmm?"

_"Call my name and save me from the dark..."_

They item had a mind of its own. It fired off the sphere as a beam that barreled down so quickly, it passed right through the magus and slammed into the beast he summoned, going through that too. It lasted but an instant and it was gone, Negi feeling drained, incredibly, his energy returning but marginally from Eva. The magus in front of him laughed.

Nothing had happened to him. Negi sighed as he sunk, using the key for support. Whatever he had just pulled, it had failed...utterly. He stood up straight as the magus approached slowly, his hands glowing.

_(Wake me up...)_

"Want to see what I can really do kid? It'll only take a few seconds...gah!"

Negi's eyes shot up at that. He looked at the other, who had stumbled, clutching his side. Behind him, the summoned beast began to dim, and in its middle, where the beam passed, through, a hole was slowly forming, expanding outwards from its torso. Negi's eyes went wide. The hell? Yet the magus had not hole from him...no...

He was getting older in front of his eyes.

"What the hell?! It's not supposed to fade for months!"

Negi got it. He smiled. Apparently, his item, with a mind of its own, knew what it was doing. As a key, or as a sword, it had what was perhaps the most powerful effect in this battle...

_"Bid my blood to run..."_

The ability to dispel the summoned, illusions, all that was untrue. Such as the magus's robust youth, or the powerful Perdunas, whom issued a roar as the hole in its middle only got wider. Negi bet he could drive a flying car through it by now...wait, why was he thinking about flying cars?

He felt like laughing. Oh hell, he felt like laughing to the gods above. How the mighty may fall. How will he fall when his times comes he wondered? Or is he the one who is tasked with toppling all the mighty?

_(I can't wake up...)_

_Damn that song to hell, it doesn't fit here. Get out my damn head for once._

_"Before I come undone..."_

_I suppose that's a...no?_

Negi rushed forwards, and his key once more shifted in his hands. He couldn't help but glance at it as he ran towards the Magus, who teleported away from Negi's charge to stand near the world tree. What tricks did it have left in its bag for him? It had turned into flipping HeartBreaker for god's sake, and as he stepped to follow the magus in teleport, he heard a roar that sounded more like a scream as the demon Perdunas, having been unable to do anything but make a show, was dissipated by the wound he had sustained, it simply eating him up like a bad hologram.

_(Save Me.)_

As Negi stepped down into the shade of the tree, facing the magus down, he realized the key could now fit in his hand. He glanced down and his eyes became like plates, that's how wide they were. In his hand was the Cassiopeia.

_The hell are you?! This has to be a dream..my students can't be dead, and there is no way you can have such devastating power...is there, my failures can't be so rewarded, can they?!?_

The object in his hand vibrated faintly, and glowed red, the symbols he had come to wonder about springing to life to rotate around it. The boy stared down the magus and rose his hand slowly, the magus's eyes locked onto the form of the object he had created, the object this boy was destined to create, and he paled. How did he...but no..it was glowing, symbols he recognized swirling around it.

"The hell kind of pactio is this!? What did you do, _**lay**_ her to get this?!"

Negi smiled then. He had a feeling that was his line to say. Indeed, they had more in common than was first obvious...

_"Save me from the nothing I've become."_

"I see you have adopted my tongue, fair magus. The knight in shining white armor for this world's timeline, reduced to nothing but the old man he is in the face of this black knight. Check I say, check. If you're not careful, it may just become mate as well. You have a debt to repay to me."

The other looked as if Negi were mad, but that Cassiopeia was glowing threateningly. He had only the spell form of it. In all of this, he paled at his own stupidity. Of course, without a body, the spell could not be destroyed, but it could be lost, in this form, it took a long time, canceling out the invincibility trick he had discovered....

"Debt?"

...and of course, the spell was lost if he died. In this form, the Cassiopeia was more strategic, and less battle worthy, in fact, it's battle worthiness dropped near zero. It's only use was escape, escape from the opponent, or escape form the whole situation of having an opponent.

"Your golems killed two of my students, fool. I will extract the proper punishment from you now if you don't mind."

Dead? Which ones?! His golems...no. No...that wasn't possible, but the boy's voice broke his denial into tiny pieces, his artifact glowing all the brighter as his Unsheathed blade glowed the same deep color of blood.

_Bring me to life._

"Petrified fool. Petrified and broken. Beyond repair. I gave them the only proper burial one could during such a war. I scattered their ashes to the winds. This winged blade of mine will be your way to judgment...come on old man, show me what you got!"

Negi lunged at him, swinging his blade high in his left, his right held the glowing Cassiopeia. The mage ducked and kicked out, but Negi's right hand moved of its own accord, coming down to block the attack even as the boy was debating if he should execute such a move. The Cassiopeia blocked the move without a flinch. It wasn't the false copy Negi had been switched with, it wasn't the copy he had been given to by Chao. It was a near perfect emulation of the one Chao gave him, but with the durability famous for a pactio item.

_Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes...Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!_

"Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!"

Even as he chanted, the other shot off magic arrows, but Negi nimbly dodged and rushed in, both hands glowing with energy. He shot off both beams, running as he did so, a neat trick most mages could not accomplish...but then, most mages only knew three to five spells and couldn't demolish a condemned brick building with their best shot at the wall. The magus teleported to Negi's back, trying to axe kick him, but the boy grabbed his leg with his left hand, HeartBreaker slicing at his skin.

_(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside.)_

Even as the Magus sent a trademark "White Lightning" from his palms at the boy, the memories began to plague him. He was tossed into the sea of memories, one of which, the two of them shared. The memory of that burnt village, dying embers, cracking stone, sheeting snow, laughing demons.

He shook them off just in time to see The boy's fist in his face. The magus teleported away without thinking and came to the boy's back, where his foot tripped him up. What had happened to his power, his momentum? His plans? He was the one who had the strength here, he was the one who would dictate what happened. He controlled the timeline!

_Bring me to life._

The elder Negi powered his fists with magic and shot off sparks of lightning at the boy. Negi dodged and blocked them accordingly, rushing in with an elbow to the gut, knocking the magus back for but a breath before he appeared at the side of Negi, kicking him right in the kidney upwards and slamming him back down to the ground with a hard, electric elbow. The boy disappeared from there, coming to his back and axe kicking him, but he missed, for the other disappeared again.

_"Frozen inside, without your touch, without your love, darling... only you are the life among the dead."_

Negi spun and swung HeartBreaker out where he estimated the magus's heart would be. He misjudged, but he still caught his arm in a side glance, bringing with that slice pain and more plaguing thoughts. Negi poured power into a mental attack rushing the other, his Cassiopeia coming out finally. It glowed quickly before activating slowing down all movement besides the boy's own to a standstill.

_All this time, I can't believe I couldn't see..._

_The ultimate weapon... _

Negi brought HeartBreaker forwards, its glow threatening to blind him now as he rushed forwards. His mind recalled all the times he had been struck like this by this man. Every time, he failed to hit Negi's heart, for all he wanted to kill him, in the end, he could not kill himself, couldn't he?

He came all the closer, his blade aimed right to impale the stock still form through the heart.

_"Kept in the dark, but were there in front of me."_

_Is, in the end, not one that will kill your opponent..._

The Cassiopeia held high, it began to glow incredibly as Negi's mind reached out and raked the other's still form, ripping away pieces of still born thoughts, forcing his way through the conscious, robbing dreams and time.

_"I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems, got to open my eyes to everything."_

Negi brought his blade up in an arc to slice right through the neck, but he forced his pactio item forwards to touch the other in the chest, the spell holding time dissipating in a flood of sound and life. The boy smiled as the magic surrounded them both, flowing, beating to a different tune.

"In the end, I guess you're right you old fool."

_"Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul..."_

The magus found himself bound by the power of time. He could only look as Negi lowered his blade to his side, the item placed right on his robes, shining. He...was alive? He felt fear for perhaps real now. The boy had spared him...for what means?

_...but instead, one that will bring an end to the conflict, one that will bring peace. Sometimes all it takes is a few words, others, a song...but in the end, it's power will be far more than the battle cry of a warrior on a lone field..._

The magic swirled and Negi answered the unasked question in the other's eyes.

"I...I am tired. That, and I finally understand, everything, I think. Enough lives lost. You want to fix this world? Go. I'm sending you to the fricken future. Right back where you belong. Fix this timeline as you were planning to, there. Kill me if you like, but remember just what I did for you at your weakest point. For once...I'm not going to let my emotions, or my power, take control of ME...go."

_"Don't let me die here..."_

The magus surrounded him then as Negi's hair was blasted back in the encompassing white blast. Yet, in the next second...it was gone, and so was the magus. Negi felt tired, unbelievably so, and he suddenly realized that his pactio had been disengaged. The card sat on the ground, looking dejectedly up at him.

_Shit. _

Somewhere off to the distance, a loudspeaker proclaimed that the victory of Chao Linshen was imminent, that all the hero units, the final one being Evangeline A.K McDowell, having been detained or captured.

_There must be something more._

_Oh hell no they are not all gone. There's still one left..._

_Bring me to life._

Negi stuffed his pactio card in his pockets and swung HeartBreaker out, running from the world tree and right out into the plaza. It was chaos here, people finally breaking the courage the pretense of this being a game had given them and running. Their heroes were gone, and they had not power to stop the beasts that were coming from them.

_(Wake me up.)_

Negi ran right up to a golem's back, jumping up into the sky with a yell as his blade sprung to life, slicing right down the middle of the thing and dissipating it neatly. He swung out his blade in a horizontal slash as he landed, tripping another up and he jumped up again to impale it with his blade.

_Wake me up inside._

Before that body dissipated, he jumped of it and unto the shoulders of another golem, of whom he promptly relieved their head. He let loose a cry that was heard for meters. Heads turned regardless of circumstances as his hands sprang to life with fire.

_(I can't wake up.)_

"Reprobo inter mihi , impendo extrarius , praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! _**Nova Contego**_!"

Around him, the fire condensed into a solid shield before blasting outwards, catching five golems around him in the blaze, making them exit stage right. The last hero unit Springfield roared his presence to all who could hear, looking very much like a wild animal.

_"Wake me up inside."_

There was still hope, as long as he was alive here...and he intended to stay in commission until they won this folly of a war. He ran as fast as he could to where he knew, from the blaring speaker, where Chao was.

_(Save Me.)_

+--4--+

Above the chaos, Satomi was chanting, while Chao was scanning the skies. It wasn't that she was worried, it was just there none of her surveillance could tell where the heck her grandfather was...that was, until a blip told her a whole faction of her forces massed below her had been eradicated..but she had captured all that the school had to offer in terms of "hero" units...

Her camera showed her something that made her slap her forehead, carelessly dropping the intercom device over the railing and into the open air. Not that she cared about that, what she cared about was that, once again, she had made a crucial mistake and had assumed Negi Springfield was out of commission, something being proven very wrong down below her right now.

Her calls to her grandfather got no response. His bright confidence gone in a flash, leaving nothing but darkness. Perdunas, the great demon he had summoned, had dissolved right in front of her surveillance. There was truthfully, as the man said, only one explanation.

_Call my name and save me from the dark._

_Negi Springfield...your power has grown immeasurably since coming here. If we don't stop you now...it won't be long before you exceed the power the grand puppet master holds, even the power your very own father holds. If that point is reached...what is to stop you from taking the world into your hands to do as you wish? I, you future descendant...I fear to say it, but as my grandfather has failed, I have no choice but to crush you._

_(Wake me up.)_

Her hands clasped tightly around a condensed pill, the pill which the magus had told her to construct. If she managed to get the boy to swallow this...he was done for. She would have done what she should have since the beginning...killed him in infancy, pre-fetal stage. Her other hand clutched a crystal. Whatever remaining power it held after changing the age of her grandfather, she would use to fortify herself.

_"Bid my blood to run...."_

An explosion rocked her standings on the blimp, and her eyes went wide. The heck was that? She spared a glance at the screen on this top deck, even as Hakase continued her chants. She saw Negi Springfield on top of a tall complex, figures off in the distance running towards him along the roof...what remained of his group.

Setsuna, holding a large, magically fortified blade. Asuna, looking pissed and wielding a kendo stick. Chisame, being dragged along by Arika, who looked flushed...Negi's hands pooled with power still, as he rose them to the sky to shoot off another one of his beam spells at the blimp, his first shot had hit it's display board, knocking it out, his next one was more carefully aimed, he was waiting for a shot at the engine itself.

_(I can't wake up...)_

It was too far. Negi abandoned that tactic and looked to Setsuna. He indicated her blade.

"How hard to you think you can hit with that thing with your pactio activated?"

You can bet she can hit pretty damn hard. Negi ran to the other edge of the building and poured wind magic into his feet and started to run towards her, going as fast as he could. Faster, faster....he wished at that moment he still had his pactio boost. Setsuna's blade came out expertly and slammed straight into his behind, blasting him from the roof just as he hit the last step to jump off.

_"Before I come undone.."_

In that last moment, he focused all he could into teleporting into thin air.

_(Save Me.)_

It is difficult to teleport unto ground that is moving when you came from something standing still, hard to judge the exact place you want to be. Negi didn't want to risk it, so he had built as much momentum as he could, gained some more from an assist by Setsuna, and then, teleported into a spot in midair, where he appeared still flying the same speed he had when he left the building.

Higher up now, he crashed landed right on the top deck, nearly knocking Satomi over...well, if he had, his life would have been easier. He skidded in front of Chao, his eyes burning, HeartBreaker pointed, blade out, right level with her own heart from the distance of two meters.

_"Save me from the nothing I've become."_

Chao was calm, but he felt the power from her, symbols lightly glowing along her skin, reminding him of his own tattoos. He narrowed his red eyes. They met and sparked against her calm brown ones. This confrontation was not to be rushed, no, not at all, but Negi still sprung forwards, there was no time for introductions. Chao disappeared from view and Negi felt a knee hit him in the gut.

Cassiopeia! It had to be! Negi smiled and coughed once before he rose his pactio card quickly, he didn't let her see it with the speed as he tossed it forwards, using his own power to activate it, as a Minister could.

**"Adeat!"**

_Bring me back to life..._

In his hands, the key did not appear, but instead, the Cassiopeia came in full, ready for him. He smiled. This thing was really fit for him, it knew what he wanted and when he wanted it. He rushed Chao, and when he saw her disappear, activated his own Cassiopeia in a flash of power. He ducked as she aimed a kick for his head, a body that had just been stock still. They had activated in tandem and where now in sync.

Both of them having activated the time trick at once, they both were outside the timeline. All around them was still, but them themselves where active. Negi rushed Chao, only to have her twist away and try to trip him up. He jumped over the foot and axe kicked her in the back, sending her forwards.

_I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside...__Bring me back to life._

+--E--+

Darn it! Looks like I couldn't do it in thirty. Oh well. Thirty one, two maybe? Ha ha. Notice the short intro? Odd, no? By the way, I don't own that song that' plaguing Negi's mind, Bring me back to life by Evanescence, released in 2002, so it's perfect to be stuck in the boy's head, hmm? I was purposefully skimpish on the battle details here. I put more emphasis on character feelings and state of mind. Ehh. Oh, by the way...just in case you were wondering...I will Explain Negi's pactio item in full next time...it's not a "god mod" in any way, in case someone thinks that...once you know what it actually does...you'll see.


	32. Chapter XXXI: Consolation

Yukilumi. Let me first say I'm glad for your review. As for the Lincho/iincho, the first time I watched the anime, I saw Linchou, whether it be a translation mistake or whichever, but I followed a version that claimed Linchou, so it's a bad habit. As for Negi's age...that's a point I myself have debated over for a long time. It's true, it's the way I originally had it, but so young..I was so torn over it. Then a few things flew at me. I won't tell you what I chose…

I tried to make it as solid as possible, my reasons, my chances, I tried to give myself plenty of flying room...Oh, and magical channels is something I picked up from my studies into magic and legends. I wanted the system to be different here. It explains the ability to use one's whole body as a conduit for spell casting, as well as the thought of their being a cut off for the amount a person could have, and how much they can expend at once. Think of them like veins. *Shrugs*

I have a "Rate Me" poll up for those of you who are interested in rating me. Oh...It's a bit off, but I won't be able to write anything, at least, I don't think I will be able to, from April 9th - 11th. If you don't see a chapter on the 12th or 13th, know that is the reason. I have a conference to attend, one that will eat up my weekend. If Negi ain't real enough for you all, well, this chapter might change that. It's odd how I received a realism query just as I was planning on exploring the poor boy's personality even deeper.

If you are looking for "booty," You might have to wait a little, I'm afraid...I do have thoughts in my head for quite a bit of such things in the storyline _after_ this one however_._ Yet, that is the famous and ever elusive "sequel" we speak of. I aim to improve my writing style, one reason I'm here. 4/5 is to me 80/100, meaning I look upon it as sub-par.

I know it may seem boring for these past few chapters, I've felt it myself…perhaps it distraction, or lack of good sleep, but I'm forcing that all away right now...these "travel chapters" will not prevail for much longer, and then I can actually _**write**_ again...not just _**type**_. Perverted, Havelock Vetenari? Perhaps...too much detail again? I thought I had mixed it. Ehh.

Gah! Now I've rambled enough. I don't own Negima...I'll let my story speak for itself.

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty One: Consolation_**

A kick in the shin, a blow to the head, Negi flipped over in midair as Chao's fist came up and into his torso, the force changing his momentum in the air. He landed on his back and sat up in time to catch her foot, using his strength to over balance her, shooting off a few arrows right into her back.

He let her go and began the real chanting, even as he rushed her to keep distance at a minimum.

_Omne Flammans Flamma Purgatus, Domine Extinctionis et Signum Regenerationis, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Flagrantia Rubicans!_

"Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens."

**"Omne Flammans Flamma Purgatus, Domine Extinctionis et Signum Regenerationis, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Flagrantia Rubicans!"**

The same spell barreled from both their hands and crashed in the middle, sending sparks everywhere. Yet, Chao found herself outmatched in the power of the spell and had to break off. She cursed. Being almost completely outside time, the world tree could not affect her power, and if she canceled her Cassiopeia, the boy would get her. Rock and a hard place.

She rushed him now, but the boy shot off his other spell, the one he had actually chanted out loud. She had to break off, but the boy appeared in her face.

_Neh?! Ah! Tactical error! He can teleport, meaning even without the effects of the Cassiopeia, he has a speed advantage! _

Yet the boy's blade was not out, he punched her in the midriff with a power infused fist, blasting her back. He appeared at her back then, seeing the Cassiopeia. The girl twisted away just as he was about to strike. They stared at each other, and the boy grinned.

"I know your weak spot now."

They locked horns once more, Negi came in with a leg sweep that knocked her down, but she rolled away from his elbow and kicked him away when he came to close. Still, Negi was like a boomerang, he kept flying back at her from every conceivable angle, slowly, ever so slowly, pushing her back.

Negi came to her back again, forcing the girl to spin around and catch his foot, yet the boy shot off magical arrows, making her disengage. He turned his first kick into a spin, coming around for another round, which she deftly dodged. She came to his side, kneeing him in the back and twisting to kick the hand that held his pactio item, yet the item did not leave his hand, it seemed glued to it. That same hand came up of its own accord and slammed home into her elbow, making her arm numb with the vibration of the "funny bone".

"Reprobo inter mihi , impendo extrarius , praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! Nova Contego!"

**"Deflexio, Deflexio!"**

The fire surrounded the boy as he rushed forwards, becoming a bullet of fire that exploded outwards towards her. There wasn't much space to dodge, so she had to block the oncoming force with her deflexio spells and keep out of the center, where the boy was. Once the fire abated, she rushed at him, coming right up to him and rearing back for a kick, or so she made it seem.

The boy twisted around to axe kick her again in the small of the back, but she jumped out of the way, sending a hard elbow into his back. He was sent forwards, but flipped around to prevent himself from falling, he lunged at her, left hand coming out with a punch that she allowed to connect with her middle so she could block a more powerful kick headed the same place.

She twisted away from the railing when it came to close to her back. Negi jumped up and swiveled in the air, using his weight to force his foot forwards into her kidney, hard. The blow sent her on her side and Negi rushed in, his fists glowing. When she came up, he disappeared. She spun around...

and Negi appeared right where he had been before, only now, her back was facing him. He jumped up and slammed his fist into her back, right where the Cassioppeia was, sending her flying forwards and crushing the thing utterly. In mid fall, she stopped, and Negi canceled his own artifact.

"Abeat."

"Unus Fila Nigra Promissiva, Vos Limitationem per Unus Dies, Confuto!"

He slipped his card away just as Chao's arms shot out to stop herself form completely falling. She turned around in time for her to see Negi take out a his gun almost carelessly and point it at Satomi's head, just as the ribbons of fate wrapped around her, feet glued to the floor.

"Shit...I forgot I even _had_ this flipping thing...Cut the chatter girl, I've already been forced to see to the death of two of my students, don't make me blow your very capable brains out. You have lost this fight, Knight to C1. Checkmate."

Satomi's chant slowed to a stop upon the realization there was a gun pointed right at her. A gun of all things. She looked to Chao. There was quite a bit of the spell left...but she saw the girl was bound to the floor, and ribbons on her hands, ones she had seen before, told her fellow was basically helpless. She blinked. Once more, a flicker of humanity.

A one track mind somehow carting along two cars going the same way at once, an impressive thing. She let the book fall from her hands, but one could not stop all the gathered magic. A wish needed to be made. The boy ran towards the girl, entering the space where the magic was collected, thinking the first thought that came to his head, the first worthy wish to call out...

+--1--+

Sometimes, one can't believe their own stupidity, or the stupidity of the ones around them. For Negi, he felt both, and he felt, in this moment, both his incredible strength and his incredible incompetence. In his right hand, he ground the dust from what had once been a pebble into a finer powder. He stared off into the sky from his dorm as Chamo scribbled in a tiny notebook.

"Aniki..I need to see your pactio card, I don't think it's in this pactio manual...it might be a new discovery item. I'm only able to get bits and pieces here... The closest thing I can find to it is these Master Key thingies...I'm gonna have to do a self analysis...Aniki?"

The boy did not respond, his face to the wind, the ermie's words being blown out into the world, but falling upon deaf ears where the boy was concerned. In his mind's eye, he saw both of his lost students. The boy wasn't in much of a mood to talk, and the ermie had to repeat himself three times before the boy reached into a coat he still had on and pulled the card from one of his pockets.

His hands brushed the pieces of the beta Cassiopeia in passing. It was surprising he still had them in there.

"Chamo, the only things you ever are serious about seem to be pactios and the female anatomy. All else is a joke, huh? Don't bug me. I already told you what happened with that thing during my fight, you should be able to figure out the rest."

Negi turned back to the window, leaving the ermie to stare. It was dark again, tomorrow was Monday...school would start again...but Negi didn't feel like teaching. Not right now. Chamo studied that card as the boy's mind played back his movements during Chao's final event.

It wasn't that he was in sorrow, just his head was so full of junk right now. He needed a distraction, and it came in the form of Chamo.

"Aniki...I think I've got it...your Solius Corpusaperio I mean..."

A quick translation ran through Negi's head.

"The Sun god, Sol's, master key?"

"...That sounds way better than what I came up with, okay then, I go with that...I got Sun Bones Opener...creepy...annnnny way...It's not as powerful as one might think Aniki, more practical, versatile...which fits you now that I think about it...here's what I got..."

The ermie tossed up a piece of paper to the boy, who caught it neatly and allowed his eyes to zoom over it, reading the ermie's notes.

_By Order of P.M Albert Chamomile, resident pactio mage, I enter this pactio information into the encyclopedia, discovery as of Sunday, November second, year MMII, patented to Magistra Evangelinea A.K. McDowell and Minister Negiius Springfield. Relation to P.M.: Familiar Master._

_**Solius Corpusaperio**_

_(Sun Bones Opener thingie?! Uhh...the Latin trans only gives me "Chair of the state Corpusperio.")_

_(Aniki calls it Sol's Key.)_

_#: VMDCLXXXVI (I hate this kind of math...ehh, 6,686. The first "V" has a line above it. 5 x 1000.)_

_Type: Permanent Pactio_

_Rank: Beta Class Pactio. (Ultra Rare.)_

_Motifs: Silver/Gold Negatives, Black and Red Positives._

_Dormant Abilities:_

_- As a permanent pactio card type item, it allows you to tell where your Magister is._

_- It also can give you a sense of their current emotional state._

_. - Like any other pactio, it allows the master to summon the minister in question._

_- As well as allow the two to telepathically communicate._

_-Along with allowing the magi to power up the minister. In Aniki's case, this is dangerous. The difference between his and Eva-anne-san's power means his body burns with the power, and it messes with his mind, __**and**__ leaving Aniki drained upon deactivation. _

_- As a permanent pactio, it has a secondary ability, and after a while, I've found it. It seems that, through historical roots, it can tell if someone is lying while deactivated and in card form._

_Actual Item Powers:_

_- Ability to dispel summoned demons, illusions and other "falsehoods." Two forms, Defensive: Key, Offensive: Sword._

_- Ability to transform into other items, apparently limited to artifacts. (It can't turn into your average gun or kendo stick for example.) Also limited to ones Aniki has once held/owned. Ability to copy is further limited, as it seems to be directly linked to how much Aniki knows about the weapon in question, as he expressed a feeling of the item feeling "different" than the real one for HeartBreaker, but for his magic gun, it was exactly the same. One time copy. Once copied, no matter what or how much you find out about the real weapon, the pactio will only turn into an item capable of doing what you knew it could at time of first copy. (This makes it obvious the HeartBreaker weapon thingie has secrets Aniki doesn't know about yet...a useful reverse tactic maybe? Make it transform into an artifact and see if it feels the same, so you know you know all of its secrets or not?)_

_-Apparently, it allows Aniki to float a bit without any real bidding from him. (This could just be with the whole vampire like motif going here, or just the power he gets from Eva-ane-san.)_

_- A weird vampire suit complete with dress shoes, pants, a button up and hooded cape._

_Secondary powers:_

_- Those weird spinny symbols have driven me crazy trying to find them out, but it seems like they have modes of their own. Like Miyazaki-ane-sans item, which has different modes, and Yue-ane-sans, which has a wealth of different powers and abilities, this one does too..The first mode seems to be when they just circle around Aniki. This is "Free Associate Mode." The symbols are free to attach themselves to anyone of Aniki's allies, granting them a boosted ability. Each one does something...like one boost strength and another boosts speed, stuff like that._

_-The second mode seems to be a protective mode. They wrap around the pactio weapon, shielding it from harm and boosting its effectiveness. (Which is scary when you think about a pactio HeartBreaker or Cassiopeia...that must have been the reason Aniki had the power to send the magus several years into the future...the power from Eva-ane-san, the tree and that...)_

_- Third mode is when they go on Aniki himself. All the boosts that an ally could receive from a symbol are instead given to Aniki, but the amount of boost seems to be cut to a forth of the effectiveness...still something though._

_Apparent Weaknesses: _

_-This thing seems to have a mind of its own so, it's obvious it might do things in battle Aniki might not want it to, and as it seems to take control of the limb it is in, if it is not as smart as Aniki in battle, it may leave him open._

_-Apparently, when in battle, Aniki __**can't**__ let go of it. This ties into it taking control of his limbs I suppose, but it could be a devastating mistake to not have the freedom to put it away when he needs to._

_-The dispel ability can dispel just about anything untrue, indiscriminately...if Aniki himself has an illusion equipped, or an ally, I'm not sure it will reveal their "untruths" as well._

_-This pactio's power, like I mentioned earlier, can overload Aniki's body and amplify what he's feeling to a point near insanity. Training this away will be difficult do to Aniki's already high level of power. It might be best to wait until he is older and "grows out" of this particular weakness._

_-With all due respect, the vampire suit up is noticeable... and you can't always hope for Halloween to save you. It's not very stealth worthy in full form...or maybe that's what the hood is for?_

_Summary:_

_Over all, the owner of this pactio is a versatile mage, whose power resides not in his impressive magical strength or physical ability, but his versatility. Negi Springfield also hates liars, and prefers one to stay silent rather than lie to his face. This pactio is a key item, symbolic of unlocking, opening, position and power, of choice, revealing. It has a great power potential.... As the resident Pactio Mage, I submit my report for this new pactio, pending official approval. _

As Negi read, Chamo talked, he seemed eager to explain all he had managed to grab from limited information. It amazed the boy what the emrie was willing to do for money, including writing such extensive reports.

"That's what I got on it Aniki. It's pretty powerful, but it's got a real limit on it with the item imitation thingie. Those symbols are really useful though, even if you decide to use them for yourself. This item seems to have a mixture of power and versatility, and it seems to both encourage fighting with allies and support fighting alone. That fits you perfectly Aniki..."

Yet the boy wasn't listening. It had taken him but a few precious seconds to read the paper, and now he was back at the window, staring into space. Only difference was, now he had HeartBreaker in his hands, staring at its unsheathed blade.

_What secrets are you hiding from me, I wonder? Why? If I'm unworthy of knowing them yet, that's fine, but if I am the one destined to hold you...least you can do is be honest with me. If I can't trust a weapon to be true, what the hell can I trust...? ....Oh hell, now I am talking to rapiers, like it's gonna answer me. I really am screwy..._

The weapon vibrated in his hands.

Negi's cell phone began to ring, and he looked at it. Regardless of the power having sprang back up in the middle of the war, knocking Eva from her pedestal of power and shutting out his pactio, he had yet to charge the thing, but as he picked it up, he saw the battery still had three bars. He did take good care of it after all. He answered the call with an irritated greeting, and listened to the Dean babble to him an apology for forgetting to call him. School was out. For the week at least. That was news. Just when he had begun to think work would help him keep busy...

The door to the dorm room opened, and Asuna stepped in, having just come back from the bathhouse. Negi blinked, and realized it was hit turn to cook, and he had yet to start. Glad for something to do, he jumped off the sill and placed HeartBreaker on the couch in passing.

He began gathering ingredients just as the girl came out the sleeping area from putting her things away. He was making himself scarce, acting too busy, so she couldn't get to talk to him, which was fine, for niether of them were sure if they wanted to talk...on the couch, HeartBreaker glowed and odd light blue, alone, vibrating lightly...

+--2--+

When Negi finished his obligatory duty, Konoka walked in, followed by Setsuna and His mother, along with Anya. Negi turned right back into the kitchen upon seeing this, mumbling something about not having cooked enough food. Yet his mother stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

He stiffened as she spoke to him, telling he should stay put, for this was a congregation he was a part of. Anya and the others had already eaten, and like a simple, uninvolved child, she was sent to bed firmly by Arika, amidst protest from her and Negi.

She was a part of this too after all.

Yet that was not to be. Arika drew him to the table to sit. Negi slouched in his seat, having a feeling he knew where this was going and tossing up emotional shields. Arika instantly had her had on his shoulder again, only stiffening him more.

"This isn't your fault you know..."

_Oh really? It wasn't?_

"I was weak, with all I had, all of my speed, strength, intelligence, I failed. If I was any better, none of this would have happened. To hell with your consolation, it is my fault."

Arika shook her head at this, it was a typical defense and a stupid one, and the worst part was that the boy knew it already. She continued her tack.

"So being stronger is the solution to everything? You **know** how stupid that sounds Negi. I don't need to tell you. No matter the strength, speed, intelligence, you can't save everyone..."

Negi's fist came out, and in a flash of anger, it slammed down into the table, making the dish wares rattle threateningly. He managed to control himself enough not to break the table however. His fist shook where it was. HeartBreaker, as always in tune with his emotions, vibrated at the fact it was not in his hands. If it were, it would be a deep, brilliant blood red by now.

"**I** was right there. **I **saw it happen, and **I** was too slow. **I** was too stupid. **I **was too weak. **I **know you can't save everyone, but_** I **_**don't** _care_. I could have saved them, and I failed...again. If there's one thing I hate more than failures...it's liars who cover up their failures. I, I, I. Me. Myself and Moi."

Negi turned away from his mothers face when she reproached him with a soft call of his name. He didn't want to let go of the blame.

"If it's anyone's fault, it's those who started the fight..."

Negi turned around at that comment, for he had a weapon there to, one that burned his heart. He smiled bitterly as he relayed the information to his mother and the others who were ignorant of the entire situation.

"...Which was me. You remember the old man? You remember reports of people seeing my father afterwards, fighting against them in the war? You know that was not that Ku Nel dude. That was me. A future version of myself, come back in time to kill me to prevent me from doing something terrible to the world in the future. No matter how you look at it, it comes back to me, future me, current me, it matters not. Those two lives lost, all the damage done to the campus, it is all, _**my**_ fault kids."

His mother had nothing to say then, and the boy stood up from the table and pushed his full plate towards the middle of the table. He turned around and pushed in his chair, Konoka grabbed his hand, but he turned around and put his hand on her shoulder and Asuna's. He beckoned his mother over.

"Come here, I want to show you all something."

She came, confused, and obeyed him when he told her to put her hand on his shoulder. He called over Setsuna as well. He looked around at them all and spoke.

"Do you know how useless I feel? Here, feel this for me, and you tell me what's my fault and what's not."

He let it loose, his power, all of it inside him, built around into the walls. As if he were in battle, only he pushed all of his power, his magic, his chi, his hands tightly gripped the two shoulders in front of him, he felt as if his very strength was going into this. He made them feel just how much power he had, mentally, physically, magically and emotionally, making all of them cringe away with surprise. It lasted about three seconds, but everyone was left breathing heavily, as if having just come from a marathon. Arika found herself in a cold sweat. She stared at him, eyes wide, but she wasn't the only one. The power had burned through them all, showing them just how it could easily drive a being insane with its deafening roar.

"That is the speed at which I live my life every day. That is the power that flows through my veins. That is the strength I live with burning inside of me every second of my existence. Sometimes, at night, I awake soaked all over with perspiration, and I must go outside to scream above the rooftops, the power inside me burning. Now you feel that and tell me, if I can't save two lives from a simple golem, what use do I have? Where does all the power get me?"

That gave them something to think about as he turned around and began to walk, but the final blow had yet to be delivered, and he let it loose as he left the kitchen in the form of his voice.

"In the end, the apple never falls far from the tree. My father called himself a hero, and had such power, but he failed to save his entire village, his family. Not once, but twice did he fail to save me, and during the tournament, the best he could manage was "Gee, I'm really sorry for your loss." I to, have failed my duty. At first, I thought all I needed to do was get stronger, but I knew the truth from the very day I witnessed that village ablaze. My father was a liar, and a failure, and I was destined to be one too, no matter how hard I tried to make it any different."

He slammed the door leading to the bedroom, knocking a few picture frames askew. HeartBrekaer vibrated once more on the couch in response, giving off a faint yellow aura...

+--3--+

The morning sun broke late Monday morning, for the sky was cloudy. Negi slept in, his body enjoying perhaps the longest sleep marathon in months, hey, he managed to break six hours so far! Yet, even as the clock showed eight o clock, there was a knock on the dorm room door. Quiet, insistent. For once, Negi slept on. It continued however, getting louder and louder until one could her a female voice curse behind it, and the low grumble of a male one. Another knock, quick, rapping with the knuckles. Yet, even if this would have woken the boy up, it didn't matter, for the next instant brought a crash as the door blasted open off its hinges, a black booted foot appearing in the doorway. Negi's eyes shot open, although he did not move from the couch.

"Issac...you really don't need to do that you know..."

The other turned to one of the three girls behind him. One of them, a blonde, irritably stuffed away a star wand, but he wasn't looking her way, he was looking at a pale faced, silver haired girl.

"Jess, it was either that or wait while you continued cursing and knocking on the door without any effect."

She shook her head. It was hard to believe he was her brother sometimes. Not because the way he was acting now, but the way he looked. They were like night and day. He was tallish, reaching about one hundred and eighty centimeters, and his skin was tanned a rich brown. He had typical brown eyes and short, marine-cut style black hair. Rugged, that described him nicely. Well built and not too formal, hell, there was a day or two old stubble on his face.

Meanwhile, she was as pale as a ghost, and silver hair reaching her elbows sheeted straight down from her head. Just gracing one sixty centimeters, she considered herself delicate looking. A pair of eyes, completely silver, pupils and all, looked up at her brother. Of all her family, she had inherited the genes of an old race in their past, once thought to have been bred out...hard to believe they had the same father and mother.

One of the other two girls who flanked her pushed forwards, jostling her.

"God Jasnin. You're one to talk, you're the violent one. I'm glad he finally beat you to the punch and did the manly thing..."

She shook her head at that, ignoring her. As much as she may try, Issac wasn't interested in subtle "approaches" She walked past her brother into the dorm, stepping on the falling door, leaving a shoe imprint on the name "Negi Springfield." Her brother slinked after her into the dorm, where a wide awake and peeved Negi Springfield stood. He was still in a set of loose grey sweats and a large cotton silk t-shirt, in other words, his pajamas.

"The hell, I didn't ask for any wake up call, and if I did, you're sorely late."

Issac stood off to the side, but his sister jumped right into the fray, looking down a bit to catch the other's eyes. She might look delicate, but it was she who had the fire, her brother held the ice.

"Neither do you seem to need one, it would seem. Divsion Six, Terra Wing, Squad Beta, Viridus faction representative."

Negi yawned when she said squad, but she was determined to finish her identification. Negi fixed her with eyes that were falsely bleary, clearly attempting to annoy her and succeeding brilliantly.

"Yaddah yaddah yaddah. I don't really need to know _who_ yah are; I want to know _why _you are here. Last time I checked, I did nothing that required a faction of the Mundus Army to bury itself up my ass."

Jasnin, eyes narrowed, opened her mouth, but her brother's hand came to rest on her shoulder, silencing her. He opened his own mouth.

"Doctor Springfield... excuse me, _Professor_ Springfield...the recent activity in this school has resulted in the military catching notice..."

Negi's eyes rolled up behind his eyelids, making him appear not to have any. The two girls in the back shrunk back from this display, squeamish. Hs eyes came back down as the other continued.

"...and we all know how slow that dinosaur can be. We have been sent to fill the recent vacancy in your class...for the schools protection."

His fists clenched. They acted fast didn't they, when they finally decided to move. The bodies probably weren't all the way cold yet, had they been whole. Yet, even as he opened his mouth, the other continued in his calm dictation.

"You don't need to worry however. You need only chose one member from our faction, such is satisfactory..."

"No one gave that jurisdiction Issac!"

"As a mediator and this teams negotiator, I give jurisdiction, in other words, please be quiet Amanda."

"Oh shut it with that, they said he had to take us under the order of the captain!"

"The exact wording was that he had to take a number similar to that of which he lost...a number which, officially speaking, is two, unofficially, three."

"Oh? even so, you have no such clearance to made those assumptions."

'When words are not cut in dry in the military, they are open for interpretation, that is the first rule of negotiation there, you should know that."

Negi watched with mild interest as the mages fell apart into meaningless squabble. So much for the army's discipline. He noticed that the silver haired girl burned red hot like fire with her tongue, but she kept near the boy, who was a calm and firm mediator.

The other two girls were just hot heads it seemed. Even as he was reluctant to listen to any directive from this people, a pop and the smell of mint told him that, far too late to be of any use, a letter had arrived for him magically. He turned his head half to the side and grabbed the offending envelope off the table, ripping it open.

As he read, he analyzed the people in front of him. The silver head was the youngest, most likely to be around the age of his students, around the early to mid teen range, he guessed fifteen. The others were obviously older, the two girls and the boy more fit to be high-school students, the boy looked like he might even pass as a college freshman in America. Even as the letter clearly stated he had to take at least one of them, something he did not want to follow, he already had his choice. He waved his letter.

"Oii! Shut the hell up before I boil all of your heads in vinegar and serve you up for breakfast!"

It wasn't the statement that shut them up, as always, it was his voice that did the trick. Negi bet he could yell the funniest thing in the world in the classroom, and everyone would shut up without a peep as if he had told them to do so. He handed the letter to the boy and pointed to the silver haired girl next to him.

"Name, age and general informative stats before I end up calling you Silver."

She blinked, put on the spot. Curt and to the point this kid was.

"Jasnin Akaito. Fifteen and a probationary license mage, graduated with third seed, honors. My main affinity is earth magic."

Negi pointed to the other girl, the blonde who looked ready to rip out the eyes of Jasnin, but who's body language said plainly she wouldn't dare.

"Why the hell are you asking for our ages? What's it to you?"

Negi pointed to the last girl, this one a red head, and she blinked a bit dumbly before opening her mouth, but Negi cut her off.

"I'll take Akaito-san off you, she looks the youngest, integrating perfectly with my student community. She's also the only one of you three girls who seems to have any sense."

This of course started an uproar between the two other girls, but Ngei rolled his eyes skywards, pointing to them quickly with his finger.

_Confuto!_

That command is normally used to halt one's movement, but the word also meant "Silence, as in "halt the noise." The two girls suddenly found their mouths glued shut and that only made them more angry, but all they could do was glare, which didn't work, for two pairs of blue eyes paled in comparison to the withering look Negi threw with his. The only male in the group nodded simply and turned around to walk out... Jasnin surprised Negi by grabbing his arm however. He cast her an odd look.

"I don't go anywhere without my brother."

_Oh really? Huh. Brother, or boyfriend? Ahh, who cares. _

"This is an all girls school, I hope you know."

Yet of course, he didn't have to be a student. He didn't even have to live around here after all. The boy shook his head almost knowingly. Sometimes, he wondered what was going through her mind. At times, he thought she hated him, and others, like this, he wondered if she could survive without him. Negi looked at the two of them and sighed, frustrated.

"Ahh fine, just get you other two friends out of here and find a damn place to put your hats. You ani't gonna be here, that's for sure, it's booked."

Of the day's annoyances, I name these, I had to accept the Mundus Army into my class and I have to deal with the fact it's my fault, that I failed to save two of my students from destruction. Again. Historically, this would be the time I would pack up my bags, but I can't run this time. No one's gonna let me go this time. I've got to stay. Too much of my life has rooted itself here too quickly, I'm boxed in...

+--4--+

(I think it's time to actually write something now instead of travel.)

HeartBreaker was nowhere to be found.

Negi felt something very akin to a husband who, after saying something stupid, feels utterly idiotic as he looks around for his wife. He checked under the couch, came out coughing from under the bunk bed, spat out a dust mite from his mouth after checking under the bed Anya slept into, looked in every closet, behind every door, he never remembered looking for something so urgently, heedfully. He went crazy looking for the thing. Unbeknownst to him, it had been vibrating all night, changing from its usual red glow to a light fairy blue. It had pulled the trick it did to countless others who had owned it and disappeared from the vicinity, something Negi refused to believe…however, unlike with others, HeartBreaker had not gone far. It had found home. Like ET, it had found its home in a pair of pale hands... Yet his search ended when he stepped outside for some fresh air, and saw Jasnin holding it. He narrowed his eyes and ran towards her, already allowing himself to get angry. Why, why did she have it?!

"The hell are you doing with that?!"

She turned around, scanning him with her silver eyes. She rose the staff, and it glowed a faint blue before she pointed it at him, where it vibrated and flew towards him, snapping into his open hand. It glowed red there, pulsing for a bit before it disappeared from his hands and came to hers again. She caressed the shaft that held it's blade, it began to glow blue once more. She looked down at him.

"Who would have thought you had it all these years?"

She twirled the staff in her hand, testing its weight. It glowed a soft blue again as she did so. A small smile was there on her lips. They were alone outside, near a bunch of trees off to the side of the plaza. Negi narrowed his eyes at the movement. HeartBreaker had come to him, and then, _rejected _him to go back to her. It's faint blue glow made him really think. What was going on here...and why was his life full of so many sudden events that seemed to have no foreshadowing at all?!?

"This is HeartBreaker, a weapon of immense power in the right hands. There is a story behind this blade...but I feel like I am telling you something you already know. This blade had been with many others, always searching for its destined master. You have had it for the longest. It normally runs away from whomever holds it. Yet it...trusts you? It's odd. Yet..."

She pointed it at him again, and once more, that glow of red that the boy was so used to flooded around it.

"You can access it's power, incredible, considering it is not your destiny to hold this blade, but you can only access _one_ of its many powers...it's most sinister one. The ability to inflict upon your victim, their worst memories, multiplied in intensity to induce pain and fear..."

She looked him dead in the eye now, red meeting silver. Negi felt, unbidden, his anger subsiding. He had no idea why HeartBreaker was so comfortable in her hands, after all this time...He had no idea how this girl, after simply popping up, can reveal to him that the weapon was not his to hold, but, apparently, hers.. but she was echoing his mind, the things he himself had been questioning for a long time now...

"Long ago, HeartBreaker was two weapons. Adurna's Grace, a winged staff and Fanelina Breaker, a mighty sword with a heart cut into its hilt. They were owned by a Magistra and her minister, respectively. Two very powerful beings, who did many good deeds, and put down many an enemy. Yet, like a bad fairy tale, one day in battle, their enemy overpowered the edge of Fanelina, and killed it's owner. They nearly killed his magi too, but she survived, yet he spirit had been broken. A burning desire for revenge overtook her, and she melded both weapons together with powerful magic, borrowing power from questionable, dark means. The resulting staff was dubbed HeartBreaker, and with it, she killed the man who took her minister.

Yet, it's power continued to consume. The dark magic that formed it, the power of the blades it had once been, the fact that, even in killing her lovers murderer, she received no peace...these things warped her and her weapon into a weapon bent upon making the world pay for her suffering. Finally, she died by her own blade when another mage rose to fight her, and that same mage bound the powers of HeartBreaker to his own soul. As long as he was alive, it would be at peace...yet of course, like any other, he had to die...but his spell too, had unpredicted effects. HeartBreaker took on a double personality...

A mind of its own, it had two missions to fulfill, one from its creator, and one from its jailer. Its mission was to kill in the hands of a descendant to its creator, kill all who opposed them, destroy the line that had wreaked such pain and suffering, only then would it's power fade. Yet, it was also tasked with ending the blood war; to be a healer...you...you are a middle party."

She sheathed the blade in a smooth, slow movement. She fixed Negi with a placid look.

"The creator of HeartBreaker was named Maria Entheofushia. One of the predetermining lines to the royal line of the magical world...Her sister, Anna, was the one who married from the Anarchia line. Maria ended up marrying Jackson Sublime...I suppose I missed out being full Ostian Royalty, but I am a distant relative of it. Shame the line died with the Queen of Calamity, no one is left to claim the throne from the pure line, the magical world has to deal with a governor and the other mixed lines of the Twilight Princesses."

Negi said nothing of this, even as the girl just revealed to him that they were distant cousins. Let her think the Ostian line was dead, he didn't care about it anyway, you can't cry over spilled milk. He wouldn't make any kind of respectable king anyway.

"It's funny though. The Ostian line is the line HeartBreaker is destined to kill."

Now THAT got his attention. His face was misinterpreted by the other though, who simply shook her head.

"Johnathan Anarchia was the one who struck down Jackson Sublime, the father of my ancestor....Johnathan was the father of David Anarchia, the man who ended up marrying Anna Entheofushia....in essence, HeartBreaker is meant to kill its own creators very line to bring justice to it...there's more to the story, but it's twisted beyond belief...but that's enough of that...we have business to attend to, don't we?"

She twirled the blade in her hands and looked Negi up and down. She snapped it forwards so it hovered an inch from his heart. Negi didn't even flinch.

"HeartBreaker is confused. It can't decide between myself, a blood line family member, and you, a person it trusts. It has an obligation to me, and so it runs to me, but you, it has known for months. Who will it chose? There really is only one way to decide...HeartBreaker chooses the strong. We have to fight..."

Negi rose an eyebrow at this comment as the girl calmly walked away from him for a space and then turned around, wielding HeartBreaker. He eyed it. The hell was this? His life was full of battle, wasn't it?

"Why do you get to wield it, may I ask?"

"Would you rather it fly out of your hands the second it touches your skin?"

"…Point made."

A weapon, confused, of all things. Only Negi knew the true depth of the situation. They both were of the same line. Even if hers was more direct, his was the one that had killed the minister, and hers had risen HeartBreaker to combat. HeartBreaker had been made to _murder him._ Yet, it had _come_ to him, perhaps the weapon really was a loose cannon, it's spells going haywire with age, and it had accidentally revealed itself to him...who knows whatever the hell was going on.

Negi had given up trying to make sense of his life. He shook his head at the girl and turned his back on her.

"You can keep it then. My life has had enough fighting in it to last me for at least this week."

Negi began to walk away, but in the next instant, he had his short sword out, having spun around to block a lunge from the other. The two blades met, sending sparks. Negi pushed her off with all his strength, sending her skidding backwards. He yelled at her.

"I thought i said you could keep it-"

"It won't accept that. It wants closure. You can't just give up."

A fricken piece of metal wants closure. Holy hell. His life had gone to the dogs. To the dogs! Jasnin rushed him and Negi found himself sending her skidding with his block. He had just met this girl today goddamnit, and already she had taken HeartBreaker, spouted some nonsense about its history, and was now trying to fight him for the rights to hold the damn thing!

As he thought, she rushed back in again, the blade glowing blue. Negi stuck his blade out to block again...

...and he had to dodge instead, for it passed right through his as if it were a ghost image. The hell was that?! She rushed him again, and Negi found himself constantly moving backwards, dodging. He spun his short sword around and knocked her in the gut with the hilt of his blade, winding her, and he lunged into the opening, kicking her just below the ribs, sending her on her back.

She flipped up when Negi came down with an elbow and kicked him upwards slashing out HeartBreaker, which was glowing red now, unto his unprotected back, but Negi's own blade protected him there. Sparks flew as Negi landed on his hands and feet, spinning up. He ducked when a boot heel entered his vision and shot behind the girl, slashing at her side in passing, but she blocked it with HeartBreaker.

The thing sprung with a yellow aura now, chasing it's gold trim as she lunged at him. Negi laughed and blocked her slash, but found her could not send her skidding as he could before, she was able to stand her ground now...

"You should rename that thing RainbowPony if you win this."

Using all of his available strength, he broke the lock of blades and kicked her in the shins, kicking off the ground to zoom past her side, taking a punch to her kidney in passing. She recovered quickly and turned around to attack his back, but the boy was to quick, flashing around and bringing his blade forwards. Steel met steel again as the yellow aura around HeartBreaker increased in intensity, Negi felt himself losing the battle of strength. He slipped off her blade and slashed at her right arm quickly, bringing blood to the surface and sending her backwards, hissing.

Once more, the blue aura surrounded the sword, and Negi witnessed an odd sight as Jasnin slid the blade along her arm...yet, where the blade slid, there was no longer a wound. The hell was going on here?! She smiled and jumped right back at him, and Negi met her blade again, once more yellow. He smirked at her while the sought to overpower each other.

"Yellow gives you strength, Blue heals you, so I suppose it passes through any weapon to heal, I didn't need to dodge, did I? Red makes a victim relive their worst memories...what's the rest of the rainbow for, dear Snow White?"

Once more he slipped from her blade and lunged off to the side, yet this time she spun and slashed at his unprotected back, she missed by pure chance. Negi rolled along the ground and jumped up, spinning in time to lock horns with the other again. It seemed that, by unspoken consent, neither of them was using magic...or at least, not their own. Jasnin had HeartBreaker on her side.

Negi spun away from a particularly nasty exchange his opponent tried to dish out, using her superior strength and height to her advantage, but Negi was pacing himself. In truth, the only thing stopping him was HeartBreaker's unpredictable change in modes. The girl implemented them quickly, and that stopped him, for he didn't want to get his with his own memories. They already made him insane at normal strength...Jasnin was nowhere near the skill Tuskuyomi had at full blast, forget about Setsuna.

Negi rushed her and went down to leg sweep her, He caught her there, knocking her down and flashing out his short sword for her throat, but she blocked and pushed him off with a free hand, blasted him off actually. The boy was flying, but he came right back at her once he landed, flashing his blade out, a silver arc that nearly knocked HeartBreaker out of Jasnin's grasp with the speed and momentum of it. She jumped over a low swing and stabbed downwards at the boy's head, but he twisted away and caught her blade in his hands.

The blade glowed a blood red as she herself tried to keep it yellow. The two were having a battle of spirit now, for Negi's affinity combated hers, both powers struggling to control the blades effects. The power of spirit beat at each other, and Jasnins quickly found Negi's power pooling up, increasing as desire to win overtook him. A blast of power blinded Jasnin and she was blasted back, and then, Negi was on top of her, HeartBreaker having flipped in his hands, both blades pointed right at her heart.

"I really don't care about your affinity. You suck in battle, even with HeartBreaker at your side. You lose girl."

+--E--+

...This chapter is terrible I feel. Utterly terrible. Good Lord. Yet, I feel it's better than the other travels. Next one won't be traveling anymore, so if you can bear it, hold on for the next one. If I'm wrong and this one held interest, tell me. I tried to bring something to it. The plot will only get thicker here. Don't worry though, I won't make it so thick a mind can't penetrate it to understanding! Believe it or not, I've building to the introduction of Jasnin for a long while...actually, she was supposed to come along during the Library Island arc...then I said Why not the Eva arc...but no go there either. She's still another mystery to unravel though huh? I think I'll have fun revealing a few things in these next few chapters...There are things I've been hiding from you all...Next time...


	33. Chapter XXXII: Puppets

TheBestOfTimes! I'm glad you enjoy this story so much. Let's go. I don't own Negima. Detail, no detail, time and no time. I chose this. I'll try to get this right. Tell me if I have. Removing detail from the action, and restructuring it on the story...Incredible. The only record left to break against the last version of this story is one I can't really control.

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty Two: Puppets._**

+---+

Negi spun in the air, and landed off to the side. He was getting nowhere! No matter what he did, they blocked and dodged everything with ease, and countered him brutally! He rushed in again, only to find himself blasted back to slam into a tree, coughing up blood. Yet still, he landed on all fours and lunged at the other, his blade flashing out. It was met by an equally thin blade and a second one flashed past his and sliced through his shoulder, making him howl. He shrunk back for a space before coming back again, at a different angle, but once more, he was blasted back, this time by powerful fire magic, singeing his clothes.

His opponent rushed him and locked his feet into the ground with a quick Latin verse. Negi found his mind invaded, and shoved aside roughly. How? His hands were bound, his feet still, and HeartBreaker was wrenched from his grasp and spun in the air before slamming home in his chest. He tired to scream at the injustice, the pain, but his lips were bound. He saw his blood exiting his body in streams. His opponent laughed at him and stepped closer, eyes burning bright with a fire he recognized...

He was staring at himself.

He shot up from the floor, right into the embrace of a pair of arms. Negi struggled to get those barring forces off, and wrenched himself free to see his captor was Konoka. His eyes were wide, and he looked about the room from one side to the other, a wild animal. Asuna was off to the side, looking unsure of the wisdom that Konoka held for being near Negi, and Anya was awake near her, looking torn between wanting to help and knowing to stay away.

His chest rose and fell with the heaves he put it through, and his brow was covered in a cold soak of his own perspiration. He looked about again, still heaving. Pupils were dilated as they finally focused on Konoka. Just a dream. A stupid dream, symbolic of his weakness, his failures. A fitting punishment during his nights perhaps. He sighed. Deeply. Shaking himself like a wet dog for a second to loosen his limbs, he pushed past Konoka with hoarse assertions that he was fine...he grabbed his towel in passing the bedroom. Asuna pulled Anya out of the way.

"Don't pull me!"

She shook her head silently. It was only when Negi left the door, closing the door behind him, did she let her go.

"Don't make things worse. He can't handle you right now. He can barely handle himself. You can't help him, so don't try."

'But...but...but..."

"No buts."

Konoka got up from her place next ot the couch, arranging the cushions back in order and grabbing stray ones that had been flung in Negi's throws from his dream. His screams still echoed in her head, it was had woken them all up. She felt ashamed. They all did in a way. He had been yelling for nearly an hour, an eternity in a dream, fending off whatever he was fighting and whimpering in apparent pain. No matter what he kicked or punched off the couch, he had not woken up. It was when he fell off the thing and unto the floor, and his foot connected solidly with the couch in a kick, that Konoka had had enough and rushed in, but by the time she had gotten there, he was already shooting up.

The embrace had been an unfortunate accident, but Negi probably would hate her for it nonetheless afterwards. Asuna came up and grabbed a cushion from her hands, tossing it unto the couch without a second thought.

"He wants' to lick his own wounds Konoka, we can't help him, remember Sunday night?"

She remembered, but that was no excuse to abandon him to fight this all alone. He really believed this was all his fault, and the difficult part was that no one knew how to tell him otherwise, his case was very strong...but it was important for him to move on. He needed to... otherwise, this would eat him up until there was nothing left...

Yet even as she thought this, she had to admit, she knew nothing of the boy's strength, and so she was at no liberty to think this would eat him up. She remembered when he had shown them the power he held inside him, and he had shown them all, meaning that it had been spread out between them, divided. She had no idea how much power flowed through his veins at an everyday basis...and she was supposed to have more than him?

She was glad it was all locked up. She would not have been able to deal with that kind of burning, every day, that kind of screaming pain. Turning her attention to the kitchen, for it was her turn to cook after all, the search for the skillet began. Negi's mother had left yesterday, all a bit reluctantly, but she still had kept to her promise and left, cutting a crucial beam of support for Negi she felt. Negi himself had given up HeartBreaker to the newcomer, Jasnin, the girl whose brother had knocked down their door. Even when she protested the weapon had "chosen" him after their fight, but Negi wouldn't have it anymore for some reason. He said it belonged to her, and that was that, end of story.

Generally, he mumbled something about it being more trouble than it was worth under his breath. He said he would stick to his short sword when he needed a weapon in battle, for he could still hand her arse with it even when she had the powerful winged staff in her hands. Besides, he felt like it didn't belong to _**him**_ anymore....they had argued for a long time before Negi had finally accepted the blade back, but only as it's keeper. She would be its real owner, that was his final word. When she went into battle, he would hand it to her, and that was how it would be...

The water ran from his face in rivulets, and he watched as it flowed from his arms along the lines his veins ran. His hair was loose and flowered around him, suspended in the water. Slowly, he dipped himself back into the water, down underneath the surface, his eyes darting this way and that, looking for purchase in the deep. Right now, Negi wanted nothing to do with magic, or with power, with fighting, with sorrow, with responsibility...right now; Negi wished he could just, for one day, be a child. An actual child. Just for one day, an entire twenty four hours. To forget about his knowledge, forget about his tormented soul, and forget about his responsibility, his accomplishments...just run away.

His eyes were the only part of his face that Negi allowed to resurface form the water, he gazed at the synthetic trees and the clinging mist. Hell, this life was hell. His whole head came up now, and he examined his arms. No tattoo. That was fine. Unwelcome thoughts of his father came to his mind. That man had been popping up in his head a lot lately. An unwelcome amount of a lot. It might surprise a few to learn Negi had already forgiven his father, but his forgiveness as in a different form than most. His forgiveness was such that he gave up the man as a bad job, as he had said, a failure, and could do no better. As such, he himself wasn't made for much either, hence, the fact that he himself was a failure.

Negi spent nearly two hours in the bathhouse, simply deliberating, soaking, moping some might say, but Negi didn't mope. He did things through action. As such, he found his mind focusing in upon a task. Eva and her predicament. He began analyzing all the options and exploring ways to free her. It was his only distraction, without school to make him focus on keeping students in line. He soon found himself continuously circling upon the one clue that she herself had told him, that the answer lay in the forbidden levels of the library.

Yet, he was a fool to trust his enemies words, for it was the Magus who had claimed this to Eva, and thus the information should be handled with care, if handled at all. Yet Eva had trusted it enough to speak it to him, and yet, that could just be her desperation for it to be true, but even as he told himself this, he knew the wheels of his life were grinding forwards to squish him underneath, and the only way he could be saved was to stand where the cogs couldn't get him. That place was Library Island. He sighed and pulled himself out of the water.

Once again, it was time for him to spring into action, and once more, it was time for him to don his armor. Negi's life was full of climax after climax, event after event, and each one had little time for rest. He was an over clocked server, the rest periods of his run time being shrunk into microcosms. Life wasn't fair, and for Negi, doubly so. He dried himself off and left the bathhouse in a hurry after dressing...

+--1--+

The wind blew lightly, taking his coattails and playing with them with mild interest. Negi stood alone by the entrance of the Library, Eva was off to the side, trying to look as if she did not care, which was pretty hard to do, when you consider what the boy was about to try and attempt...break her curse. The boy looked up into the dark sky. In his pocket lay his pacito card, one his arm, his tattoo, his short sword had moved from inside his shirt to his side, where it had once been before HeartBreaker came along. HeartBreaker was on his back, out of the way. His gun in its holster, his daggers in his boots, the boy was ready for a war, and rightly so. Yet, this time, he only was risking one soldier.

Himself. One solider would go in, it one did not come out, so be it. He shook his head and looked down to focused on the doors in front of him. He pushed them both open at once, mightily, for they were large and heavy things. He stepped in and turned back as one of them closed as the other stalled, Eva called to him.

"Word to the wise, you don't come back and I won't have anyone to kick in the ass when I get free."

Negi's eyebrows rose and he turned back around as the door slammed, but not before he had his own say.

"A wise man once said...A word to the wise ain't necessary — it's the stupid ones that need the advice."

It wasn't long before Negi managed to reach the third basement, and indeed, when he stepped off the last step from the second, he noticed that the maze of book cases they had walked up top of from last time...were in a different order. The maze had shifted. It was obvious that he would end up somewhere different if he walked along this road, just like the man had said, he'd wind up somewhere else. Negi's foot landed on the case, and he was surprised to find that it melted from his sight, revealing a hard stone floor.

Was this a trick? Was he supposed to just walk until he fell to his doom by stepping unto apparently solid floor? He stepped back up the steps, but the stone floor stayed. He cautiously tried to step unto a solid portion of floor where he knew there had just been empty space...his foot passed right through it into open air. Great. Just great. He had to navigate this thing blind. To hell with his life.

Getting on all fours, he crawled along the floor, feeling for a solid area of floor with his hands before traveling to it, and in such a manner, he met many dead ends, but all the while, he was building a map in his head, moving along the maze until he arrived at another downwards staircase. He crawled off the stone floor and unto the staircase, standing up to brush and massage his knees, which were sore from the abrasive stone. Casting his eyes back, he saw the whole floor having disappeared, there was no longer even a staircase pathway. Another illusion perhaps?

Yet that was not his business. He turned around and walked down the stairs, arriving at the forth basement level, which opened into a forest. A fricken forest. He looked about. Birds, leaves, vines...the nature intertwined itself between stone buildings, and the only way to any other area seemed to be slimy and slippery vines, thick as your average tightrope and a very long way down from there. Negi sighed heavily, looking resigned.

He had elected to do this after all. Time to test his balance it seemed. He took a step unto the vine and gritted his teeth when it slipped off like butter. He tried again, the vine wobbling dangerously under his feet. This was the only way to the door. He could see it, off to the side, an opening cut into one of the stone buildings, a staircase beyond the small hallway it had. Yet, as he traveled, he realized that it wasn't the only one, there were several, and Negi had to try them all it seemed, until he found the right one. It took him three tries, and once, he slipped off the vine and had to grab hold of it, waiting for it to stop vibrating before scrambling, hand over hand, to the other side, listening to the snaps and retorts the thing gave.

He grabbed the ledge just as it gave in to the weight and collapsed. Negi was left holding unto a wet, muddy ledge, which was not to keen on keeping its vegetation, the only thing Negi was clinging to. He managed to scramble up however. Thankfully, this was the right way, for there were no other vines leading away... He stepped down into the next level, revealing it to be another forest like area. Yet, the lower he went, the more stone prevailed over forest. Until, finally, upon what must have been the eighth level, he arrived upon an open stone area, filled with stone golems, standing at attention. It was one large room, upon the other side, a simple door.

He stepped onto the level, feeling he already knew what was going to happen, and surely enough, the door behind him slammed shut. The door on the other side swung shut as well as around him, golems eyes shone bright.

_Like some damn video game. If I made a game of my life and sold it...I'd be the richest person alive. I should write a fricken book, but don't tell anyone it's true, passing it off as a great novel..._

His short sword came out, and, after some hesitation, so did HeartBreaker. It glowed a brilliant yellow, showing him just what it wanted to offer to him. He sprung into the fray and with a single slice from the golden glowing blade, he cut one of the stone golems in half. Another was stabbed right through and through as Negi himself was surrounded by a purple aura, his magic melding with his chi.

Negi slashed off another's legs and ran to its body, jumping up unto it and off, swinging his blade to cut off another's head while his feet finished the one he was standing on. Negi spun and jumped off the body, landing on top of another and rearing back, punching it in the face as hard as he could, impacting it's face and blasting it apart. He spun again, swinging HeartBreaker up in a flash of golden yellow, cleaving another golem as he came down, right in half.

Spinning again, he flashed out both blades, removing the feet from some more of his attackers and lunging at another one, twirling to axe kick it. He kicked off its falling form, going back the way he came as a bullet spinning in the air, blades out as if he were a fan blade that had spun off from its base, coming at you like a missile.

He kicked off another wall and landed on the ground again, upon one knee, where he slashed upwards, jumping with the movement, cutting another golem right through. Yet _another _golem came at him, but he rushed them backwards with a frenzy of slashes until they hit the wall, at which Negi spun HeartBreaker and slashed the golem right through the middle. A next one tried to catch Negi from behind, but he spun away, snapping HeartBreaker straight and catching it's blade. He threw it like a javelin, and it passed right through the things chest, sticking there, knocking it off it's feet.

Negi stood there, breathing heavily as he walked towards the last one, who seemed to be looking for a way out. No mercy. He picked up HeartBreaker on his way towards it from where it had landed, quivering in the stone body it had stuck in. The magic around him flowed quickly, and as Negi slashed out that last attack, the magic flooded the golem, disintegrating him before the slash itself could do any real damage. As it fell, both doors on either side opened, allowing the boy to move on.

_Congratulations, you get a thousand gold pieces and a level up, would you like to assign your stat points now Negi Springfield? Goddamn. No I would not. Well, actually, sure. It I had any, I'd put them on my __**patience**__ stat._

He stepped through and down to another level of this place. Here, he feasted his eyes upon a face he thought he would never see again, and he hissed upon the sight of it. In front of him loomed a large, ruined building. A castle of immense proportions. The place where he had collected many of the materials his brain used for nightmares. He had arrived at the pseudo castle of Dracula, and who else would be lying on the ground next to it, looking dejected, but the Succubus Cora.

She was chained to one of the rocks, and looked up at him as he stepped into the place, looking back into open air as the door he had from come vanished. Typical.

The boy shook his head, intending to walk past her, but recognition flashed in her eyes... she grabbed him. Negi's eyes made her quail as he fixed them on her. His power burned, tormenting her hungry soul. He was even more powerful than last time, far more so it seemed. He seemed to have doubled in speed of energy, in power. It had not been long, she knew that, but his power had increased so much...Now he yanked his arm from her grasp and she pleaded with him.

"Please...please...get me out of here...not even death can save me from this place...it's dead and calls all dead to it. You tried to kill me, but it wouldn't let me die. Now it's torn, you shattered it's whole, and it runs amuck. None are safe in it. Please, let me out of here..."

Negi gave her a look as he rubbed his arm. He plainly seemed to say, without any words; "Why the hell should I help you?" She didn't know the answer to that one. She could only look pitiful after all. That was her job, to seduce and convince, and then to suck the life out of the person who fell into her traps...but she wasn't trying to do that now. She genuinely needed the boy's help..and she could not even go inside the castle to help ease her hunger...it was dangerous in there.

Negi surprised her by grabbing the chain that held her captive and, with a mighty wrench, his arms glowing with magic, broke it apart with his bare hands. He glowered at her once before turning back around and heading towards that accursed castle. There was nowhere else left to go after all.

He finally realized when he met the doors that Cora was _following_ him. He turned around with another growl, making her take a step back. It was one thing to have to do this, but to have some damn Succubus following him around as a _charity case_ was worse.

"What the hell do you want now?!"

She had already told him didn't she? She had asked him to get her out of here...but he was right after all, she had tried to suck him dry. What purpose or obligation did he have to her anyway? Ohh, that's right, **none**. She screwed up her face and the boy sighed.

"Put some damn clothes on then. Goddamn. What you've got no fricken energy for that? Hell, the world's annoyances always end up my ass, don't they? You want dreams, life energy? Take this then."

A mental attack shot forwards right into her. a barb of personality, of dreams and memories. Normally, this would make a being shrink back, hurt them, shake their continence, but the boy was softer than normal, even if he wasn't all that soft with his attack. For a creature like her...this was like a shot of heroin...this was their food source, but it was delivered in such an instant way, it flooded her.

Blasted back by the force of the blow, she was sent reeling into a rock, where she lay stung for a few precious seconds. Hell, it flooded her. She found herself standing just a bit straighter. Negi mentally shook his head, he was helping someone who had tried to kill him not to long ago...why the hell was he such a softee? Out loud though, he assessed her.

"Better. Now...get some damn clothes on. I'm not gonna have some naked idiot following me around."

She pissed him off by shimmering into the image of one of his students, Nodoka again, to be exact. Yet, he did realize that this was just how these things were. He turned back around and kicked open the doors in front of him, and had to duck instantly, stabbing up with his short sword, skewering a bat.

Hell, this really _was_ a hell hole.

Negi found himself in a long hallway, the ground covered with the desecrated remains of bodies. He knew what was going to happen once he stepped down unto it, so he took out HeartBreaker and jumped in. Instantly, the closest bodies groaned, and began to rise. Negi kicked one hard in the head before it could get up, and sliced it's grisly head off.

This place had shown him how much he hated damn zombies.

Negi proceeded to clean house, rushing in with careless abandon, his blades becoming silver arcs as sludge and old blood flew. Cora would have followed him, but she was afraid of those flashing blades. She had only seen his strength before, but now she knew his skill as well. It was not pretty.

Striking like a snake head, with the precision of a hawk and the speed of a jaguar... He spun and slashed, stabbed, ducked and bobbed, weaving in and out of a maze of bodies. It didn't take long before the hallway was washed in renewed bloodshed, yet not a drop lay on him. Limbs were everywhere...

He moved on, and she could only follow. So many more hallways followed, the travel seemed timeless. Yet Negi hardly seemed to tire. He found himself fighting giant animated denizens of the deep, dark abyss of hell, and he let not a shiver escape from his hold. He had been through this game before, and it's replay value, frankly, sucked.

He did pause however, when he reached the door he recognized as the one the Legion lay behind. Last time, he had been broken, worn, only wielding things he had managed to snatch from the area around him, but now...Now he had all of his weapons at his side...

He pushed the door open and entered the chamber, Cora following him not far behind, but she stayed by the door. She knew how these things went, and she could not delusion herself. She was just a low level grunt here...she had seen this boy kill dozens of things.

She had even seen one of the strongest Succubi fall to him. That above all had struck her into true submission. What power had she, to take his energy? His energy would destroy her utterly. Yet, her thoughts were interrupted by a crash, and a large globe object filled her vision. The boy was tiny in front of it, but Negi stood his ground.

"Oh hi dude. How you been! You know, last time..."

Negi's hands charged up with his magic, his body heaving as he continued to address the beast in front of him, a spell running through his head.

_κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα _

"Last time, I tried to make friends with you, yah know? But you just had to be a jack$$, you know? You tried to kill me."

_O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός._

Legion seemed to be paying him zero mind, just lumbering along at its slow pace towards him. Negi gritted his teeth as the magic around him condensed. He said one last thing to the beast in front of him. He rose his blade, making it glow a brilliant yellow

"So, I'll just teach you some respect, yah know? Legend or no, you're _nothing_ compared to me now...don't get disillusioned that you can _scare_ me now...your chance has expired."

_τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση , έκλειψη! _

**"Eclipse Axe!"**

His hands glowed as he jumped up, a huge axe, glowing with electricity, seeming to be made of crystalline ice, grew from him. He forced it down as hard as he could, right through the beast in front of him to crash unto the ground, freezing and electrifying all it touched. Legion split in half in front of him, exposing its core completely, a heart like apparatus inside a cage. Negi smiled as he rushed in, HeartBreaker glowing, even as the thing in front of him spun and began to let loose appendages.

"Oh don't worry...I'm only gonna break your heart!"

A flash of gold filled his vision as he stabbed outwards, striking true.

+--2--+

"HE DID WHAT?!?"

Eva looked up from her cup of tea at Arika. Alberio sat off to the side of her, and not too far off, Takahata sat. They were in the only place Alberio could safely take residence, under library island, guarded by a dragon. She smiled.

"He went to Library Island alone to see if he could find the key to my curse, noble of him, no?"

Her eyes just about bugged out of her head. She wasn't serious, was she? This library was a key defense to many of the worlds secrets. Hell, Ostia had a few stashed here. The thought of one being single handedly going through all the levels, looking for the answer to a power great enough to break Eva's curse open...was insane, and she knew Negi knew that too.

It was one thing to be a genius, it was another thing to behave stupid when, being a genius, you knew the right thing to do anyway. Yet, it seemed it was another thing completely, to be Negi. Negi did the wrong things, the things he knew were wrong, to punish himself, to keep himself busy. To test himself. In other words...

He killed himself to be reborn, each time stronger than before, hoping one day he'll kill his heritage, his sins and his shame along with his previous existence, and every time he failed, he only became darker.

The kid was a deep, deep, deeeeeeep maze. Yet, even as she played with her thoughts, Alberio interrupted them.

"You should know that the kid can take care of himself. This place can't handle the boy. I've felt him, everyday, training, pushing himself farther, and farther...it may seem impossible to believe, but I'm more worried about the library than I am the boy."

That too could be a valid point... What damage could Negi wreak upon the defense systems in place on the library, with his power? He could do much..but nothing irreparable, right? Well, that depends...how powerful was the boy anyway? Alberio seemed to reach this conclusion at the same time Arika did, he looked to Eva.

"How powerful is the boy anyway?"

A slender, blonde eyebrow rose a handful of degrees. She then calmly made an assessment.

"Well, I assume if he put _**all**_ of his effort into a single blast, meaning all of his magic and power, He might just be able to destroy this entire campus and lay waste to about...all the land within a fifteen meter radius of it...

...in other words, ohh... about a third of the city, not _too_ much devastation there, considering it being all of his power at once. He might manage half of it. He's no-where near his father's power or mine, if that's what you're looking for...but in actual _**power**_, one has to consider the _**actual**_ damage one can do.

...If you let the boy loose on a rampage in a random city, say, New York for example, he could lay waste to any army, naval and aviation forces put in his way and destroy the statue of liberty, all of Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and be halfway through Queens before he would even begin to slow down...."

She rose a hand to inspect her nails with mild boredom as she continued.

"He would destroy about half of New York state and be on his way to Albany, get there and blast apart about a fifth of it before he would be magically drained and have no more _expendable_ chi...but he probably would still have enough energy physically to kill a few more souls...all in all, he probably _could wreck, but not quite destroy_ the entire state of New York before being utterly out of resources..."

She put her pinky in between her teeth biting it lightly, her face plainly showing that such an amount of destruction awakened a deep excitement in her. Arika swallowed at that face. This was what Negi was trying to set free?

"That much huh? I once remember you telling Nagi in a passionate voice that if you two combined powers, all of Eurasia, Africa and South America would be utterly _gone_. Was that truth, or your husky tone talking?"

Eva shot Alberio a poisonous look, shutting him up promptly, but not fading his smile any.

"Shut the hell up. You said Nagi was alive?"

Alberio took out his card, looking at it with a scrutinizing eye. It had not faded any since the day he had the unfortunate experience of forming a pactio with Nagi... If there was one thing he could tell him, it would be to put some damn chap stick on, but that was then.

"It's still as bright as the day I made it. That's more of an assurance than a telephone call, I'll tell you that much. He doesn't answer calls though...I assume we're are too far apart, you know, the whole "at closest, over thirty-six million miles" thing you know."

That was all she needed to hear. Yet the man continued his prodding of the vampire.

"I wonder though, how has he aged? Arika still looks as beautiful as ever, but what if he looks like an old man now? Will you go after Negi next?"

Alberio was brilliant enough to be right next to Eva's face when he decided to say this, so his comment earned him a powerful smack that sent him spinning backwards to crash into one of the tables he had set up.

"Owww! Hey, that's not fair, it was an honest question!"

+--3--+

Finally, Negi called a halt. In front of him, a huge, gold wrought door stood in front of him. He wiped his brow. This was it. He kicked the door open in a blast of energy and ran in, stopping at the sight in front of him. There was no Dracula, at least not yet.

There was a girl on the floor. Pale as a ghost, her hair contrasted her body utterly, being raven black. Red eyes looked up at Negi, nonplussed. Behind her, a coffin lay closed. She looked utterly tired, as if her entire being had been fighting against something for the longest time, and she was finally at her ropes end. She looked at least eight, but Negi guessed around ten or eleven might be more accurate.

Finally, the door slammed behind him, locking all three of them in the room. Behind the girl, the classic creak of a coffin made the boy raise his blades, the girl on the floor, eyes wide, scampered away.

"No more...please...I'll be your servant, just leave me alone!"

Outside from the coffin, the expected figure came, eyes shining. Shrunken, thirsty, deadly. That was the look of the king of all vampires. Negi's blade HeartBreaker glowed a fierce red, the only time it had ever glowed at such an intensity was when the boy had first fought with it. He rushed in at the creature, not waiting for him to gain any ground, but "Dracula" shot off to the side, aiming for the girl. Negi barred his way and managed to slice into his arm.

No blood came, but he turned to focus on Negi, a grisly grin on his face, sunken eyes focusing in on him. Negi's own smirk and burning eyes countered. He pushed the vampire off him, rushing in, but the other moved with a speed akin to a blur. Negi had to teleport away from his strike and stab him in the middle.

No response to pain. Only a turn and a near invisible strike. Negi was blasted back when the fist connected his gut. Landing on the floor, he jumped up, shooting in the path of the vampire again when he headed for the girl.

Negi ducked under a punch and leg sweeped the vampire, flashing out his blade for the neck, but his opponent caught it in a slender arm, wrenching it from his grasp and throwing it, and him, off. Negi kicked off a wall and pulled out his short sword, slashing out as he passed.

Negi grabbed HeartBreaker in a passing lunge. and spun around to meet his opponent, his blades holding off a punch, but the punch still sent him skidding backwards. Negi braced and kicked off, lunging at him from another angle, but was thrown off again.

The vampire reached the girl and grabbed her, reaching down for her neck, but Negi appeared at his side, slamming his foot into the kidney area, breaking them apart. The girl surprised him by turning with the movement, her hands flashing out, a purple-black sphere of dark magic shooting from it and into the vampire.

She nodded at him, her eyes still drained of any emotion, but at least she affirmed his presence. Negi spun to block the vampire from coming at him again, using all of his strength, and fortifying his body with magic, to push him off.

The two combatants raged at each other, occasionally, the mystery girl managed to get off a shot at the vampire, when she didn't think she might catch her sudden ally. Yet, even so, the vampire was cunning, and he was stronger. He knocked Negi away, sending him crashing into a wall and catching the girls magic in his hands, taking it inside him with no effect at all...

That's when Cora jumped on top of him and bit right into his own neck, drawing from him as best she could, all she could. Negi slid down the wall landing on all fours, and rushed in as the vampire tossed the succubus off, stabbing the vampire right through the heart as he jumped up.

_Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. _

Cora used this as a distraction to get back on the vampire once more, draining him, still he tossed them both off, but the other girl had been using this time to pull all of her remaining power together, her will returned for a final bout against the vampire. Hands shot out dozens of spheres of dark magic, exploding on contact with the vampire, setting his clothes on fire. Negi raised his hands out to the being.

_Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. __**Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!**_

The thousand thunderbolts spell raked from his fingers instead of coming down from the sky, filling his vision with a blinding white as it ripped from him and into the vampire. Smoke filled his vision as he struck,struck, struck and struck.

Negi rushed in blind and stabbed out, his blade connecting solidly with something. When the smoke cleared, he saw he had struck true. Right into the heart, he removed his blade quickly as the whole being crumbled into dust in front of him.

Negi spun when a sharp pain was felt on his neck, and his blade slid backwards right into the gut of the vampire. He ripped away from him, his blade flashing out with a vengeance to catch him through the neck, felling the legend. Negi grabbed his neck, pulling his hand away to see red.

His mysterious ally collapsed, and Negi cast his eyes at her with some alarm, but Cora, who was right there, calmed him.

"Just asleep. Exhausted, but not without life energy."

Negi came over and bent to pick her up, brushing his hands on his jeans to get off the blood, and when he rose, he looked Cora in the eye.

"Thank you. I suppose a leapard can change it's spots if it tries enough. I'll carry her, she's been through enough. The door is open now, let's see what's beyond the final level of this castle, huh?"

Negi walked through first and feasted his eyes on fresh air, they were outside the place now, and off in the distance, at the end of the "yard" there was another stair case. He sighed. This was his life it seemed. Yet, as he stepped towards the stair case, he couldn't help but feel that he was close to the end, close to the discovery he had been fighting for all this time. He took the steps with spirits higher upon every move downwards until he came at the final floor, which was nothing but a huge room, and in the center of that room, pedestals.

He walked up to one of them with caution. Each one was part of a circle, and the floor underneath them was a web of magic and spell work. Each pedestal had a book, but he walked past them to touch the core, the one pedestal in the middle. It was the largest of all, and had four places dedicated to three books, and one dagger His eyes caught upon the blade. There was nothing special about it, and regardless of protests from Cora, he grabbed it from it's place on the platform, slamming his hand in the place of it and looking at her.

"Someone had already been here to claim the spoils. The dagger was a counter balance, like some damn Indiana Jones movie..."

Negi bent down and opened his coat pocket, taking out the broken remains of the Cassiopeia and placing it on the platform in place of the dagger and stepped away, grinning.

"One's trash is another's treasure, hope that pedestal enjoys it! Ha ha! I'm a kid in a candy store over here. What should I take?"

Negi looked to the pedestal again, and saw the center of it caught his eye. It was true it had four places, but the middle was an empty space, letting him see the center of the spell working. His eyes read over it quickly and he grinned.

"This is it. The core of that damn woman's curse. Who would have thought...well, actually, it makes sense a vampire's castle would protect the curse upon a powerful vampire. This kind of spell needs at least three cores to keep someone like Eva bound for so long though...this is only one...yet, if I just destroy one...and cut the school's power, activate a pactio...I might have enough power to remove it....after a good rest."

He scanned the books on the pedestal, his artifact collectors soul coming into play again. The titles of them offered nothing really interesting to him. Yet, something else caught his eye on the other side of the room. He left the area to run to that. He licked his lips, for they had gone dry.

_It's a rosary, but it can't be __**that **__rosary...It was destroyed..it's remains on display in London's Grand Sagamore Hall...no, it must be the other one...the one lost. Yet that's...no way in hell...no f*c*i#g way in hell. The "Immortal" Rosary...the gift given to the angel warriors by the gods during the first apocalypse._

He spun around, his hands glowing. He grabbed the rosary and stuffed it in his pocket at the same time as his other hand flashed out, replacing the dagger there. No huge boulder rolled down a pathway to come and crush him, but he yelled at Cora to get out of the way while he shot off a powerful blast right at the spell core, shattering it upon impact.

_"Congratulations, you have won the game, thanks for playing. Would you like to save?" That should pop up in front of my eyes at any moment now..._

"I'm _FINE_! Goddamn, why does the sun have to be so damn bright, after the library, it's gonna burn my eyes!

Negi had not expected a welcoming committee when he came out of the Library, but there was one, and they had the look of people who had been waiting for a long while. Eva, Arika, Takahata, Asuna, Konoka, Setsuna, thank go there wasn't any one else, or he would not have been able to shield off their questions. He had work to do, namely, that work was sleep...

A lot of sleep to get himself ready for next week and school again, but there was more to the story...he had to find out where to stick a Succubus so he could keep an eye on her and where the heck to keep the other girl until she was on her feet again...why was it, just when he was getting used to a bunch of people, life had to go and introduce more of them into the mix?

+--4--+

"I still don't get it. I really want to, believe me, I do, but I still don't get it. Who am I?"

Negi sighed, shaking his head. Konoka looked on in interest as Negi attempted to once again train the Succubus in the ways of emulating a person well. He had grabbed Asuna for help on this one too, for she knew the person he was trying to teach her to be better than he did. He recited from memory.

"You are Sakurako Shiina. Fourteen years of age, born on the ninth of June 1988. You've got two cats, Cookie and Biscuit. You have a bit of a gambling problem, but since you usually win anyway, no one minds. You are in the Lacrosse club..god, I'm going to have to teach you how to play. I hope to hell you can use that voice you have, Sakurako loves karaoke parties...stick to Asuna for awhile, you're supposed to have known her for a long time, and if you do anything weird, she'll point it out first to you. Anything I left out Asuna-san?"

She blinked. It was hard to believe she was actually doing this. Teaching someone to become someone she had known for such a long time, almost bringing the girl back from the dead. She looked exactly like her, sounded like her, everything, but was only able to act like her on the most basic level.

_This thing tried to kill Negi, and he grants it the chance to play at being Sakurako? Maybe her death really did affect him...or is he just trying to bring back something he blames himself for being lost?_

"Umm...she likes the normal pop music...oh! Forget I said that, she only pretends to like it. I know for a fact, based on her music player, that she likes techno and keeps it a secret. The story is that she got lost and decided to lay low for awhile right? No one except our group was mourning her death, right?"

Negi nodded. The sad truth was, besides all the mages, none of the regular students knew of their two fellow classmates deaths. It was assumed they were injured or would pop up sooner or later, after all, there was not school this week, so no one had been to suspect.

They now were going to use that as an advantage to minimize the potential pain and keep an eye on a possible trouble maker at the same time. It was only Tuesday night after all, they had the rest of the week to do this.

Mourning one's death is terrible, and Negi would not have his students mourning the death of two. Even if he hated tricking them like this...it was the best tactic, and besides, it the secret got out, no one would give a hoot...most would think Sakurako was always a Succubi...just another wierdo chucked in the class of 3A...they might even blame her for Eva's attacks.

Negi knew how to deal with rumors like that. He clenched his fists as Asuna continued to drill the Succubi. There was plenty of energy around here, the creature wouldn't need to attack any one, hell, she could just draw in the floating dreams of her roommates, feeding off the regular nightmare, no harm done, two people's night mares would be adequate nourishment, right?

_Such a nourishment it was..although, if you ask me, blood nourishes us all, one who drinks that nourishing body is bound to feast with the kings...the hell am I saying?_

He shook his head, going for his towel to take a long, hot soak in the bathhouse. Once more, it was time for water to bring him the only measure of peace he could find here. When he got a house, he vowed he would but a sauna in it. Only damn thing that could help him any more.

He was surprised though, when he met Eva and Chachamaru there. This was normally his alone time. He checked his watch. Yep, he was supposed to be here, they were the ones out of place. He cleared his throat and Chachamaru looked up, it amazed him how the robot stood calmly in the water, wrapped in mist.

"What happened here, your water main broke? I normally take a shower at this time."

Eva looked up, and the boy managed to focus his attention upon a synthetic leaf he had seen dozens of times. It's details were boring and old.

"Soo. You come back and what did you find? Are you able to fullfil your promise to me or what?"

He should have known this was what she would be here for. A confirmation, a press to see it the engine still worked. He fixed her with eyes whose power was all but lost against her. He managed a smirk.

"Sunday. By the bridge, Sunday. You want me to break your curse? Come there, and do me a favor and get permission to shut off the cities power for about five hours, tell them it's for reducing our carbon footprint or something."

+--E--+

Carp. (Said purposely as Carp.) I am rushing things aren't I? Or am I? It _**is**_ only Tuesday. I killed a cannon, then I brought them back?! The heck is wrong with you Midnight? Well, I didn't actually bring them back, did I..? What's with the new OC without a name? What about the other OC? When the heck are you going to go to the Magical World..._are_ you going there?

Well, I'll tell you I can't answer those questions for you, but I sure as heck can tell you this week is going to be...interesting...to say the least. By the way...by obligation, I have made a pact with Vastler75. Are you aware of them? They run the "Truth or Dare" Negima Fanfiction. If you have time, you might like to check it out, perhaps leave dares of your own? I find it similar to my Challenge MFT fic, which is NOT dead. Just waiting for this story to lose speed. I can only type so fast you know! I still look at the keyboard when I type, just to let you get a feel of my speed...still manage about fifty or so words a minute though.


	34. Chapter XXXIII: Circling Coaches

How am I getting my chap's done so fast? It must be dedication...and the fact that, once I start writing, I can continue going for an hour or more, just typing until my ideas/time runs out. Up until the time I graduated high school, I was a part time retail store ground worker and the helper to a garbage removal/ moving and construction "gig". My hands saw a lot of work. If they do get harmed, I still type anyway, so the they're tough...I start a new chapter _right after_ the old one. Seriously, I use the same document. Upload, erase it, and start typing again.

ArchangelWings, I thought I had scared you off, or offended you! Chao and the Magus...there _is _a reason I did not explain where they went in a very meaty way... The new O.C's actually play an integral part in this story, and you may have already seen a few hints on just how deep Jasnin's sudden appearance matters...Cora and our other friend too...(Yes, that is why I gave more definitive names..

I had actually first planed on bringing back the other one, Lidiara, but it somehow ended up being Cora, good eye vianmeor.) You'll just have to be a _wee_ bit patient there.

You know, the average book has four hundred words a page... using that rough estimate, this story is around six hundred and fifty pages...and that's not considering this chapter, yikes...and I lost one! I signed in the twenty eighth of March to find someone no longer considers my story to be one of their favorites. I wonder what I did wrong? Well, you can't please everyone.

I will admit that this chapter is utterly pointless in it's near entirety. You may look at it as a filler, or perhaps the first part is a filler.

I don't own Negima!

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty Three: Circling Coaches._**

+---+

Negi awoke to a completely silent dorm room. A glance at the clock told him it was mid afternoon, 1:45. He had fallen asleep at twelve, meaning he had literally been inactive for over twelve hours. His body was smarting all over.

Probably from the tournament, or from the battles after it. Yet, when Negi rolled over to get up, he found that his body wouldn't respond, and he blacked out again, only to wake up when the clock on the table read 6:38 PM. God. He had slept for over eighteen hours?! How the hell...?

He rolled out from the couch and began to hunt for his slippers. They were right where he left them , which was a miracle, as most days someone or other kicked them underneath the couch when they got up to use the bathroom at night. He slipped them one and stretched, realizing he was incredibly, strangely, hungry.

Well, he had been in a fast for nearly twenty four hours..he had last eaten yesterday at eight thirty. He shuffled past the bedroom and peeked in, discovering that he was actually the _first_ one up. Hell, they were tired too, and he couldn't blame any one of the three of them for still being asleep.

He did know one thing however. When Asuna woke up, she would be as hungry as a horse, and ready to eat as much as one, or at least, he was inclined to believe so. Negi grabbed a pot from one of the cabinets and searched for its lid while he ran through what he last knew to be in the fridge. To hell with it, he'd make a stew, but where the heck was the rice?

_Don't tell me Konoka's put it up on top again, she can't be that air-headed._

Negi finally found the rice, which some apparent genius had tossed into the crisper of the fridge. Negi took the thankfully still dry, if cold, rice form the fridge and took a few scoops from it with a cup, tossing it into the pot and running water along it to wash it clean of any residue from bleaching or whatever else the plantation had missed.

He wasn't surprised when the first sleeper to rise, Asuna, came in the kitchen about an hour later. Having slept for just about a full day, she struggled to rub the sleep from her eyes, face still flushed.

_So much blood runs through the face, doesn't it... ... ... ...the hell am I thinking...!?_

Negi mutely doled out his cooked fare as the other went back into her room for a toothbrush. Negi honestly didn't see the sense of that, considering it was just about time to back to sleep anyway, one could eat now and then brush their teeth to go to bed again...

Then again, he had brushed when he woke up, so he was one to talk, wasn't he?

After eating, Negi took to the bathhouse, for no other reason but to do something, perhaps exercise a little...he managed to find Cora, who had snagged a few nightmares from him, one of the reasons he had slept so well, (Maybe for this reason alone he might end up actually enjoying the Succubus's presence...) and drill her on her assumed mantle, Sakurako, but all in all, he looked at today as a waste, or perhaps a rest period...

Thursday brought the interesting things however, for when Negi opened his eyes, he stiffened at a pair of mirror red eyes staring down at him, blank of emotion. He calmed enough to look at the clock, which read seven o' clock on the dot. Another day, another dollar.

"You know, you'd give most people a heart attack like that."

"..."

She blinked mutely at him as he got up. He tilted his head to the side in looking at her, a kid with a new, strange toy, one he wasn't sure if he liked or not...just poked around trying to figure it out. She just continued to stare at him, a slow blink covering those large eyes for a nearly a full second. her head also turned to the side, and Negi was reminded of a mime.

"You don't talk much, do you? Least you could do is give me a name."

"...Alma. Alma Yoshi."

Negi observed her face and hands, trying not to be drawn back to those eyes... She looked utterly drained of life, which was no surprise, considering where he had found her.

"So you do have a voice then. Hell were you doing down there anyway?"

For once, those eyes turned away from him, no longer reflecting him. It suddenly struck Negi that her name literally meant "The Quiet Mirror" He looked up when she spoke.

"...Dragged down there."

"You really do try to use as little words as possible ehh...? ...Oh....shit, not again!"

He jumped forwards when she stumbled, catching her before she managed to fall, yet, once again, those eyes were closed, and he grumbled as he lay her on the couch. He tossed a cover over her for good measure.

"Useful anti-interrogation tactic. Faint every time someone asks you a fricken question. You shouldn't have gotten up if you were still too weak, idiot."

He went off to get dressed, leaving her there to breathe...

When Negi had dressed and opened the door to his dorm, he almost crashed into Jasnin, who was standing with her back to the previously closed door and arguing with a girl Negi recognized as one from 2J. The argument had already gotten quite escalated, and even though the other girl could not see it yet, Jasnin, with hands behind her back , was preparing magic.

Negi calmly took his short sword from its sheath and poked the girl in the back, making her spin and losing her magic on the process. She glared at Negi for a few seconds, and he shook his sword in her face lightly, almost playfully.

"Play nice. What seems to be the problem here, huh? Early morning and you two are arguing fit to wake the fricken dead."

Negi's pointed glance told Jasnin exactly what he meant with that blade. She had been about to lose control, for no reason at all but a simple argument. He could have potentially saved her from ermie-hood there. Negi fixed a leveling look at the other girl before sheathing his blade and walking past them both, heading to the staircase that would lead him downstairs.

+--1--+

"I'm getting soft."

Negi stood in a clearing, spinning HeartBreaker's shaft between his spindly fingers, just standing at ease while he looked up at the sky. He grunted as he spun the staff in his hands faster until it became a golden circle and he threw it from him with all his might up into the air, where it flashed by a few tree branches, slicing them through before boomeranging back to his hands, he caught it as a kind of afterthought, examining it for any damage. It's metal wings had a bit of sap residue, but besides that, it was clean.

"Every damn day I get softer, until someone can stick a knife into my heart again."

Negi continued the technique he was practicing with his other blade, twirling it like a baton until it gathered enough speed to become a disc of steel and throwing it into the forest to cut a few branches before coming back to him. Yet, this was really a pointless technique for Negi, only for show in essence. What use did he have in throwing his blade away like this? None really...

...The rest of the day passed slowly for Negi, and he mainly spent it trying to hammer Cora into a proper double of one of his students. When Negi had returned from outside, later on in the day with a couple groceries, he was not surprised to find the couch had been neatly made up, and the girl gone. None of his roommates seemed to have seen her either, and Negi forced her from his mind.

What he really wanted to know was what she had been doing down there...he still remembered when he had woken up that morning, looking into those deep, wide red pools, about the only things that looked alive on her. Eyes like blood...

He shook the thought from his head. What was up with him and blood lately, huh? Old Dracky must have put him in the mood. Yet, if the vampire did exist, that had not been the real him, just a fricken copy, but real enough for the victims that fell to him...

Negi put away all of the groceries, and not to long after making sure everything was in order, went back out to the bank, after all, he did occasionally need to check his finances, regardless of the little use he put them too.

Imagine his surprise when he got his check book back and discovered there was over a million yen there that should not be, at least according to his math in general interest. This drove him a little bonkers to say the least. The hell had it _come_ from, and _when_ the hell had it _gotten_ there? A bit of probing and harassing got him the answer he was looking for however, apparently, someone had uploaded a huge transfer, right into his account. Chao Linshen, an account now officially closed.

Holy hell. Why? There was also a note given to him, one that told him to..."look after" Satomi Hakase. When was the last time he had seen the girl anyway? Since he knocked her down from the wishing platform. She was the only student of his he had not seen, but that wasn't odd, she never needed to visit him for anything after all...still, he wondered what she was doing.

Yep, he had gone soft alright. Negi knew it from the moment he made up his mind that, since he had nothing else to do, he might as well, as it was his responsibility. That's what he kept telling himself as he headed back to the dorms, he was just doing this because he was obligated to.

Her dorm room was empty, and from what Negi could tell, it had not been inhabited in a while, the smell of stale air told him so. He beat it to the engineering department, but she wasn't there either, although he did find the dismantled remains of some project she had abandoned.

His own prowess as an engineer was brought into play as he looked at the mess of parts, yet he managed to spare the heap only a glance before he pulled away to look somewhere else, namely, the college labs.

Yep there she was, looking every inch a mad person, her lab coat was half on and glasses askew, but that didn't stop the careful spanner darting out to tighten a bolt here and there with an expert's precision. A college student was off to the side, seeming afraid of approach, Negi recognized her as he came up, but she didn't.

"Uhh...I'm sorry Kiddo, but you shouldn't be wandering around here..."

Negi rose an eyebrow at that comment, making her stare. Looks like he would have to remind her who he was. Bummer.

"Miss Yoshi, have you found out the use of a clipper circuit, or do I have to go over it again? If your memory is as bad there as it is when it comes to your substitute teachers..."

It took her a few seconds, but then the obvious surprise came and the apologies. Negi was used to them and waved them off. He was just to young looking, that was all. Most would find it bordering insanity to even think of a being like him existing, and to a point, Negi had to agree with them, yet, he existed, so it could not be impossible, it had to, obviously, be possible.

Only in Japan, some would say...and he would be forced to agree. To the world, it seemed that Japan was the place that the laws of common sense and physics no longer applied. "Anything is possible there." was the general mood. Screw the general mood. He was born in Europe. He walked past the student previously blocking him and tapped Satomi on the shoulder. No response.

He had to do it three times before she spun around, sending her glasses flying and nearly stabbing Negi with a screwdriver. Negi caught the needle like appendage as Yoshi bent and caught the glasses in the air, an action Negi was sure she had quite a lot of practice doing, seeing the way she pulled it off. Satomi blinked.

"Ohh...Negi sensei..."

"Well of course, who the hell'd you think I was? Jack Ripper?"

Negi stopped when he noticed, that, instead of a pen or pencil stuck behind her ear, the girl had thin churro....a churro for christ's sake! It didn't look to fresh either. He pointed at it, easily swallowing away for would have been a misplaced laugh at the site.

"How old is that thing? Speaking of which, when was the last time you ate?"

Satomi pulled down the food stuff and looked at it, testing it's endurance in her fingers. Hard as a rock cake, and just as flexible. She blinked. That was a question she didn't know the answer to, no matter how fast the ears in her head whirred. When was the last time she ate tended to be the question that made her internal computer systems fry.

"...Two days?"

"Wrong answer."

He couldn't believe what he was doing, but he grabbed the girl by the hand, feeling like he had just adopted yet another child in addition to Anya, (Who was probably bugging the hell out of Konoka by now.), and dragged her away from her project, headed for the closest food stop he could think of, much to the amusement of Yoshi, who had just gotten her lab space back because of it...but she would try to give the monstrosity Satomi had been creating a wide berth. Who knows _**what**_ that..._thing_...was made to do.

+--2--+

"So this is what you were doing this whole time? Trying to create another Cassiopeia? Hell Satomi-san, she's only been gone a week...and this mess isn't going to cut it you know.."

The other walked to her monstrous design that was created for the purpose of being a time machine. In essence, she knew she was being stupid, knew that her design was nowhere near the efficiency of Chao's, knew that she had no idea at all really, how the Cassiopeia accomplished what it did, even as she knew what it did very intimately...she sighed as her hand came up to caress the metal. Sensei was correct in the end, she was a horrible reverse engineer.

If only she knew that this wasn't her fault, she might have felt a little better. After all, Chao had wrecked her ways of thinking, driving her to the point of being nothing but a tool to be implemented to build something with speed and precision, to analyze something. When it came to upgrading, reverse engineering or designing, her skill was zero. Without an innovator like Chao to put her to use, she was the hammer with a broken handle amid a thousand screws. Useless. Negi came up to look at the thing she had made, shaking his head.

"The hell. Where is the place for the thing to collect energy anyway? Where's it's transformer? The heck is the amplifier..and where in a monkey shiny arse is the fricken regulator?! If you plugged this thing in, the only thing it's gonna do is blow up! Come on, you can do better than this, Hakase-san I know you're the one that designed and built Chachamaru...right?"

It was true that, according to what she had learned, she had designed and built Chachamaru, but the design had been full of holes until Chao had filled the gaps immensely, taking a doddle and bringing it to life as a full scale android. None of the real design work was done by her, and she said so. Even now, the robot's design was due for upgrades, ones that she could not give, for she didn't know how. Give her a schematic, it didn't matter how complex it was, and you'd have the finished product by the next day.

Negi took her and sat her down, and, after some searching around the lab, found, of all things, a chess board to place in front of her. He sat opposite her as she looked up. What was he doing?

"Your face tells me plainly you don't have an icicle's chance in hell. Okay. You see, you're to centered. I can tell a specialist just by watching them. Your are an unhealthy specialist. I want you to play Chess against me, but at the same time, I want you to hold a proper conversation. It doesn't have to be elaborate, just an exercise on expanding your attention range. Right now, you are a laser pointer. Figure me trying to expand that laser pointer into a flashlight, maybe even a flood light. Now...white moves first."

It was ten o clock at night before Satomi was able to hold a semi decent conversation with Negi while playing the game, of course, when she didn't talk she played brilliantly, but even while talking about something simple as the weather downgraded her to a complete novice. It had been a while since Negi had played this game, so the first two games he had lost, while she remained mainly silent, but as he un-rusted and he brought her more into a conversation, he reigned more strongly, yet towards the end of eleven, she did begin to come around with a few small tricks.

By the time they had stopped, it was almost twelve, and Negi packed up the board after a brilliant checkmate. He looked at Satomi dead in the eye, halting her from getting up.

"I want you to keep a chart, and check it off every day when you have eaten, because I know it had been longer than two days, judging by that poor churro's looks. I also want you to join the debate club. Think of it as homework. You've been cooped up here too long. Get out more often. Essentially, besides math and science, and perhaps English, you are only an average student...and science is teetering right now, because later on , you'll need to put more abstract thought into play...from our talk, Chao may have taken you and influenced your intelligence incredibly, but she damaged you too. You are now only strong in one thing, whereas before you were above in nearly all academic subjects. Take some time to go with Asuna-san to the art club..."

Eyes flashed his way in the darkness.

"You sound like a Doctor, Negi-sensei."

Negi tucked away the board on a shelf in the lab and grabbed his coat before facing her.

"I am one. A doctor of Computer Engineering and Linguistics, as well as medical, although I prefer not to wave around my practitioner's license and instead peruse a more relaxed, research oriented life. Take my advice. You may think that I am damaging you now, trying to distract you maybe, but in the long run, you'll see the value of what I'm trying to do. I'd suggest you go to the front desk in the dorms and ask for a room change, you haven't used yours in a while, and I have the feeling you'd be lonely in there. Satsuki is alone in her dorm at the moment, you could bunk with her..."

A smile, rare and perhaps impossible before today's events, formed invisibly on Satomi's face.

"So someone can make sure I eat, sensei?"

"Ahh! You see, you are getting better already, you would not have caught that before."

Negi left the lab to head home to the dorms, feeling somewhat accomplished, but also a bit...disgusted with himself. Why he did not know...it was only when he managed to get to the showers did it strike him. All his life he ad dedicated himself to being hard, strong, a weapon he could aim at anything and destroy, anything that chose to try and harm him...but since coming here, although it was undeniable the strength he had gained, he found himself becoming soft.

Soft meant weak, and weak meant vulnerable and finally, vulnerable meant death on a battle field. Internally, he still had that drive. Internally, he was smarting at the fact that, regardless of saying he didn't believe in the term friend, he was becoming hard pressed to find words to describe those around him that fit the bill. He was becoming considerate of those around him to the point he would go beyond his prescribed duty to help them, and was frequently finding his excuse of being their teacher old and irrelevant.

Thing was, he was beginning to _like_ it. That was worse. The fact that, internally, he had resigned himself to his fate, that he had accepted a stranger as his mother, that he taught freely the secrets of magic to those who were calling him a friend, to whom he had no un-forbidden words to describe, the fact that the death of two of his students had actually, secretly, hurt _him_ instead of just his pride and sense of responsibility... they were was all signs of weakness, and all things he did not like to see.

+--3--+

Early Sunday morning, Negi awoke to once again feast his eyes on another's blood red ones. This time Negi simple blinked.

'I'm sorry if this may offend you in anyway, but why the hell are you stalking me? It's kind of disturbing to find out upon waking up that someone has, not once, but twice, been watching you sleep motionless above you."

Once more, there was only a blink in response. Negi was reminded of one of those half done horror movies where the girl who's supposed to lead you to your doom just blankly stares at you, bordering on creepy, every now and again to see if you're still following, and where you obviously think the dude or girl following her is stupid as hell.

"If it disturbs you I will stop, master."

The last word was chucked in, said quickly, almost as if she wanted to get it over with, or hide the word from him. Yet, obviously, it was the first red flag that Negi centered on with his mind. Where the hell had that come from, and since when was he her master now?!

"Hold your horses there. The hell did I become your master?!"

"Property saved by a savior becomes property of the savior."

Negi blinked. The hell was this he had to deal with now? He wanted no servant, goddamnit! He just wanted his life to be, for once, peaceful! Normal! Without a shred of insanity in at least one of his days! Then he could die a happy man!

"You know, that sentence bordered upon a grammatical mess in your attempt to rid it of as many words as possible, right? The hell do you mean, property? Don't tell me your one of those who view themselves as friggin objects to be owned or discarded of..."

"That is what I was-"

Negi grabbed his hair and nearly let out a bellow, nearly. He ended up just tugging at fistfuls of his hair in silence, his teeth gritted.

"Just be quiet. Let me figure this out in peace. Listen, where have you been living ever since we left Library Island?"

"Under the bed."

Negi didn't hear her until he was already half way through his sentence, in fact, he got as far as saying what she did before he realized the implications of it all.

"Under the bed, okay that's...WHAT THE HELL? _**UNDER THE FRIGGIN BED**_?!?"

A simple nod made Negi want to toss himself through the currently closed window, breaking it into a million pieces as he fell. WHY was his life so insane? Just for a moment, he had thought that it had calmed down this week, but in the truth of the matter, it had only been saving up all the insanity until school restarted, he knew that.

'If that displeases you..."

It was already Sunday and Cora still had trouble saying "Sakurako" and he had been saving his power so he could unleash one of the most feared vampires in history back into the world, and, now he had a girl who was insistent on becoming his lap dog, and was perfect for the job in her utterly out of the way and shameless attitude.

"No, it doesn't displease me, wait, yes it does...wait, no it doesn't _**displease**_ me, it makes me feel like _**strangling **_you."

He still couldn't believe she would sleep under the bed though, that was just...well, insane. Insane and insanely funny all at once...In all honesty, if the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, The Stork and Bloody Mary all of a sudden sprung up in tutu's and started to do the Irish jig from the highest rooftop of Mahora, in plain daylight while a balancing eggs on their noses... he would not have been the least bit surprised. His life had officially crossed the border and become a true; "Only in Japan" story.

"Should I bear my neck?"

Should she bear her neck, oh god... Maybe _he_ had just gone insane and this was all a dream? This had to be a dream. It was the only way any of this suddenly became believable, bearable.

"_NO_, you will not bear your freakin neck no matter how much I want to choke you..."

Negi continued to have similar insanity throughout the day with her (One instance being when she walked in on him in the shower carrying a suit of clothes for him, and Negi had to give a lecture in a towel to her about how he ran his life perfectly fine without someone doing that for him...),until the power shut off...right at seven o clock in thee' night. Negi looked up at the lights soberly.

No... he wasn't having second thoughts...just he was realizing just how close it all was to coming down upon his head. He felt, off in the distance, the unfurling tendrils of power that were obviously Eva's doing, and his card burned lightly...excitement maybe? In that very moment, Negi realized just how much the vampire had been looking...forwards... to this...and he inwardly buckled down for what was sure to be a long ride.

Negi dressed carefully, ceremoniously almost. It wasn't on purpose either, which was an odd thing. Negi allowed a single shiver to run down his spine as he left the dorm room. He was doing this alone, meeting Eva near the bridge. He focuses his mind on the long chant ahead, taking out his card and placing it on his forehead to contact Evangeline. Yet, he spoke aloud to the air even as his mental message was communicated.

"Call me forth, otherwise I won't have the power necessary to do this shit."

_Oh, so you're sounding gruff, cute. How long do you need, bright boy?_

"As long as possible, the chant is as long as fraping Willam H. Harrison's speech."

_I'll give you all five hours._

"Wait, you can make it run for that long?!"

_Of course boya...I'm no pansy._

"Yeah, I can see that.."

That last statement was claimed without input from Eva, for he had removed the card before uttering it. As far as he knew, the amount of seconds in five hours, eighteen thousand, was one heck of a long pactio activation. More of like a full scale war one. The implications of such an activation humbled his opinion of his own power extremely...

+--4--+

When Negi arrived at the bridge about two hours later, Eva was already there, along with Chachamaru. To his surprise, he realized that the moon was out in the fading daylight, and it was quite full. That put the whole situation into perspective. Eva had chosen five hours, and started them at seven. They would end at twelve midnight, on a night of a full moon. Nice and symbolic, huh? She rose his card to the darkness.

She didn't _need_ to orate the activation, hell if she remembered the age she was when she still _had_ to orate spells. She did it for dramatic flair, for the stalling of time...for, like it or lump it..she had been trapped here a long time, and the idea of suddenly being just simply..free...actually scared her. Literally. It was surprising, but true.

"Lic Lac Li Lac Lilac, Sim Mae Pars! Per Duodevigintitein meit Quattor Centum et Trias Centum et Trias Centum Secundās! Minister Magi Negiius Springfield!"

Negi frowned as he heard it, wondering why she did not simply multiply eighteen by ten and then one hundred instead of going through all that trouble, but he didn't bother to voice his opinion on the other's spell work, just held out his hands. He too decided to orate his incantation, but for a different reason than her, he wanted to make sure he got nothing wrong.

The power within him burned, the strength lent from the pactio adding to his already saturated veins, full of his own strength, fortified by a near full week of rest

"Here comes sally! First, the spell cast... **Rastel Mascir, Magister! Veit, un, resparato...Man Man Terro Terro...Redimio lemma ut lux lucis, per lux lucis, pro lux lucis... Laqueus lemma in hic pupugiobscurum. Non in phasmatis, non in somes, non in mens, vadum lemma licentiapro totus vicis insquequo Ego dictum, redimio hostes hostium ut is locus..."**

She remembered it now, that long string of words she had been unable to commit to memory, that single incantation form a small black book that had locked her away for so long. The school hell that had trapped her here, trapping the high day walker in a small city. The spell itself would need to be incanted carefully, lest she be bound again by the releaser, but in the case of Nagi's son, the boy was skilled at the language of Latin, and he knew what he was doing, unlike his father, who simply read a spell and would know vaguely that it did something.

Of course, after reciting the spell, Negi would have to nullify it, which was the next step of the equation.

**"Nunquam ut ingredior solvo. Tantum per permission may hostes hostium vado solvo, tantum per dictum. Servo lemma, vivo in lux lucis. Disco in lux lucis, Evangelina An. K. McDowell ...Infernus Scholacticus!...Rastel Mascir Magister mein! Nagus Springfield. Veit Negiius Springfield. Nux incant per permissiononies hostem, reparato! Promissiva Nigra amorista Impiger nox inimicum stagnet!"**

The boy was right about one thing, the spell was as long as hell. He wasn't even half done yet, as far as she knew. Her grasp of Latin outside of battle was a bit rusty, but she knew her spells, she was better than Nagi at least! Negi however, could speak the language fluently...

**"Nox volat, nox permisiva, nox amibut per amit tourus. lux nox meit lucis, et luscis mondo. Tantum per permissiva may hostes hostium vado solvo, nolvoitas notas nox. Ferliato et Vigoratum, Curo, Disolvant, et Falsa Captus. Ut effrego vinculum , pro unus has ago in lux lucis. Per meus licentia , Ego sum solvo , solvo suus..."**

Okay, she knew she was being unfair now, but how much longer was this supposed to take? He was chanting slowly, carefully, as if the words were unfamiliar to him. That was best for not making a mistake, but it sure as hell built the suspense. She'd been waiting to for years damnit, it shouldn't matter, a few extra minutes..but she was irked to find out it did.

**"Evangelina A K McDowell, paro lemma ut meus pello pepulli pulsum. Si vinculum mos non effrego , vis lemma patefacio , effrego bindings , rumpus lemma , in lux lucis , per lux lucis , pro lux lucis , Licentia Paradise..."**

Eyes cast at Negi, and Negi gave her a look that plainly said; "Leave me the hell alone before you make me mess up, and _then_ you'll be really happy I bet. I warned you the damn spell was long...so sit and be fricken patient."

**"Nagi Springfield haud magis mos redimio thee rip continuo , solvo suus Licentia Paradise. Permissum puter ut quod eram irretitus! Negiius Springfield, Man Man Terro Terro nox Rastel Mascir Magister veit forimuatus...**

**Vinculum super vox , dentibus subsido , solvo suus , haud diutius mos vos habitum suus down pin suus ut parietis non. Evolo , evolo , evolo , labefactum quod puter ut pulvis , nisi vox left adeo sub habitum , tribuo tergum quis eram held tergum , Distraho vinculum of fortuna , spondeo has been plenus repletus."**

Almost there, just a bit more, that's what his face said. Just a spell tie, a neat little thing that released a spell of great complexity instead of just letting it forth like a magic arrow, a closer that equity checked the whole thing to make sure it all worked properly.

"**Tel, Ma, Amorista, Impiger!"**

If there was one thing Eva expected, it was not for a huge lightning bolt to appear in Negi's outstretched hand an smite her in the middle, sending her flying into the barrier to be pinned up there for a few seconds, giving a bit of shock therapy before shattering utterly, allowing her to continue her path of flight...right into a support of the bridge.

Of course, being the way she was, at full steam, the blow hardly effected her physically, and she stood up quickly, hands glowing, pissed.

"The hell are you doing brat!?!!"

The boy sighed and shrugged his shoulders wearily. He pointed at Eva with a firm, if slightly shaky. finger. That spell might not have really used any of his magic, but he still had to bring it through his body, say the spell with his mouth, and still have to use his own power to channel it. It was a draining spell no matter what one thought of it.

"Only the longest damn spell I ever recited, that's what, take a look at where you are before you decide to friggin shoot me."

It was only upon his request that she looked around at where she was, and Negi's pactio canceled out of sheer surprise from her. She was..._outside_. _**Outside**_.

"Wait...I'm..."

Oh that word never meant so much trouble...It took a few seconds to sink in though, so Negi was allowed to brace himself for impact. It came indeed, in the form of a laugh and an "accidental" blast of magical power, ripping past Negi invisibly. The power was such that Negi uttered something he never had been surprised enough to utter, a Latin curse.

"Shit...Merda futui!"

Jumping off to the side, all he felt was the air as it rushed past. It was then he saw her smile. It had been a long time since she had been able to do something like that. Emerald eyes fixed upon Negi, and, quite suddenly, Negi did not quite want to be someone to whom Eva owed so many favors to...

It made him a prime target for attack. Indeed, the same thing seemed to be running through her mind...yet she did nothing, only smiled that little smile of hers.

"So, you realize I could just simply destroy you here, hmm? Your face shows fear boy, I didn't think you'd be the type. Maybe I'll just go blow up that old man's grave for trapping me here...I do still have three hours...but I do have a promise I need to fulfil..."

Negi shot of the side quickly to avoid being turned into an ice sculpture. Eva clicked her tongue.

"I did promise you I'd beat your ass."

Negi had no weapons, on his fists. He had been stupid enough to wear shoes today. He had his pactio card, but that would only drain his energy needlessly. Eva had canceled the pactio, and he bet she wouldn't be re-casting it for this little...skirmish. He yelled a curse as she shot off a set of ice arrows at him. She was serious!

"..and after you beat my ass?"

He ducked under another volley of powerful arrows and kicked one with his shoe, shattering it's head. Eva appeared at his back and blasted him forwards with a blast of blizzard like wind, pitching him to the ground. He rolled away from a stomp that was headed for his head and jumped up just in time to duck a swing from a bizare sword that froze the air around it.

"I'll take care of the old man, what else?"

_Shit._

She swung again, and Negi dropped to the floor in a roll, making her lunge after him.

_**Deflexio!**__...Holy Crap!_

Negi managed to duck away just in time to prevent being beheaded by the blade, but it shattered his Deflexio with a single blow.

_**Of obscurum quod flamma**__...Shit! __**Adveho quod vultus mihi a telum**__...Crap! __**et Haurus Abyssus mucro! **__Duck!_

Negi found himself making use of his speed to dodge a hail of ice spheres, which shattered on the ground and let loose liquid ice, which froze the ground on contact. He took a wrong step on one of them and slipped, only just managing to summon up the Sword of Haurus in time to block Eva's slash. Two blades met and fizzed, Negi on the ground and Eva standing above him.

"Ha, so you can summon your own blade, huh boya? Too bad.."

Even as he watched, he saw Eva's Executioner's sword slowly cutting in to his own blade.

"It's not good enough!"

Negi waited until his sword was cut completely in half before he rolled away from Eva, springing up in time to duck from another swing by the mad vampire. He teleported away, but she followed his movement with a shundo almost perfectly... He still had time for a quick chant however.

**"****Κενότητος**** ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ ****τεμέτω****! ****Δίος****τύκος****!" **_Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus Fulgurans!_

His father's favorite spell met Eva's sword head on, and the two combatants locked horns, fighting for purchase. They released and banged again and again, each seeking to defeat the other's weapon. Finally, the final clash canceled both spells and Eva pitched forwards with momentum and ended up in his arms.

"Wahh..?"

The moment didn't last long however, as a bright faced Eva sent Negi flying with a powerful blast of ice magic, which Negi's quick Deflexio only quarter successfully obstructed. Negi found his coat frozen stiff...and this was probably the only good one he had left god damnit!

"..and here I thought you might have actually changed!"

Eva left him now, calling out a spell that filled him with a secret dread as she rose into the air.

"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία! Κοσμικὴ Καταστροφή!"

_Shit, she's going for that now? Here goes nothing then...__**Sagitta Magica, Novem Centum et Novem Centum et Novem Centum et Novem Centum Spiritus Ingus! **__That enough for yah?!_

_**"Sagitta Magica Novem Centum et Novem Centum et Novem Centum et Novem Centum Spiritus Ingus! Deflexio, Deflexio! Deflexio!" **_

Negi had never seen so many magic arrows in his life. He only chanted what he had time for, and as much as he could think of... The sky was full of them! Yet, all this took less magic from him than an end of the world spell would...

They sprung up to meet Eva's deadly fare, and he watched as each one was canceled neatly, but the damage was done...his deflexio's shattered, and he was damn near blinded by the light from his own arrows, but he had fended off the end of the world spell, allowing a small smirk to come from him..yet it dropped when her heard her speak again.

"I'm an evil mage boy. Don't you get it? The Dark Evangel, the Undying mage. Changed? Ha, I was bidding my time boy!"

She began firing off more arrows of ice, raining them down on Ngei and forcing him to counter with his own, everytime she let loose one volley, she was already mentally chanting for another, creating an unending assualt that Negi felt weaker and weaker against. The boy teleported to her side and tried to kick her in the head, but she dodged.

Eva just begun to laugh, calling more power to her for the next one.

"Is that the best you got boy?! Take another one then, see how you handle this one! Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία! Κοσμικὴ Καταστροφή!"

_That same spell again...I'll counter it, but it will drain me completely..._

**"****Το****σθμβολαιον****διακονετο****μοι****, ****βασιλισκ****οθρανιονον****. ****Επιγενεντηετο****, ****απολεια****κεραθνε****ηοσ****τιμεισ****πτειρει****. ****Ηεκατονκατισ****και****κηιλιακισ****αστραπσατο****. ****Κηιλιαρκοθ****Αστραπε****!"**

Once more, spell met spell, and once more, Eva was surprised to see the boy holding his own..yet she knew him now, he was tired, trapped. Nothing left in the tank probably. Yet, when the dust cleared, he wasn't on the ground there. She spun around in the air just in time to have Negi press his palm flat against her middle.

**'Igneus Ambitus!"**

_The hell?! Not again!_

Eva was sent crashing downwards into the ground, into her own ice, which extinguished her clothes for her before and serious damage was done, she looked up in time to skitter away from Negi, who landed right where she had been with a crash, kicking up dust.

The boy exited the cloud as a bullet headed towards her, making her shundo away and gather her power. Even casting two eternal glaciers did not damper her strength much, and Negi could feel it.

He rushed her, trying to spin kick her, but she ducked under him, and grabbed the foot he was standing on, Negi fell, but his elbow smacked Eva dead in the face as he gathered magic power.

_**Sagitta Magica, Unus Spiritus Lucis! **_

"Κενότητος ἀστράπσατω δὲ τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος!"

Eva came down with the powerful axe, but Ngei shifted off to the side and punched her dead in her side , releasing his magica arrow for more power. Yet still she spun around as if it had little to no effect on her, sending him flying upwards with a simple knee to the gut.

Never try to test out the strength of a vampire. Doubly so on the full moon, and infinitely so when that vampire is on the same level as Evangeline. Eva jumped up after the boy, grabbing him in the air and kicking him back down to crash into the bridge, making it shudder.

Still, Negi managed to get up and twist away when she came back down with a kick. He cringed at the quake it caused. They were on a fricken bridge for gods sakes! Negi waited for the dust to clear to see Eva just standing there shaking with silent laughter. She turned half to him, allowing him to see shiny green eyes and brilliant teeth.

Did he just relieve his bladder? No...but he wish he would have...he really had to go...badly. Eva extended her hand lazily to him, and he felt strings tie about his ankles and wrists, hoisting him up from the ground and binding him. His eyes burned with the injustice of it all.

She simply laughed and approached him slowly, taking it all in. She shook her head as she approached and sighed.

"So much promise, but still so weak. Boya, boya, boya. I'll make good use of you as a minion...you see, I honor you. I won't make you a statue, as nice as you'd look."

Eyes burning, he clenched his fists, his arms shaking as she came. She was but a foot away before the string broke under his desperate strength and he struck out, kicking Eva in the stomach and sending her skidding.

Negi teleported to her side and punched her before teleporting again and striking her other side. He shifted again as she turned and scored a punch in her face and then a kick to her back before she finally spun and caught his throat, growling. The grip almost made him sputter.

"Play time's over boy."

Negi send forth a powerful barb of mental strength, making her release him in pain as she slammed up natural defenses. Negi raked her mind again and again, finding her as difficult as the magus to damage, but he had caught her by surprise.

She fell to her knees with the last one, her vision clearing just enough to see Negi standing above her, a smile now on his face. Yet, as he gathered power for another attack, she kicked his feet from under him and punched him, sending him soaring away like an actor in a bad action flic where gravity simply didn't seem to _exist_.

He slammed into one of the pillars supporting an arch of the bridge, and Eva sent volleys of ice arrows raking at that spot, yet Negi tapped her on the back, and she spun to receive another magica arrow punch.

Reeling, she recovered in time to see duck Negi's swing from the Sword Of Haurus. Spinning, she brought up her executioner's sword in time to prevent her arm being amputated. She sent him spinning backwards with another blast of ice.

By now, Negi looked like Frosty.

"Crystalus Detonus!"

**"Delfexio, Deflexio, Deflexio..**Holy SHIT!** DELFEXIO!"**

A huge sphere of ice formed from Eva and spat forwards like a cannon ball. Negi dodged the original shot and watched it explode against a pillar, only to see that shards bounce off and head right back at him, one projectile now eight!

He dodged a few and his spells handled a few others, and he watched as, once more, the spell collided with a wall and fragmented, once more heading back at him, five made forty. He managed to deal with that trick spell in time to pale, for Eva was already halfway through yet another spell.

"...Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!"

Negi shot away to avoid the powerful storm of darkness and ice that issued from Eva, but she pointed to him, shouting the one thing that would stop him.

"Confuto!"

_Ohhhh...Crap._

His hands snapped to his sides and his legs glued themselves to tar as Eva laughed. Negi managed to say two words before his mouth glued shut however, mellowing Eva into a simple smile.

"You...c#nt!"

A spider with her trapped prey, she waved a finger at him as she took to the skies. No no, watch your mouth...She began to chant Eternal Glacier again, prompting Negi to make a face. She called his father a one trick mage?!

"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία! Κοσμικὴ Καταστροφή!"

Negi began a spell unincanted, pulling all of what he had, and all he could borrow from around him, into what he thought was his final hope here. The Thousand Thunder bolts. Negi's mental chant was faster however, as Eva was taking her time, so he felt obligated to sneak as much extra power as he could.

Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε! κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση , έκλειψη!

Eva let loose her spell to consume Negi just as he let loose his, both meeting in the middle, the Eclipse Axe forming in his hands as the thousand thunderbolts rained down from the heavens. The axe was sent flying upwards at Eva and crashed into her, she couldn't stop it, she still had a hold of her own spell.

Negi was released as Eva fell to crash into the tar road, both of their spells canceling each other out neatly...but he fell to his knees as soon as he was released. He was..done. Drained utterly, and even as he fell on his face, he heard Eva laugh. It was followed by a hacking cough, but the laugh won out.

"You never cease to surprise me boya! Ahh...but you're on the floor now are you? Done it seems. Too bad...my heart hasn't beat like this since my first hunt for blood..."

Hands glowing again, She formed the Executioner's sword again. She approached him slowly, and Negi could feel her power still radiating...but wait...if he could use her own power against her...

He began quickly forcing his chi into his one hand, forcing so much of it the concentration became solid, and when Eva rose her blade to strike him down, he tapped into her aura, drawing it into himself just as he would any other free flowing magic...

"Good bye boya."

**"..DEFLEXIO!"**

He rose as she came down, his hand forming the sword of Haurus quickly to stab right at her, her blade barely touching his deflexio before she was sent flying off him. He rolled up to his feet to see Eva land lightly on the ground, slightly nursing her middle, where the blade had nearly run her through.

"The hell?! You just don't quit, do you boy?! A man should know their limits!"

"True, true..."

Negi rose his hand, glowing with chi as his magic canceled from pure exhaustion of power. He focuses on her and he saw her face light up, seeing what he was doing.

"...but I don't think I've met mines yet, yah know?"

He rushed her now, his hand glowing with the concentration of chi to slam against her Executioner's sword, sending sparks everywhere.

"Ha! Concentrating your chi to such a point that it does not make your body as steel, but solidifies into a weapon coating your limb, an extension made of pure chi! I thought that was a dead art lost with the ancient Samurai! Yet still...it's not good enough!"

She beat him back with her blade, making him lose ground against her superior strength. Yet, when it came to swordsman ship, Negi succeeded Eva, allowing him to keep some ground. That was until he lost his weapon, exhausting his resources of expendable chi. Eva smiled at him as she swung down upon his downed form, preparing to smite him, yet Negi rolled away sluggishly.

"Give up boy!"

Still swinging, she was frustrated that, even at a slower speed, the boy was like an otter, weaving away from her blade expertly.

"Nay!"

Once more, she had to take to the skies. Negi knew what was coming, and could only sag tiredly. How much punishment could she deal?! He extended his hands for a final bout, drawing from her power, and the rest of what he could scrap from his surroundings, but it still wasn't enough.

He looked deep form some glimmer of remaining strength inside him, and a plan formed in his head. He had not enough to defeat her this way, but he had enough to defeat her another way...

_**Trignita Fila Nigra Promissiva..**_

She spoke her spell proudly, about to defeat a simple boy with her power, and proud of it's display, after so long.

"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία!"

_**Vos Limitationem per Trignita..**_

Negi teleported at that moment, and as she claimed the final words, he slammed his hands unto her back, releasing the fatal spell with a roar.

"Κοσμικὴ.."

**"Dies!"**

+--E--+

Phew. Okay. Hey, I know this stuff is a bit boring, but I need to be here...Next chapter is when I start back with the true insanity. Ha ha! We'll see it all! I know I'm missing something...something important I wanted to say...but I can't remember, so forget it!


	35. Chapter XXXIV: Seeds

Ha ha. Oh well, here we go. I have nothing to distract me, the things I have been reading have run dry, and my projects are complete, and anything else I have to do can't be done, as I'm on vacation..and while that would normally slow down my writing, I'm not going to let it do so. Ha...it looks so odd, to have this story with exactly a thousand more hits than the other version..Oh, I got back the number of favorites I used to again...maybe the other person came back? Or maybe I have a new one? I think I know what happened, but with so many names listed...it's hard to keep track.

Oh come on...I've got a headache now, and that Tylenol ain't helping any...true they tell you take two pills and I took one...but there was only one in the bottle, what was I supposed to do?! I'll write the migraine away! Oh, Last chapter, I realize I rushed the battle scenes, and I let it go too quickly in fear of not being able to at all, so it's full of typos...darnit! Also, for the month of March...I was just 60 hits away from hitting three thousand form the United States alone. My good lord. How did you all do that? The most hits I ever had for a month in total was around two thousand, that month, it was over the half way mark of _**five**_ thousand....

Anywho..Galerians…you have no idea how much grief that chant gave me. The Latin translator died on me for loss of words, meaning that from the first paragraph, I had to rely on my own wits, substituting words I wanted for ones that meant the same thing, and my own brain's knowledge in Latin...as for light touching Eva's heart...perhaps you shouldn't give up hope...or maybe you should abandon that hope and fall into the hands of darkness, giving it the chance to consume those two whole...

...and Holy Smokes! My computer just turned into a beast. Or at least it seems to run like one to me. Until today, I was running Windows XP on 256 MB of ram. I got tired of waiting for my family to figure out what ram _was_ and went out and bought two 512's to stick in here, giving it a gig total ...I.E came up in three seconds, WordPad in two...! It usually takes about a minute and a half...

I don't own Negima.

**_Chapter Thirty Four: Seeds_**

Negi gave a half hearted smirk as Anya charged at him and nearly tripped over her own two feet. She recovered enough to send her fist crashing into his Deflexio however, it's blaze being neatly canceled out by it. She found herself struggling against an invisible shield.

"Uggggnnnh...come on, break!"

He shook his head at her efforts and instructed her to go back where she started from and run at him again, without tripping this time. She had lost too much momentum there. Obediently, she went back and charged him again, but once more, her fist ablaze did nothing against his Deflexio, and she nearly broke her nose against his shield when she couldn't stop her charge.

"Ahh!...Owww..."

Nevertheless, she had learned a lot in her time under him. Besides the combination fire and lightning arrow and her fire enhanced fists, she had continued to strengthen her own Deflexio spell and fire arrows, and she had also nearly mastered the spell Negi had dubbed "Nova Shield", which he had used himself during the festival, creating a barrier of fire around himself to send exploding out. She also nearly mastered another one of Negi's spells, Burning Circumference, better known by its Latin name, "Igneus Ambitus."

_Anya, Anya...take things slower, will you? You've got potential, and I'm teaching you, but..._

She still couldn't get "Cage" though, the spell Eva had once mistaken for "Fire trap." It also discouraged her that she simply could not shatter Negi's simple Deflexio... She charged at him again, only to simply bounce off the barrier and land on her rump, eliciting a cry that made the boy cancel his spell and come to her with some measure of concern, but Yue, who had been standing by, got there first, whipping a band aid from one her pockets.

_Contrary to popular belief, that does not equal incredible, quick success, not always._

Like Nodoka, she was prone to accidents in the library when heavy books were at stake, so you could expect her to carry such things with her, key difference was that Yue was less clumsy, so she carried less preparation. Negi waved away her band aid irritably, but his voice undermined his facial expression. He looked her over once before proclaiming her whole and helping the girl up.

"Come on, nothing's broken...."

Anya and Yue had bonded somewhat in their combined efforts during the festival, even if they had been caught rather quickly. (In essence, neither of them really had much of a clue what they had been doing, making Yue's artifact, a book and broom, practically useless, save embarrassing her with the suit up it gave.) That didn't stop Yue from practicing however, and it didn't stop Anya from wanting to improve. She wanted to be useful next time...so Negi wouldn't look at her like some extra baggage...

_I wanna be strong enough so he'll recognize me...He saved me, but what if he gets in trouble...?_

It was Monday, during the after school hours, which Negi was all but happy to notice. Truth be told, work was about the only thing that allowed him to go through life without having to really think, not about anything to serious anyway. Teaching English, or the occasional substitute gig in which he delved into other areas of his expertise, was easy to do, it required near zero effort on the boy's part.

_It's times like these that I'm not sure if I love being alive, if I hate having life, or if I can simply take one day at a time..._

Self analyzing however, was something he felt would one day kill him. Negi shook his head as Anya condensed fire into her fists again, making the girl stop as he watched Setsuna run quickly up to Asuna, bringing out her pactio item to slam against Asuna, who was holding Yuunagi for this battle.

"Your stance is awkward Asuna-san, move your feet so, get a better grip on the blade with your arm like that..."

"Asuna-san, to the left, she's going to come at you from the left!"

Setsuna sent the red head skidding back, but when she charged in again, Asuna shot off to the side per Nodoka's advice, bringing Negi's attention to the dark haired girl, that same hair was being wafted around in the soft wind form her own pactio item. She didn't notice Negi watching her however, for she was to busy trying to prevent Asuna from being turned into a bunch of sushi rolls... the boy shook his head as he turned around and saw that Anya had tried to rush him again while he wasn't paying attention...

_Nghh...She's strong! But I won't lose to you like this, not in a sparring battle! Come on Setsuna, show me what you've got! _

...and STILL couldn't get through his Deflexio.

_Maybe I can break it now! ....No?! Why?!?_

Eva herself had even decided to grace them all with her presence, reminding Negi of last night's events..he still couldn't believe it...how he had quite simply won against her....again.

_The power condensed around Eva, and then, quite simply, was shut off, as if a giant valve clamped shut, a huge dry sponge sucking up all the residual water as if it were nothing. The magic, let loose from it's bonds, spread away from Eva violently, and the vampire fell. Negi grabbed her in the air and managed to turn her around._

_Bad choice on his part, for it meant he landed first, with her on top of him. He found himself dangerously close to her face. Dangerously. Negi swallowed and slowly blinked. It seemed funny that Eva did the exact same thing, and the exact same time. _

_The spell of binding one's power, used against her by a switch of the words. It was incredible how one word can change a spell from practically harmless to a deadly weapon. _

_He looked so much like his father lying under her like that....just young, far to young, an innocent face he didn't deserve, or want._

_"I suppose __**now **__I've reached my limit. You satisfied?"_

_"...No...you... don't want to know what it would take from you to satisfy me."_

_"That sounds sooooo wrong....you know that right?"_

_"Does it look like I care?"_

_"...Loli."_

_"I believe you said the term was Geronto?"_

_"Why yes....yes it was."_

_Eva finally removed herself from on top of him, feeling oddly empty. There had been more talk, some boastful, some daunting, but in the end, Negi had extended his hands to her, claiming he would remove the thirty day binding on her power if she played nice. She had shaken her head, claiming that as long as she stayed in Mahora, it didn't matter anyway, but the boy had smiled._

_"You forget...I promised to free you."_

_"You did. You broke my curse."_

_"No, no, no, you misunderstand. I didn't say I would just break your curse. I said I would __**free **__you. Break the chains, rip the bonds, sunder the connections. I never said I'd just break a curse."_

_"...I don't understand what you are getting at boy...I'm tired, and thirsty as hell for blood, which is a good feeling mind you, but not for you...you smell far to delectable for my liking."_

_He shook his head, a placating gesture. His small smirk kept Eva still, for it spoke of him knowing something she didn't know...not something she liked to feel._

_"...That's my point. When I cast the spell to break your curse...mentally, un incanted, I spoke the words to break the spell that binds your powers while here...I remember when it stopped you that day...that lightning that struck you...it wasn't lightning. It was streams of text, Greek text, the spell that holds your powers...I removed it, the cities power is down, so...it barely took anything from me._

_Red eyes, shining with life, saw green ones light upon him, understanding, elation, doe sparks grew from them so quickly, he thought he might drown in the sea, yet he continued._

_"The only thing keeping your powers bound is that spell I cast for thirty days. You are truly free."_

Hard as it may be to believe, she had elected to keep the binding spell of thirty days on her...at least until "Fall Recess" came around in about a week. The boy was planning a trip to London then, and, after some talking with her and Alberio and his mother, it was decided that he was going there for the full recess.

He had decided to take up a search for the sake of his mother. During the festival, it had been revealed, in all of its obviousness, that his father was alive, and that his mother was still pining for the man that had left her all those years ago to set out on a mission. Whatever the hell he was doing now, Negi would find out, and probably kick his ass too when he found him, but that was a different story.

Eva planned on going with him, and Negi knew his mother wasn't going to sit tight and wait around when Nagi was what they were talking about, and Negi was going out to risk his neck. Family was not something that she was going to let slip away again, not after believing her son dead for so many years.

Slowly in his head, a plan was being built for it all. It would be, in essence, a quick in and out procedure. One, Two, Three, he'd be back here in a week tops...with his renegade father in tow.

Oh, don't get him wrong. He forgave his father long ago, but that still didn't mean he wouldn't take pleasure in making the man pay for the wrongs he had done to his family. Arika could love away it all _**after**_ Negi kicked his ass. That was all. All Negi wanted really. Yet, he had bigger fish to fry at the moment, and that was getting his life in order...making sure he got through this week alive...not an easy task when you're Negi Springfield.

+--1--+

"Oh god...close that damn window will you?! Are you trying to blind me?! Shit...why the hell can't I sleep anymore? Yesterday and today both, yet my body's perfectly fine with trying to fall asleep during the fricken day."

Negi squeezed his eyes shut from the rays of sunlight that shot through the curtains. His hand was over them, trying to provide a second barrier for the stabbing pain the light brought him. Alma rushed to rip the things shut with her hands, and Negi inwardly hissed when he released his hand from his face to find the light had not been covered yet.

That inward hiss almost became outward, but Negi squashed it down, instead replacing it with a simple word of muttered thanks. Negi rolled off the couch, taking a glance at the clock, which read ten in the morning. He had just burnt his first sick day, it was too late to just sidle into school now. He looked unto see the girl had tossed a towel over the window's curtain rod to block out the sun further form the room.

He blinked, realizing that all the lights in the dorm were off, and yet, his eyes were perfectly fine with that. They only wanted to be away from those stabbing rays of sunlight. Bright blood eyes that he should not have been able to discern so easily flashed in his direction.

"The hell is up with me?! I feel like a friggin...vampire...wait..."

_Rushing in blindly, he stabbed out, his blade connecting solidly with a body. As the smoke clears, his eyes feast upon the fact had struck true. Right into the heart. Removing his blade quickly, he witnessed the entire being crumbling away into nothingness..._

_That's when he spun, a sharp pain on his neck._

_on his neck..._

_on his neck...._

_**on my friggin neck!**_

_Yet, that was just a magical emulation of a vampire, not a real one, he could do nothing to Negi, and one simple bite never made any person a vampire, maybe a kind of zombie minion for a small while, but not a vampric transformation. _

_I can't become a vampire just from a spell "biting" me..._

_...Can I?_

No, he couldn't It wasn't possible. Yet, even as he thought, he had to admit something was happening to him. Alma, quiet for the while, spoke up now, speaking true of her name.

"...Your heart beats weakly... ...your mind spins... Upon your neck the vampire has bitten... ...and magic calls to magic...too much magic can hurt you, master."

Red met red as he stared at her, yet his eyes, with all their burning gravity, has no effect on the placid girl. She simply blinked and repeated the statement, adding afterwards that great power, even when it is false, can be made real.

A regular riddler, that's what he had picked up. Yet, even as he thought, that his mind began to do a jigsaw puzzle, of which the pieces added up to a test-tube under pressure, containing a highly dangerous and famous recipe for disaster, and, as his mind assured him, he had all the ingredients, and they'd been mixing for a while... quite a while.

As far as he saw it, as he picked up his pactio card to indulge himself in a talk with a wry vampire, there were five ingredients...

Evangeline and his pactio with her. That was the frozen Nitroglycerin. That was a simple thing alone. Yet pretty harmless when frozen the way it was. Yet he had to add the aging process. That was the pseudo Dracula's bite. The chemical would break down in ice form, throwing it into a more unstable concoction, but still pretty calm as an ice.

Yet, one had to add Konoka Konoe, the powerful mage whose magic ran free, and could affect others through contact. He had already attributed one of his problems to her, and even if the accusation had been false then, it should have been a warning flag...that was a vibrator. Once again, harmless on its own. Number four was a long period or rest and recovery, boosting his power and strength, That was a coating of C4... again, pretty useless alone...

Negi himself, with his searing veins, was the final, fatal combination, for he was the fire. Burning, searing fire. That wasn't safe alone, and it wasn't safe now. Nitroglycerin, aged to perfection and further instability to melt and be shaken up with a covering of C4 around it...prepare for a whole lotta land to be wasted...

Negi put a hand to his chest, feeling pain there. It almost instantly dissipated with the pressure applied there, as if he had the bends, but Negi knew he hadn't been diving under any reefs lately. It was just a sharp needle into his heart, nothing to serious to worry about, right? Such things happened, a sudden pain if you got up to fast...

Negi Springfield, who kept himself as flexible and strong as possible, nearly to the point that there was no too sudden movement. The physician in him told him something was up...or was it paranoia? ...All he knew was that he couldn't leave the dorm, not with that assailing sun out there attempting to fry his eyes, he'd have to wait until later. Hell was he going to do until then though? Train Anya?

No. Negi ended up testing Alma's mettle in battle instead, and he found her to be quite a potent drink to sample...

"Move your feet with more accuracy, speed will get you nowhere if it's jerky like a frightened rabbit!" "Yes Master."

It didn't matter how many times he told her not to call him that, she still called him it anyway. Negi felt like he had his own Chachamaru as he rushed Alma. She jumped lightly off to his left and formed a sphere of hell fire in her hands, launching it at him after a small amount of hesitation. Negi dodged it easily, making it splash against the bathhouse tiles.

The place was dark, the lights turned off, the sun shafting through clear windows, yet none to the light reached the two combatants as they fought. Alma kept shooting black/purple fire at him, and he kept dodging, using his own magic little.

He came at her from the side, and she jumped away her hand glowing with fire as she swung for a chop, but missed under Negi's quick reflexes. Pinky first, Alma twirled her hands inwards, and shot out several blasts in close range, forcing the boy to jump away in a series of back flips.

He came at her from another standpoint, boring into a weak spot, but she surprised him by taking flight into the air, floating there, prompting him to shake his head.

"Everyone's a bird these days. Yet they always fail to see how easily I can clip their wings!"

Negi shifted away from his post on the ground, taking to the sky and punching Alma down with Burning Circumference. She landed on the tile hard, but rolled away when he came down where she had been, shooting more of her strange fire at him.

Negi's Deflexio took care of those as he shot at her, eyes bright, but she held her hand in front of her towards him, and the bathhouse disappeared, replaced buy nothing but a black nothingness. Negi skidded to a stop on nothing but thin, black air. Alma had disappeared, replaced by a thousand snakes, that crept from all the edges of his sight, consuming his field of vision, but the boy smiled, lifting his hands, and calling the spell to shatter illusions...

Only to find that it didn't work.

_What the hell...?_

Eyes widening a trifle, he kicked out, catching one of the snakes in the middle and lifting it from the mass, yet another struck out, wrapping around his leg. Negi burned it and several others with a hail of fire arrows, but they still came.

They seemed to multiply every time he attacked them, so Negi abstained from them, dodging them agilely and striking out at empty air. He felt something chop at his kidney, yet there was nothing there, and no damage he could see.

Yet Negi knew better. He struck out at that position, and began charging at it, shifting around until his elbow connected with something solid, and the blackness faded as Alma reeled from him, bent over double.

Even blind in an illusion, Negi had caught her. He shot in at her, smiling a bit now. That was a trick he wanted to learn sooner or later. Something that could withstand the general all purpose illusion breaker? Or simply a technique to add to the strength of illusions? The girl danced away from him, spinning to send more of her fare at him.

"Nice illusion work, but against an opponent who isn't intimidated, or smart, it's useless. I know you can do better than this girl!"

Her hand shot out and Negi's vision was consumed by that of a huge, encompassing blood red eye. He jumped up and struck it right in the middle of the pupil, and dropped to the floor having hit nothing, but he kicked out, catching Alma in the gut and sending her flying backwards.

"As you wish."

Both her hands came out, and between them bloomed a Sakura, which she sent flying forwards with a simple blow. It's petals scattered far and wide, all between them as she took to the sky again to float there, hair flying back.

A pale hand shot forwards, a single blast of hell pyre moving so quickly, Negi almost didn't see it. He lunged to the side to avoid it, and found the ground no longer existed. He smiled. Another illusion huh? He jumped up and struck where Alma was, bringing the bathhouse back into focus, where the girl lay on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Nice try, I think it might be interesting to see where your powers go..."

He walked to her and bent down to help her up, but she grabbed his hand, its heat burning him. He recoiled quickly out of pure reflex as her whole body crumbled apart, revealing sakura blossoms that floated away in a slight breeze.

They caught fire as they floated around, petals ablaze that slowly floated towards Negi. He sent an arrow of darkness lazily at one, but it passed right through it, the petal still coming. Hundreds of petals, all of them ablaze and slowly, ever so slowly, cornering him and coming in at him. He shot through them, feeling them burn his skin and catch his clothes alight.

The fire spread quickly, consuming his very body in nearly no time at all. The pain was incredible, but he still struck out in the air, and the pain dissipated to reveal the bathhouse again, and Alma, whose own clothes seemed to have been set ablaze, eating it away.

"Why does everyone around me have to relieve themselves of their clothing?!"

It suddenly struck him as odd that she was just standing there...and sure enough, as he looked closely, she seemed to melt away into the air. He sighed. Another layer to an illusion. She could do better than this he knew, but she was testing him. To show him what she could achieve...something like this, a multi layered illusion, required quite a bit of skill. His shoulders slumped.

"You can cut it out now."

That seemed to be the key, for the whole place melted into darkness again before revealing the bathhouse once more, as if one was opening their eyes. Alma bowed to Negi lightly. He realized he was soaking wet.

"You struggled far less than others. You have a strong sense of reality...master."

"I already told you to stop calling me your friggin master...and don't tell me I fell into the pool..."

"I thought you knew that. You surrounded yourself with fire and blasted it away, and jumped back out..."

_To get away from your damn snakes, no to prevent myself from drowning....to think your illusion was strong enough to prevent me from realizing I was about to die...that is something worth respect, Alma Yoshi._

"Next time, I want you to use all your skill then. Don't even spare me an ounce, otherwise, I won't learn anything."

+--2--+

A clash of blades, the gust of wind making branches sway. Jasnin dodged off to the side, only just managing to avoid her brother's huge blade. The wind from it whipped the tree's branches again. He spun it upwards and slashed it flat side out, so it blew her back with a gust. She landed next to a few trees.

She ducked under a powerful slash, and one could almost see her nerves as his blade sliced clean through the trunks, making the beeches act like dominos and topple from their stumps. If Issac were an anime character, you would probably see a huge sweat drop at the back of his head as he witness what he did.

He laughed nervously, lifting his left hand, holding his blade by only his thumb, to the back of his head so he could scratch it by force of habit. Oops. That's what he muttered under his breath nonchalantly. Oops for Christ's-sake.

_He's not going to go easy on me today._

Jasnin, having shot away after ducking, mirrored his embarrassment, only it was for him, not for her own situation. Her lips were in a thin line as the boy lifted an eyebrow.

"L-let's...just forget that happened...shall we?"

"S-sure...."

He charged her again, swinging out for her knees, yet she jumped above the slash, planning on stabbing right at him once back on the ground, but her feet landed on his blade instead, and she was flung away by the sheer force the young man swung his weapon with. Another swing from her and he forced her away easily. She was to light against his heavy weapon, but his blade was slower..

That's what she kept telling herself as she ducked and weaved in and out of a hailstorm of stabs and slashes from her brother, his single left hand twirling a six foot long and nearly three foot wide blade as if it were a baton... She crashed into a tree and almost didn't get her thin blade up in time to stop her brother's stab.

_Ahh shit!_

He released her and let her rush him, coming at him from a side. He shot up his blade as soon as she struck out, steel meeting steel. He tossed her away with his strength, and ran at her, raising his sword high, but she dodged the slash and swung at his feet, only to have him plant his blade in the earth and jump over her. He landed and swung out with the flat of his blade again, catching her in the side and carrying the new burden with his swing.

_Don't tell me I'm going to hard on her again? I thought she was better than this...or is she sick again? Oh…great, now she got caught on my darn sword…oh boy. _

Again, slamming against a tree was her fate. She was reminded of Negi Springfield's performance. He was worse than her brother. He showed no mercy, he was smaller, faster, and, as she ducked another swing from her brother, and threw up her arm to block the resulting gust, she realized Negi was stronger too.

_Is that even humanly possible though?! Stronger than a nearly full grown man?!_

Her brother planted his feet on the ground and slammed his blade down into the ground, kicking up a huge mound of dirt, sticking together with its dampness, and slapped it at her like a baseball. This was a trick he had been practicing recently, and he was pulling it off really well...she ducked under the muddy mound and had to drop in a roll to avoid the slash that came.

She struck out blindly with her blade and felt it connect solidly with his. The way he could maneuver that thing was unnatural! It was huge, and by all standards, the circular tipped thing shouldn't even be able to fit in the places her brother maneuvered it.

That was her brother's magic though, it seemed. The only one who had not a lick of power in their entire family, he was looked at as a disgrace. She seemed to have inherited the magic he was supposed to have possessed, making it possible for her to be born with the old genes maybe.

He shifted his feet and slashed at her with his blade, going for a different approach. He blocked a stab from her and let his blade drop from his left hand to his right so he could shaft it forth into her, blasting her back.

Still, put a weapon in his hands, and he works a magic of his own. Thin and by some standards lanky, Issac Akaito was not someone you mistook for being weak. Those arms could lift that blade, which was heavier than her, and maneuver it like another might a fillet knife...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a particularly powerful blow against her blade by her brother, which sent her skidding back so quickly into the forest, she might as well have been flying. She circled in the brush, watching as her brother simply just stood there...waiting...she felt him tense, and paled. He wasn't going to wait...

"Zenpaku, Akiato Hyakuretsu Ōkazan!'

Flashing around in a circle, he let loose a powerful blast of energy, cutting through multiple branches and leaves and revealing her behind a decimated bush. He shot at her and flashed out his blade, hooking her behind it and blasting her forwards, behind him, into the clearing.

That was another thing. As a martial artist, he had been employing ki techniques to substitute his lack of magic...to incredible effect.

She ducked when he shot back at her by jumping off a tree. He flashed his blade out, like a propeller as he landed on the ground, and threw the thing like a boomerang, making her widen her eyes and jump away, and then again when the thing came back.

He smiled. He'd been working on that too, and that was the first time it had been pulled off with such aplomb. He rushed her now, getting in close...to close for her liking. Jasnin jumping away from him, calling for her magic.

**"Pro sapia , Fid elitas, Vinculum Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus...gah!"**

She ducked under a close on swipe from his blade, and had to kick off the ground to avoid another technique he unleashed. He came at her still however, and when he stabbed out again, he shot his right palm forwards almost to touch her face.

Zankūshō!

The bullet like projectile splashed right against her nose, sending her falling backwards in stinging pain. He swung at her downed form, but she rolled away, and jumped up, running to keep distance.

**"Sagitta Magica, Nonagitta Spiritus Terra!"**

Powerful arrows, if a bit slow due to their element, shot at the young man and he stood, spinning his blade like a fan, slicing at the dirty fare that was sent his way. Jasnin sent more, but he shot forth again, still spinning his blade.

She timed his arrival and when he finally came close enough, she jumped off to the side and behind him, kicking out to try and get a shot at his kidney, but he blocked it with his blade.

He stopped on a dime and jumped at her. She tried to avoid him, but finally he caught her with another technique.

"Zankōsen!"

He slashed at her, releasing what must have been a strike of ki to blast her into the ground, where he let his blade hover right at her neck. He spoke to her, a bit of concern tingeing his voice.

"Sick again, Jess? Or is there a ghost around here, somewhere, that's been bugging you...?"

No, she hadn't seen any ghosts today. She was prone to see one sooner or later though...she had no excuse for him today.

"No...you're just getting better faster than I am. That such a bad thing?"

He smiled and shook his head, letting his blade drop off to the side so he could help her up. His head shook again when she looked him in the eye. He picked up his blade to jam it behind his back into a loose strap. He'd tie it down later.

"Yep, it is. Means I won't have a partner to spar with anymore, or some quality time with my ever-distant sister."

+--3--+

It was nearly seven o' clock at night, and Negi wiped his brow with a towel. Through the steam coming from a pot, the boy could catch a glimpse of himself reflected back off it. He was pale as hell. His hair sat on top of a ghostly face, one that seemed slightly green.

The needle of pain from his chest had come back now, and was more insistent, it lingered around, tingling along his arms and his upper back. He felt as if he couldn't catch his breath well...but would that stop him? Nah. He never had gotten sick enough for a doctor other then himself.

He finished dinner easily, and decided it was time to take a walk. Eva herself had called him to discuss further his decisions on what he wanted to do about this mess he was in...

It had been decided he would move into the currently empty dorm Satomi and Chao once inhabited to keep distance from the large concentration of magic both Asuna and Konoka seemed to hold. According to Eva, there was nothing he needed worry about. A false vampire bit him, and he was experiencing the false effects, shadow effects. He would feel vampire-ish for awhile. That was it.

Alma's words echoed in his head however. If the false was powerful enough...it could become real.

_"...Your heart beats weakly... ...your mind spins... Upon your neck the vampire has bitten... ...and magic calls to magic...too much magic can hurt you...master."_

The boy slapped his card to his forehead, telling Eva he was ready for her to call him to where ever she was. He was almost instantly spirited away, and when he touched down his eyes feasted upon the Kyoto skyline from on top of a theater.

He shook his head, looking to the vampire, whose hand lay upon the spire of the building's roof, looking out upon the darkening sky. He managed a smile.

"So, you couldn't help yourself...you had to exercise your freedom."

Eva turned to look at him, her eyes lighting upon his slightly green face and hallowed eyes. He looked deathly like that, but his tongue was still sharp, and she knew those eyes still burned with a hell fire. He must just be a bit sick...

Her looks showed him without words just how strong her desire to be free really was. Freedom really was an amazing thing. Yet it was tempered by sense. She had come out here because she could, not to get all giddy. It had been a while since she had seen the skyline of Kyoto.

Last time, on the trip, she had not had the chance after all. She turned to him halfway, so she only had to glance at him sidelong, and give no commitment to the conversation. She spoke to him simply, getting to the point.

"So, you need me to give your permission to go and sleep over at a friend's house for a few nights? What's the big deal bugging me about this? You're going to move out of your dorm and into a empty one for a bit, whoop-te-do. You and I know both that the real reason you called me here is your...predicament...

"In all honesty though, I prefer you this way. You're ever so much more..._vulnerable_, so much fun to poke at..."

Negi snapped at her a quick retort, his quiet bark showing just how much of his powerful bite he still retained. Yet he had abandoned his sickly green face for a more ashen one of grey. He was holding back some deep pain.

_...Myocar...stabbing or stable pains...chest and upper arms..._

"It's a temporary reaction to a stupid false vampire biting you. People don't turn into vampires from one damn bite, you know that. It'll pass. Your magic took it and expounded the effects. Konoe's took it and expounded the effects, hell, mine took it and expounded the effects, but it's only a false tense, it's not _real_."

_"...Even the false, when it has great power...can be made real."_

Negi shook his head slowly, for he felt a bit dizzy if he tried to shake it faster. The pain was back, and had spread into a powerful pain all along his arms and his upper chest, as well as his upper back, along the spine.

"...Even when false, when it has great power...can be made real enough to give me a damn headache."

This kind of pain sent a warning flag to somewhere deep inside him, but he ignored it, or if he did take notice of it, it was a fleeting one. His body dredged from somewhere deep a warning. Eva continued to talk, and he focuses on that instead of his physical demands. His hands began to tremble slightly, and he grabbed them as he listened.

_...Myocardial..._

"Yet, I would stress wearing sunglasses and trying to stay out of the damn sun for a bit...and god boy, do try to stop looking so pathetic, it's only a vampirism shadow effect...hmm...holy hell?!"

Negi simply fell on the slanted roof top, rolling down to almost be shot putted off, but the boy managed to stop his fall with his thrashing body. Violently heaving, that deep part of his mind screamed at him now.

_Idiot! You're seizing, f#$ken seizing! Myocardial infarction you idiot, a damn heart attack! Shit shit shit! Move, move into public for damn help before it turns into the next damn step!_

The only help he had was Eva, and she didn't know what the hell was going on, or what to do. She looked on with a kind of morbid interest. Never one for medical conditions or recent medical science, except when it came to damage, she could only vaguely guess the boy was having a seizure, although why, she could only fathom.

_The reality of magic..._

Vampires could be born on their own, but it was extremely rare, and incredibly hard to accomplish. The one thing that kept the race alive was death. Killing humans and making them vampires through infusion of blood, creating your line. Not a temporary minion, which required just a bite, not a zombie like slave, which required a full drain...

A real, solid continuous process, bite, retreat, bite, retreat, until you could allow the other to draw from your own collected blood...together, a human becomes a _true_ vampire...abortions came along when contact was repeated, but the offer was not returned by the budding vampire...there are many of these rouge vampires floating around, Eva herself was one...which was why she had no line she belonged to.

These abortions had to start their own line, or enter into another through taking a mate.

_Tell tale signs of the heart...never ignore them._

Negi's body believed it was vampric...and belief, when strong enough...can indeed become a reality if the circumstances are right, if the deed fits the bill. The body was taking action now, doing the one thing it believed it needed to truly be what it was being told it was.

_They say death is just another journey. I say to hell with them and their journeys. _

He needed to _die_. That's what the magic swirling in him told him, silently, quietly, ever since those teeth latched on his neck. Then the dream would become real...she approached him, calling out to Chachamaru, who had been on another roof, just at ready, scouting. The robot knew better than the vampire at this kind of thing, but Eva had him.

_They really think that? Let me get a gun and send them on their merry way._

Up close, the want to simply forgo all sense and bite him was impeccable. The boy held promises she didn't want to think about...yet, even as he writhed, she handed him over to Chachamaru, or tried to.

_Maybe they'll come back to thank me one day for the trip._

The boy quite suddenly became still, the heart tensing in mid beat. Quite simply, it relaxed, and let it all go.

_What will you do when Death knocks on your door?_

A dive. She grabbed him from the robot once more, keen ears and fingers able to tell what had just happened. Oh, keelhaul it all! Down she came and bit him right in the neck. Yet, what could prepare her for the taste of this spring onion?

When one is young blood is pure and silk, when one is powerful, it is rich, sharp... when they are in top health, it is smooth...

Chachamaru pulled Eva's with an incredible force to wrench the vampire from the boy. He fell, limp to lie there. She had nearly just drained him dry...such a loss of control...had never happened to her, not even on her first try.

His head smacked against the roof tiles as he landed, bouncing.

+--E--+

Huh?! What the hay...have I wrought? It's far...less than I thought it would be,. both in length and in stature. I feel as if I'm saving everything for something else. This chapter was...very difficult to write. Incredibly. I also saw a whole bunch more typos than usual, so there are bound to be a few I missed in fixing. Short chapter, but overall, it gives me the base I need to launch the first ship.

Yep...the _first_ ship. I've got plenty of ships that need to be set sailing, and so far, all I've done was built ports and fend off rebels. Now, we can start to get going on the actual trip.


	36. Chapter XXXV: Germination

Many times, one needs to return to their roots in order to move forwards. Sometimes, it reveals things about one self you never even considered of thinking before. It gives you a measure of peace and understanding. This is a little attempt to look back at this stories roots, for I have lost my way.

Airports? So I can launch another B-52 at you all? Let's just say airports and I have a too-strong affinity...yet I am not opposed to launching another Bomber attack... Seaports too, but hey, I need to get to that island somehow, and a war tank is _not_ going to get me there! Don't worry, I'll travel with a fleet of Battleships...maybe a few Carriers with Seaplanes in case...As for Negi's fate...I'll tell you all this: If you think I am an insane, twisted and deep probing writer, you might be correct, but...you don't even know one hundredth of what I am capable of yet. The false vampire was Dracula. You all really thought Negi could beat the real Dracula so easily? I'm glad you have such faith in him...

**_SPOILER ALERT_**

Darnit! Akamatsu revealed the truth about Magical world before I could bring it forth in my own way. Now I'll have to edit what I want to make sure I don't exactly copy…long story short…I had an idea what Akamatsu planned on doing with Negima at this point ever since I finished reading the Chao sagas, when that was the current scanlation…as the story progressed, my idea became stronger until I knew I was right, but still said nothing…when Magica Erebia came around, I knew for sure what was going to eventually happen. Darn. No problem though…I was planning on twisting it all anyway…

**_SPOILER END._**

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty Five: Germination._**

+---+

_"Death...doesn't seem so bad. Not when compared to living too little."_

Light, it was everywhere. It consumed him. Looking up, he could see an endless sky. Snow fell tirelessly down upon the land, but it didn't seem to touch him. His eyes glistened against all the consuming brilliance.

_He's dead… No, I can't let that happen, not when it's partly my fault!_

He realized that he was the beacon of darkness into this beautiful land where light rules all. He was the darkness that was so prevalent down upon earth. Whispers, near and far, they assaulted his ears.

_Of all the things she expected to see…one of the things she feared the most, something just about any mother feared most…it played in front of her eyes now._

"_Negi! Wake up! No, get off me! Get off me I say! Out of the way Eva, before I smack you to England itself! That is my son you're holding limp there!"_

Queries of whether or not he was worthy, or exclamations of his darkness, coming to seep through the land. How did he get here, something so deeply full of sin and hate? The boy felt his chest, and, as he expected, nothing was there.

_He can't be dead, he just...I was just starting to think I could have my family back again..._

No tell tale beat of life pounded away quietly in his body, telling him that, no matter how distracted he was, he was still alive. His chest cavity was silent. It was full of whispers...and pain. Yet oddly, this didn't disturb him. For all the pain, he was at peace, perhaps this was why they called it that...eternal peace.

_No way...the boy's dead?! How so?! What about the doctors?! Get him to the damn infirmary!_

In front of him, the light condensed, and became something he had been expecting to see. A young woman whose blond hair would have managed to escape down to the middle of her back, haven been given enough time...

_What's going on? What happened to Negi-sensei? He looks so pale...ahh! Hey! Why are you in such a rush?!_

"_No time to explain, just get out of the way!"_

Nekane looked upon her foster brother, taking in his darkness, the pain in his eyes. Those eyes burned with a fire that not even death seemed to have been able to put to peace. She spoke to him after a pause, timeless.

_He's too young. He can't die on me now, don't you dare leave me Negi! I brought you in here, I'll tell you when I'm ready to let you go!_

"You've finally come. I was expecting to have a longer wait Negi...you've come back so young."

_Godamnit. He's cold...there's nothing I can do...it must have stopped beating an hour ago...wait what's that?! Don't tell me after so long, he's still got a spark?! Anemic and all?!_

Was that a beat he felt? No, it was gone. Yet the pain still continued to plague him, and increase, as if his body were pulling in one direction, and his spirit in another. His life in the balance perhaps. Perhaps he wasn't dead yet...

_Nothing, must be too little sleep...no mam, I'm...sorry. I really am...such a young boy, and to suffer a heart attack...I don't know how to explain it...I know you don't want to hear me say this...but we need to do an autopsy.._

While this might be the time for the boy to lash out with his tongue and whip the one in front of him into submission, he did not strike her. It would be both stupid and pointless. You can't defeat one already dead, and at peace...the effort was a pointless waste of time.

_The hell?! What are you doing in here...hey! What are you doing with that body!? Get back here! Nurse! Some mad blonde chick's run off with a dead body! A red head and black haired one where with her! Hey, this ain't no joke!_

Negi felt a lash of pain again, and actually cried out with the intensity of it. Nekane nodded her head, as if she understood the feeling.

_"What are you planning on doing?" "Whatever it takes. I owe him for this, as it was my fault, and I owe him a dozen times over on other points...I don't like having debts."_

"You are dead, but your body does not want to let go. **You** do not want to let go. On the surface, someone won't stop trying to revive you....but it's too late...isn't it Negi? You're here."

_"There's really a spell to "revive people" then huh? like the games?" _

_A slap silenced the voice, even if she wanted to say anything, Konoka covered Asuna's mouth before she could retort. Eva'a glare silenced the fire with her ever encompassing ice. She bit into Negi's neck yet again, feeding back blood she had collected from packets. Chisame turned green and walked right back out of the room she had just accidentally entered...until she came right back in, eyes wide at Eva, who she realized was sucking on a dead bone... so to speak._

He felt another stab of pain, and took a step back from Nekane. Quite suddenly, he felt very much alive, even as his chest cavity sat, a cold and devoid of life lump still on the inside. He suddenly had the feeling that this was definitely not right. Nekane continued, shaking her head.

_The hell are you doing you damn bloodsucker?!_

_Asuna managed to break free and slap Eva away. The vampire glared at her and bared very, very sharp teeth._

_"I know what I'm doing you idiot." _

_She looked very doubtful of that one._

_"He's already dead!"_

_Eva smiled there, and tapped Negi's cold arm lightly._

_'I wouldn't be so sure of that...I have my reasons for believing it too."_

"Of course, your soul is so dark Negi...how? Why? Was it just my death that affected you so? No...so many things...and they all crashed down on you. Your life is so full Negi...I can't judge. you...but you don't belong here."

_Another bite, another day, Eva felt drained utterly of all this work with no results. The boy was a catalyst. Those things weren't just born for nothing. Unless his purpose was releasing her...which she doubted. _

_Her exhaustion also came from the fact that, whenever she drew blood back out from him, the same amount she might have given him before...it's taste would have completely changed from stale and dead to alive and decadent, each one more powerful and drawing than the last. _

_Somehow in death, the boy's body was taking blood it was given and making it its own, and every time, the prize became sweeter. She found herself becoming addicted to this routine..._

Anger, it began to swirl, along with confusion, relief, all manner of emotions, all together forming an emotion no living being had ever felt before, could feel. An emotion of the gods over took Negi, wreaking havoc upon his soul, the very ancestor from which all emotions are born. An emotion called _Preeda_.

_Arika, of all the stupid people, Arika the former queen dropped by to take her son and try to give him a proper burial...she had gone ballistic when she realized Eva had him, accusing her of trying to make him her "slave"..._

_She would have done anything to get him back after abandoning him for so long…but to have him a mindless slave to the puppet master? No. That was not her wish._

"Who are you to judge me, Sister? Are you the great lord, upon the throne? Or simply the messenger? Are you the one, clothed in white, whom I see as Nekane because my eyes are not worthy of the sight?"

_A breath, ragged it seemed, escaped quietly and almost impossibly from lips days dead. It seemed to form the word: "Sister."_

Another stab of pain, this time in his neck. It was not the first. He felt as if it had been repeated a dozen times...his pain increased. He took another step backwards, almost as if he had been commanded to.

_Arika came back again, on Friday night, with her "army" of people to take back her son for her own. Enough of this nonsense, trying to make a dead boy a minion. He was gone, enough trying to prolong pain!_

Almost as if there was a hook upon the back of him, a giant fisherman reeling him back in, to life, or to hell, he knew not. Nekane shook her head, and didn't answer him, eliciting more anger from the boy, even as he had no idea why. He felt empowered by it all. Here he was in death, seeing his sister finally after so long, and she was denying him passage into peace. No, he had to burn instead. To hell with that, instead of him!

_She felt empowered by it all, like a mad scientist who was trying to protect a project, a highly controversial and illegal project. She retreated behind her room doors, locking them shut and thrusting and piece of furniture she dared in front of it. Chachamaru had been left to deal with them in the house._

"You are not made for here Negi, and as much as I wish you could come with me...I can't offer you passage...your place, unfortunately, is down below."

_A breath, this one Eva was sure she had heard, exited the mouth._

Negi smiled. Like he cared now. It didn't matter what he had done in life apparently, a sin was a sin, and a sin equaled a thousand sins, a murder or a white lie, they were all the same, and Negi had never cleansed himself of them. Doomed to hell. He made to turn around, but almost lost his balance as something pulled at him again, all the more roughly.

_The door was blasted off its hinges by a powerful kick, and Takahata walked in the room. Arika was grim as the man in front of her carried a wooden spike. They would not have him become a simple monster which could be bound to do the bidding of this vampire. Arika lunged her, scorn giving her power._

Negi smiled. He let it pull him, and fell from the light as a star from above.

_The boy seemed almost to smile as the be-speckled man rose his weapon. His sorrow was evident, almost as if he were breaking a promise to one of his old friends, Nagi Springfield. Down it came._

Life, and death, all seem to be one big adventure.

A hand shot out and stopped the wooden stake dead as it plunged straight into the palm, exiting to the other side, and making the figure on the bed grit his teeth. The mindless minion of Evangeline A.K. McDowell spoke out in a very clear, and quite pissed, tone.

"The hell are you doing, trying to kill me?! Crap. No I'm going to near some heavy duty healing spell for this shit!"

+--1--+

She watched him from the sidelines. Negi looked so different now, and yet Eva ensured her that his current appearance was nothing but a fleeting dream, it would pass, and he would appear his old self again, if a bit cold to the touch to match his ice heart...she had laughed at the tasteless comment, Eva had.

She had then explained the Arika what Negi was, and how being a vampire would limit him, as his mother, she had a right to know after all. Later on in the day, she planned on telling the boy, but not yet anyway, he was currently bandaging his hand as he had no magic with him at the moment.

"The boy is a vampire. Not a minion of mine, zombie like and leechy, but a full blown vampire of his own. The only connection he shares with me is line. I brought him into this new world, so he is part of my family in a way, only through tradition, and it has no ties to it in real essence, besides what type of vampire he will eventually be awakened as..."

She turned away from Arika, who stood with arms folded, waiting. There was no need for rush, but no need for stalling either. Eva continued.

"I am a high daywalker, of the shinso race. Perhaps the most powerful and free of vampires out there. Garlic never hurt vampires...they just really hate the smell and taste of it...it burns the tongue and leaves a rash on the hands...not for my type however, although it does have a sharp sting to its taste. We can walk in the sun obviously, roses from our homeland don't daunt us-"

Arika lifted an eyebrow at the comment about roses, and Eva seemed to know what her reaction would be even before it materialized, for, even with her back turned, she waved away Arika's face.

"There is no need to sleep in a coffin full of soil from our birth land, which is kind of disgusting, something I'm glad I don't have to do. Yet, crosses and rosaries are still dangerous to us. So is holy water and wafer..it burns, believe me, it burns like hell. Silver bullets are very devastating, as silver is a poison to us, remember to keep you boy from anything silver for any prolonged contact...

Of course, the boy right now is no better than a being that is weak against all of these things...until he gets proper nourishment and is awakened, he's a sitting duck. Oh, by the way, wooden stakes are a stupid myth. The only reason they worked against vampires to crumble them to dust was because of the damn wood it was made of. Beeches are considered a holy wood for some damn reason, besides...

...wouldn't you die if some idiot stuck a damn wooden stake in _your_ heart?! Bakas…Bakas I say! ...Anyway, we can't swim very well, which is a shame, the boy will have to stay in the shallow end of the pool from now on. I know for a fact he could swim before all of this...perhaps he might have hope to still escape water...but we sink like rocks, simple...he also, sadly, won't age any further than his current looks, so I suppose I should be sorry for preventing you from being able to see him grow up."

Again she turned around, restless. She looked about for some kind of thing to stare at. She ended up looking at Arika's face again and rolled her eyes away, up to the ceiling.

"On the bright side, he'll be faster, stronger and even quicker in his thought processes. As a fully fledged vampire, he'll be able to summon a vampric illusion as well without using his magic, he'll be given a key to the skies, like any other vampire of any kind of decent level. Maybe he'll even be able to summon the mind clouding mist we are famous for, I never got the hang of it myself, but I never needed it..."

She exhaled roughly. She wasn't used to talking this much. This kind of speech giving was normally left to the other vampires, or to Negi himself during a class. Green eyes came down to look at a more calm "Irish green" ones. The combination of green, gray and brown interested her for just a second before she continued. She gave a smile, more sinister than warm.

"...Once he takes enough blood to reclaim his natural looks and his blood comes forth, he'll be your little boy again, just changed, that's all. Shouldn't take you long to get used to, after all, you've only known him for how long now? Ah ha? Is that anger I see? Your fault Arika, not mine. Hah! You're too slow to touch me."

Indeed, Arika had jumped at Eva to attack her, but Eva had slipped away easily, her speed and strength had returned after having been released, and by now, she had settled back into them quite nicely. The only thing was for Negi to release the hold on her magic. A trademark fanged smile came from her.

"Now, you asked me why I tried so hard to revive him? The truth is he's been hiding something from you. Something he believes that it you know, you'll be ruined. He's a kind soul in the end, he was sparing you pain. Yet, you asked me. I'm not him.

The truth is, the boy has a task to do, a task he believes...no, a task he knows he's been born to do. He can't die before that point. That task probably will kill him in the process of finishing it. I know it probably requires a _lot_ of magic power..."

What was this nonsense she was blabbing now? Her son had a task, and he knew of it? Her mind flashed back, back to the legend that had long been running through her head, the one that seemed to fit her son so well, was that what Eva was talking about? Yet how could Eva know about this?

Seeing her face, Eva smiled, and tossed her hair back, smoothing it out with her hands along her head. Maybe Arika already knew? Yet no, she seemed disturbed, as if she were guessing at something, thinking, making connections. Yet, Eva shook her foundations by relaying the truth.

"The boy is a catalyst Arika. You gave birth to a pressure tank, whose only purpose it to be filled until it bursts."

Catalyst. The word shook her head until memory attached it to a definition. Something that brought about change. History compounded her, her brain her own enemy now, bringing up facts about the cruel fate of catalysts, beings who brought about great change at the cost of their lives. Always at the cost of their lives.

They always went out with a bang. An explosion of power. Unexplained deaths of sickness, some kind of accident. Always young, always cursed. A catalyst, and yet, even as she began to reject it, she knew it had to be true.

Only a catalyst would be able to force their body to support such power and not die. Only catalysts could have such quick flowing, available strength. Only they. Yet, Eva had to be just telling her this to get back at her for the lunge just now...right?

Right?!

+--2--+

"But...I thought they said Sensei was dead..."

"Obviously they were lying your dolt, he's standing right there...what's up with the sunglasses though?"

"I told you he was a zombie!"

"Well...I would have to agree he does look kinda dead-like..."

"Girls, girls, are you going to come inside and sit down for English, or stand out there like a bunch of popinjays looking at me for a cookie?! Get in here before you all get mowed over by Standford's class heading for gym, you know that's a weekly stampede!"

The class filed in, all a bit nervously, especially when Negi turned off the lights with his yardstick, yet some relaxed a bit when he brought out a projector. If anyone took notice of his bandaged up left hand, they said nothing. Negi took off his sunglasses after ordering someone to shut the blinds, revealing familiar, if faded red eyes...or was that just the darkness?

Who are we kidding, those things could light up a black hole and still not look any dulled. Negi explained that they were going to watch a movie based on the book they had been studying, "Of Mice and Men." They might not finish it today, but who managed to finish any kind of half decent movie in a period anyway? Besides, it was a way for Negi to run a class without having to talk or explain his appearance, or even need anyone to look at him nervously. It gave him time to think.

About this mess he was in. This was his homeroom class, and as he watched them watch the movie, he realized that he was on as much of a television set as George. He kept receiving odd little sidelong glances, or the occasional full blown stare, which would end abruptly if he made any notion that he was looking in the onlookers way. His homeroom was acting like this....and yet, other classes seemed either oblivious or with enough tack to ignore it all, or pretend.

The only one who stared and who didn't care if he stared back was Eva. She had done this to him after all. What was he going to say though? Change me back? Kill me? Something else stupid like that? No. He was what he was now, and nothing was going to change that. Hell was he going to do anyway? Learn how to use the Immortal Rosary? Good luck trying to prevent it from burning your damn hand off Negi.

After class, Negi stuffed his sunglasses back on, queued the curtains and light, and began to talk about the upcoming fall break. Most clubs took their annual trips at this time, because they got to have two weeks off, and when they came back, it was winter break...hence the "Fall Break" guise. He tried to keep things as normal as possible, and explained homework and the like...today was the one day his class saw him only at the end of the day like this, so he included little announcements about room management, things he normally saved for the first period before classes. This day, his class had not even come in then.

Needless to say, they didn't think there would be a teacher waiting for them there. Negi sighed. He had been, hmm...what should he call it? Asleep maybe? for a whole damn week nearly. It was now November 14th. His body was sore from being inactive so long. He knew that if he felt where his heart was...there would be something beating there, but not with any real commitment. Something beating with purpose, need, but not passion that was in life, no uncanny power and resilience.

Just purpose. Negi knew if he called his magic to himself...it would come, obediently, quickly, perhaps more quickly than before, but he would feel no soul from it. Negi was one who let his magic flow through him, maybe not by choice, by necessity, but he had gotten used to that feeling...of being one with your magic. Now...it was there, but under the surface, weak for now while it recharged, but Negi felt that, even at full surge, it would have a different feel, a cold tinge to it.

Once so vitally alive, now in death, everything that was so cold on the outside was turned in. Negi dismissed his class with a customary wave, a reminder not to have to much fun, try not to be stupid, don't let anyone force you to drink, you and they will have to answer to him...things a person who cared might say, or one who pretended to care.

Negi couldn't tell which one he was at the moment, for his mind was somewhere else. He quickly picked up his suitcase and closed it shut, seeing a ripped not paper laying on his desk, one that had not been there a few seconds ago. He glanced at it, eyes speeding it's message into his head.

_You and I both know that you'll need a blood source to make sure you don't continue to look so miserable. You need to set a standard look before your vampric instincts wake up boya. You know where you'll find me...but be quick about it, will you? Believe me, I don't like looking at that pale and ugly face any better than you do...I also need to talk to you about the "Fall Break" and your trip to find that idiot of a father you have..._

_- Eva~ _

He sighed, something he once accused his mother to doing far too often. He wondered if that would become a habit...he hoped to hell not. That would make his day, wouldn't it? He left the classroom and snapped off the lights, locking the door behind him to turn around and see, of all people, Alma.

For simplicities sake and duties sake, as much as to fill in empty places, she, Cora and Jasnin had been entered into his class, refilling it to its original number. (Although, some made a comment about her apparent youth, they were silence when they looked in Eva's direction.) He paused upon seeing the dark illusionist specializing mage. She blinked, once again showing him just how real blank people were. By god, she could work as one of those guards at the palaces in London, only they generally frowned on women being there for some stupid reason.

"Master."

"Goddamn Alma, don't call me that in school."

"Master Professor then."

Negi slapped his forehead, pulling his palm down across the ashen gray skin in frustration. This girl...just didn't learn. He shook his head but said nothing as his hand covered his sun-glassed eyes. He let loose of his face and began to walk off to go outside, seeking a small black umbrella in his pockets, whose purpose was to be a parasol for him once he reached the sunny outdoors. Alma followed him like an obedient lapdog, something Negi generally tried to ignore.

The girl had such potential, if only she would stop thinking of herself being his damn maid. Negi shook open the umbrella and crowded himself under it, setting off to Eva's cottage, it wasn't like he had anything else to do today after all. He sent Alma back to the dorm, for no other reason than to make sure Anya didn't wreck anything. At least he could count on those two having fun together...sort of...

+--3--+

The cup was warm in his hands, even as his surroundings were cold, unbelievably cold. Yet that was just something he had to get used to. Eva lightly touched his hand with the back of hers, feeling the temperature of the drink through them. His hands were cold, just as hers were, when not too long ago they burned with a powerful heat.

His feeling of cold would pass, he was only feeling his own temperature...she tapped the cup with a nailed finger, making it ring. The deep pink tea inside it vibrated along with the strike, giving the boy something to focus on for distraction from her quick eyes.

"Drink it boy, otherwise you'll wake up in the middle of the night with someone's blood on your hands. You've got a whole quart left to go through, you're not done yet."

In all honesty...he didn't know where all the "tea" he was drinking was going. All he knew is that each cup of it make him feel better somehow. It was only after the second one, when he had managed to see himself in Eva's eyes, did he realize what was going on. It was blood.

The tea had blood in it...and she was using it as treatment to restore him back to normal...at least in looks, and before his body unfurled the abilities that came with being a vampire...once that happened, however he looked would be locked in as a base to return to.

She spoke to him as he was ordered to drink, and he really had no choice, like it or not, once the cup was in his hands, he emptied it, as long as he stared at the cup, it stayed in his hands, but let his eyes wander once, and it was already drained dry.

He had never known such an insatiable, sinister thirst. Eva finally round around to talk that interested him, his training to break in his new form. She leaned in to stare at him from across her table.

"You planned on using all six weeks to look for the man?"

Negi allowed his cup to fall to the table, where Chachamaru automatically bent to fill it again. He shivered slightly. Ever since waking up from his slumber...he seemed to have lost just a bit more of his edge. He looked into twin emerald sparks, and sighed.

"No. I planned on spending at least two days or so in London just for some reorientation and to take care of a bit of business. I suppose that will not be possible now however...am I right? How long am I looking at, this training?"

Eyes flashing, she looked him up and down. A quick learner, intelligent and innovative. Things stuck in his head and stayed there, as far as she knew. With the added mental capacity a vampire was capable of, he would blast through the settling process most likely. She made a face.

"I'll give you a week to learn the basics boy...I like my time alone in the peace and quiet myself."

Negi unconsciously lifted his cup to his mouth to find that once it touched his lips, he finally became aware of it. It was empty. Blinking, he looked down at it. He would not like to get used to this kind of thing. Eva smirked at him as Chachamaru went to put away her pitcher. She examined the boy and then, inexplicably, reached out to slap him, making his eyes go livid even as his face slammed into the couch with the force of the blow. He came up smarting.

"The hell?!?"

"Good. The resilience of the skin is as it should be, but the color isn't quite right yet. Chachamaru, don't put that away, refill it. About three or four more cups'll do it I think."

"Yes Master."

That line was becoming so familiar, Negi almost spun around to tell off Alma again. Only Alma wasn't here, it was Chachamaru that had spoken. He blinked before anything exited his mouth and allowed tensed muscle to relax. Eva gave him a look.

"New exercise, boya?"

"Perhaps. You know I don't approve of this training of yours to understand my abilities being a vampire..."

"So, you'd rather grope blindly, or be a sitting duck?"

"Perhaps."

That seemed to be a new line of his. "Perhaps." She rose her own cup of tea which had been set before her, at the same time that Negi's hand closed upon his own. It struck her, how many times they seemed to copy actions. What the hell was god trying to tell her? Or Satan for that matter.

'You see Eva, I prefer to learn on my own things. To be sides, I don't think I'd like to quite suddenly jump in effectiveness...not quite yet. I like to have a challenge, something I haven't had in a long time."

His cup came down again, empty, yet even as it came down, Eva noticed the deliberate way he set it, and the speed at which he had consumed it. Already, he was getting a handle upon a blood lust that had seemed insatiable at first. He had learned his first lesson, and she had not even been trying to teach it to him yet. Restraint.

"Did you consider the battle with me to be a challenge?"

She smiled when he sobered a little, and his face drew in, he didn't answer her. It wasn't that he was afraid, or even that he was shunted with her comment, he was seriously thinking about the question.

"Well, if you thought it was, just imagine when you keep your promise and break the bond you put on me, and allow me to train you with all my abilities laid bare for you to see. I can guarantee you that if you don't wake up fast; your ass will be mine."

He smiled at that, looking up at her with genuine interest. Ever since being brought back, he seemed to have grown a shell over his normal attitude, but she managed to catch a spark of the old, abrasive boy through it now. She snapped her fingers easily to Chachamaru, ordering her to put away the empty pitcher, the boy was fine now. Tomorrow, he'd get a taste of just what kind of training he'd be in for...

Negi left the cottage feeling quite fine, restored in some odd way, a way he knew was blood, which sobered him further than his already subdued mood. Truth be told, being a vampire was not something he had been particularly keen on adopting for himself. Sure, he was a dark bas...no, he wasn't one of those, he knew who and where his parents were now...

+--4--+

Negi sat in his bed. HIS bed. He finally had one he could call properly his own again. In this dorm Negi had moved all of his things and rearranged them to match the new space. Anya didn't have any real trinkets of her own, except for a few baubles. Alma had nothing to decorate either, so the empty space was taken up by Negi's things, yet still, he condensed them out of decency.

As one would expect, it was all properly ordered and in their proper sections, Assorted wires, springs, PCB's, IC's, LED's and all manner of other useful junk were separated into drawers in an organizer in the corner.

Awards and his degrees hung near his bed next to assorted pictures of different events and projects worked on...clothes in the closet or the dresser, not all over the place, he had gone out with Alma and Anya to get a few articles for them. He had also "splurged" to get a few other necessities. Cleaning supplies, toiletries, obvious food stuffs, normal things...

A desk had been moved into the living room and tossed to the side as a bench for working at, he had moved just about all of the furniture near some kind of wall, leaving the middle of the room empty, his purpose of this was obvious, exercise space...as well as movement space. For he knew, with as much clarity as the bold black lettering on a gold plaque pronounced that this was "Sensei Negi Springfield's" dorm, that he would have crowds who would still want his after school drills.

Yet, the news of a "dead" professor Springfield made some hesitant. True, there was a plaque right there, saying this was his new residence, but was it just a memento? Was it someone's sick idea of a joke? Unbeknownst to Negi, a crowd had gathered outside the dorm, a class waiting for the professor to walk down the hall to open the door, but there was no professor to do so...until Negi, grabbing his towel to go for a shower, opened it and faced several students eyes, staring back down at him.

Negi wished he could jump into a T.V set. Then you would see the vein pulsing at the side of his head...he spoke out to them, quite frank.

"Godamn, won't you people put this damn myth that I'm dead to bed already?! If you want help, go in there and find a seat, and don't touch anything, you know the drill. I'm going to take a damn shower. I was just not feeling too damn well. Excuse me if that's a crime! Now if you'll excuse me..."

Shooting past them with his tiny size, he weaved away towards the bathhouse, which seemed to have become his sanctuary as of late. When he came back, having been quick, for lights out was in three hours, he met a few people who had decided to hang around, the diehard regulars who weren't even daunted by an apparently resurrected teacher.

There was no talk of that however. They accepted his statement of being sick, for the alternative was ridiculous after all, right? The precious few who had seen him that day commented that he looked much better than he had in class, something he attributed to having finally gotten over the bug he had.

Normalcy bought with lies. It killed him. Was that the key to his peace? To lie all the time? He had always tried to be honest with himself, upon what he thought, but if the key to peace was to lie...they must live in a messed up world.

When he finally pushed them out the door at ten to nine, he flopped on his bed, Alma had requested the bunk underneath him, for such a stupid reason Negi, whom had been wanting to take the top anyway, was about to refuse her.

She wanted to be under him as a sign of submission. The hell. Who cared though? In all honesty, Negi considered the girl a work in progress. He'd crack her and get at the yolk in side, tossing away the spoiled part that seemed to think she was a peasant to his royalty, and repair the damage, or leave her to fix her own damn Humpty-Dumpty case.

He slept fitfully. Eva warned him about that. That would plague him even when he woke to his blood, although not quite as much. Right now, the nocturnal attitude of your typical run of the mill zombie vampire was plaguing him. Soon he'd be able to sleep again, if more lightly, something Negi had to laugh at.

Hell, if a pin drop fell on the softest cloud there ever was and was swallowed whole, Negi would still wake up from the noise. What was he going to do now? Wake up every time a termite turned over in its sleep?

He shook his head at the thought and tried to turn over quietly in his bed, wincing at the slightest sound. How would all this sound with the ears of a vampire? Like an avalanche? How would things look to him? Would he be able to count the spots on a flipping lady bug on a leaf from across the room?!

He had already conditioned himself so much, tweaked his hearing and his sight with training to the limits he could push them, had his magic, flowing wildly through him, boost them even further. What would everything look like when this metamorphosis, this evolution, struck him?

_Negi...Negi! Godamn, respond to me! Don't tell me she's lied to me about you not being a mindless minion of hers!_

His mother.

_Oh hell, not now..._

_Hello Arika. Did you know it's in the middle of the night, oh look, it's 1:00 in the morning! Good morning! Didn't it strike your very capable brain that I __**might **__just be __**trying**__ to sleep? Oh hell, forget it. I told you not to bug me at this hour unless you got something important to say, so shoot._

_Oh, he's still got his mind alright Arika, you don't have to worry about that one._

She gathered her thoughts, trying to find a way to say what she wanted to with some form of coherence, but her emotions grabbed her instead, and she spouted at him.

_N-Negi...please, don't...you can't be a catalyst, can you!?_

_Shit._

He honestly didn't know what to say to her. He thought of lying, but then of course, that wasn't him, not even as he was being forced to look at that to be a source for his survival in a ways. He couldn't even stay silent in his way, the question was direct. So, he told the truth.

_...Yes...I suppose Eva revealed that little dark secret to you? I told you...I have many dark parts to me Arika. You should have listened to me back in London and stayed your ass back there. Leave an old wound to lie, I didn't want to reopen it...__**YOU **__insisted it be reopened so that all these knives could be stuck in it again, not my fault._

_...but No Catalyst has lived past the age of sixteen..._

_Twenty five Arika, twenty five. None have lived past twenty five. I've discovered a few in my roving of the history, but that's the bill. Quarter century's curse they call it. The one who managed to live to twenty five died on their twenty fifth birthday, a few hours after their time of birth. Technically twenty five...I never claimed I was a happy kid...__**mother**__._

Yet Negi found himself depressing the harshness in his voice, drawing it back, away from her to replace with one more companionable. Not warm or kind...just companionable.

_I didn't want you to wake up every day, wondering if your son was going to die this day, or the next. I know you can be like that, it's one of the key things needed to be a leader, think of the worst possibility first. Have peace in that. I was trying to protect you from me._

_From you Negi? No..._

_Yes._

+--5--+

Negi smirked and gave a half wave when Asuna, looking oddly suspicious, got on the train with the rest of her art club, headed for wherever they were going. Anya was more enthusiastic in her goodbye, but that was expected. He did the same thing for the Walking club, the Sporting clubs, of which Sakurako abstained from going, preferring to catch up on some vital "study time."

The succubi joined Negi in waving them off. Then the tech departments, and the Go club, which brought Evangeline to his other side with Chachamaru instead of the train, nothing to surprising, as she never went on the trips anyway, only this year, it was for a different reason.

Other clubs came and went, and soon a crowd was around Negi. Alma, Sakurako, Chachamaru, Eva, Anya, Issac and Jasnin (Why they had come Negi had no clue, nor did he care.) Chisame, who preferred to stay in her dorm and catch up with her fans in some odd way, or fiddle with her pactio with Arika...something that Chisame still shuddered about...and yet, she wasn't sure what kind of shudder it was...bad, bad! Get your mind out of the dump!

His mother was there too, if off to the side, not a part of the group. Every time Negi shielded his eyes from the sun, a completely normal action that everyone was doing, she winced. Each time a smirk allowed a glimpse of teeth, she looked for fangs.

Eva seemed to enjoy miming at her from behind his back, teasing the woman in a way that completely fit her looks, but definitely not her actual age. In essence, the mood was light as the sun shifted higher in the sky to bring about Saturday in full swing.

Yet, something was up, something Negi couldn't put his finger on. The sky was perfectly bright, but somehow, he could feel darkness gathering at the horizon, a kind of foreboding aura of power. Negi cast around to look at the group around him, and he could see Chamo on his shoulder catch his eye.

The ermie felt it too. So did Jasnin, by the way she kept glancing at him and then to the sky, sending off red flags in a thousand different languages, all of which could be interpreted a million different ways, but he knew what she was getting at. Issac was oblivious to it, but one look at his sister was all he needed.

Originally, he had thought it was just Eva, whom he had released this morning quickly, getting the task over with as she continued his "refortification" of his looks. He looked perfectly normal by now, the picture of health he was before the accident had struck him down, a picture he did not feel in the inside, not really.

He turned around to walk away, Alma almost turning along with him, grabbing Anya in a similar way a girl her age might grab a teddy bear that was as big as her. Anya struggled away, glaring at the back of her head, which Alma, quite frankly, didn't even notice or, if she did, give a frog's leg, which angered her more as she followed the two of them away.

Then it was Issac and Jasnin, the girl turning around so abruptly, she almost bumped right into her brother, but the young man reacted easily, smoothly, dodging her and landing on his feet about a foot away.

"I didn't know you wanted to spar in public..."

The statement, humorous or not, flew over her head, and he did not continue the pursuit of it, only fell in line behind her. In the ranks, he was below her, for she had the magic, he was simply the unfortunate cargo. Unofficially, it was his job to bodyguard her; they only gave him the title "Negotiator" as a kind of after thought.

Soon, it was only Eva and Arika, of whom, Eva spun around, her face disturbed. She muttered something under her breath, which Arika turned slightly to hear. She wasn't sure, but as Eva walked away, she thought it sounded like:

"I sure as hell hope this is not what I think it is."

+--E--+

Gah. I needed to get this in, in case my trip took time away from writing, so of course, it's short, but not as much as the other one. What is this...presence? Well, that is for me to know...and you to, unfortunately, have to find out! Oi oi! Ha ha, I updated yesterday, and look at me updating again, am I insane?! Why, yes, yes I am...tell me how it is, neh?!


	37. Chapter XXXVI: Roots

Confusing hmm? Well, I was telling two stories at once. One on earth and one in the spiritual realm. As for those typos, be gone, plaguing things...I should type slower maybe, or maybe I should learn how to type while looking at the computer screen. I'm trying right now, and it's half successful...I think that with time if I keep forcing myself to do this, I might be able to learn how...I seemed to have unconsciously memorized the keyboard by having to look at it for so long. I'm impressed with myself...now, we can get on with the story. (Almost typed that sentence blind.)

Another thing, I realize I'm weak at writing, of all things, fluff and love scenes. Yep, this author is finding it hard to mash up some gooey stuff.

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty Six: Roots_**

+---+

_He stepped off the train lightly, a convent of people following him. Blue eyes glinted mysteriously, pale hands clasped upon the hilt of a simple knife, thrown lazily into a loose belt. Thin, gaunt, the vampire looked about, shifty eyed as he moved to the shade. _

_Soon the others joined him, all coming from different paths, but all for the same reason. The tallest one, a blue eyed demon, he who had arrived first, pointed with authority into the brush, towards the outskirts of Mahora city, the forest. _

_There he claimed. There she was. Released after so long, just as she had claimed she would be. __**They**__ would be the first ones on the scene to claim her for their own line, while she was still free._

_A greater prize than this did not exist, having the great Evangel, lineless, take them as her family line and lift them up upon the waves of her power. While the vampire still did not have a line of her own, while she was still weak from the curse, she would need them..._

_They would be there for her, and, of course, with due payment ready to be extracted._

_Traveling quickly, as those of their race tended to do, god speed was made towards the guilty cottage, They were strong. It was from them that the foreboding aura came, called forth by Eva's release._

_Yet, the leader paused, halfway there, as a burst of power was felt, exploding outwards to claim the lands. Perhaps the Evangel had decided to stop hiding from them; perhaps she welcomed their approach..._

_Or was the great massing of power a preparation for war?_

_---_

Negi approached her house with a light heart, but a heavy mind. His mind was still replaying his conversation with his mother, which had gone on for nearly an hour after he had admitted the truth to Eva's words.

He glanced up at the sky, carefree in its appearance as it held its secret, heavy veil. Clouds skittered along a great canvas of blue, and it was so warm, it was hard to believe that they were already well into November.

Stomping up the porch, he raised his fist to knock, pausing to see the veins on the back of it for a few seconds before the hammer fell. Eva opened the door rather quickly, indicating that she had been waiting for him...but he wasn't ready for the sight that met his eyes...

The boy stared. Never in his life had he ever dreamed Eva would wear _pants_ and a shirt. So used to the old style dress and uniform from her, he was thrown off when she opened the door, shown to be sporting bleached jeans and a simple, deep leaf green shirt, sleeves cut off at the elbows.

She had even done her hair up in a braid. A braid for the love of Pete, tied off at the end with a light blue, silk ribbon. Evangeline, the puppet master and undying mage, was dressed as if she were about to go out to lunch with a group of gals, perhaps at a book club for juniors.

Holy hell. He blinked before he was forced to stare some more at her. He scratched his temple and stared again, making Eva grab his collar and drag him off the porch in anger.

"I don't look so damn bad do I?...So get yourself together before I break your face open."

Not bad, no, she didn't look _bad_ per say. She was actually quite current and casually fashionable, but so...what should he say? Un-Eva-ish. The hell did she get those things anyway, how long had she had them..? Why was any of this his business, and why the heck did he care for that matter?

She pushed him off the steps, into the open clearing around her house. He stood awkwardly there, wondering what the heck she was going to do with him now. It was her turn to stand awkwardly however. The boy could clearly see the bind he had put on her, and he approached her, pulling out his wand.

She looked irritably to him and told him simply to put it away, making him raise an eyebrow, but she simply glared at him, so away the wand went. Yet she still indicated her wrist. It was then that it struck Negi, how very simple it was. Eva never used a wand or a tattoo to chant her spells, so he didn't need one either. He rose his hand, and the magic came, obediently, bubbling upon the surface of his skin.

It was such an _alien_ feeling, to have magic simply come from his skin, as if he were suddenly perspiring all along his palm, cool magic slowly pooling in his hands, yet, Negi quite liked it. This was what he had been looking for, for so long. A way to use magic without any restrictions. Now it was right in front of him, the ability, his to seize.

Hands came and captured hers, letting his magic flow from one surface to another, like water to wash away the band on her arm labeled "XVI". He didn't need to speak, it was a simple willing of dissolving that which he had cast, like nullifying one's own magical arrows before they struck.

Her power swirled around her, soft but firm, it had never left her, simply sat inside of her, and now, flowed out as it should, the tell tale aura re-established. The boy broke off, stepping back, letting the spotlight shine on her a bit. His eyes glinted.

"I suppose I should summon my blade."

A glance was shared and held. Negi was ready, stepping back, his hand rose, she mirrored him. In the next instant, they both clashed against each other, blades of magic bared. Eva pushed him back easily.

"Good, you're ready. I was worried for a moment there."

He was sent flying with that simple move, and rolled along the ground, getting up quickly, eyes wide. She had warned him about battling her in this state, but still...he spun to thwart a slash to his middle, once again, being blown back.

"Your speed is nothing to me boy. Use your skill!"

He rushed her and swung out at her neck, but at the last moment, dropped his blade so his right hand, which had shot out, grabbed it and continued the slash, catching her in the kidney. She was sent sprawling, rolling back to her feet to dash back at him. Eyes were wide, not from surprise, but with pleasure.

"Good! You only need one prompting there! Let's see you try something else!"

She caught him with a blow to the chest, making him skid into a tree, splitting it right down the middle. He braced off the tree, gritting his teeth before using it as a launch pad to bore at her, blade out as if to stab her. She stepped to the side and made to trip him up, but the boy jumped when she side-stepped, flipping in the air.

"Fine!"

Stabbing out, he got her in the back, making her stumble. She laughed. She had told him to use his skill, and by god he was! She spun and sneaker met face, sending Negi reeling. Eva swung at him lazily; he ducked under her swing and stabbed out at her, hitting her gut to send her backwards a step.

_God, my hits are doing basically nothing to her!_

Negi gritted his teeth, but Eva smiled. He was a quick minded human, and even now, he could hit her. Nagi had to rely solely on magic. She swung her sword upwards, kicking the boy quickly in the chest before rushing in to run him through.

_Shit!_

He only just managed to side step her thrust and struck out with his own blade, but she twisted away easily. He realized then that all of his hits so far had been farces. She had let him...strike her, she had only used her speed to attack, not dodge...

He trusted, spun, rushed and parried as best he could, but Eva gave him no more openings. One exchange of blades left him breathless, her speed only barely matched with his skill. She shot forth her spell blade and shattered his for what must have been the third time. He called his blade back up again as quickly as possible, his mind running along the lines of the spell as if in a marathon.

_Crap, I can't get any leverage!_

Negi managed to duck under a thrust by her and gave his best stab, putting all of his weight and strength into it. She grunted and moved back, one, two...three steps. That was it. The lost distance was recovered instantly, Negi sent literally _**through**_ a neighboring tree.

He shot back at her, his blade glowing with power before he entered into a teleport, shifting behind her so his blade stabbed her as soon as he came. repeated the technique to knock her off her feet before shifting again to smite her to the ground, but she rolled away from that one.

_He's employing his teleport now, so I'll use shundo. Simple. Took him long enough...hah!_

As soon as Negi landed behind her from another teleport, she appeared behind him via a shundo and stabbed forwards, sending Negi on his face. She struck down with her blade, intending to stake him there, yet he twisted away from the blow, letting it hit earth as he stabbed upwards.

_Shit! Too close!_

A thin, pale hand stopped his blade just before it would have landed. Another hand came out and smacked Negi away like the fly he was to them. The boy, insulted, spun upwards and locked eyes with the sudden intruder, whom Eva seemed to know.

"Mistress Evangel, why are you playing with this whelp so?"

_Goddamn, this stalker almost always seems to appear at the worst times, Gunther does. He and his merry family are perhaps the only damn reason I might have enjoyed my captivity...annoying as hell._

"...Fool. Why do you always stalk me?!"

Negi rushed in, shooting off to the side when Gunther lazily back kicked and getting in his face to punch him hard in the middle, with absolutely no effect. The vampire simply raised a hand...and slapped him in the face, sending him reeling away like a top.

"Shoo fly, don't bother me."

His world shrunk. Suddenly, inexplicably, his world shrunk, and his hand came to his face. He stood there, hand to cheek for what seemed to him to be an eternity, the sound of roaring in his ears. That slap hurt, godamnit!

The vampire turned to Eva simply, and began rattling off a speech he had obviously prepared for this occasion, about her needing a line at this point in time, weak after being just released, and how he could provide one for her, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah...

Rage filled Negi, and he rushed at the vampire with a speed he had not know he had previously, the other punched him in the face, this time making him stumble a step back.

"Stupid human, don't flatter yourself! Mistress, without a line to protect you in your state, you are a sitting duck..."

Negi appeared next to the vampire once more, only this time, his kick sent the other skidding. Surprised, he looked up in time to see Negi's fist smash into his middle, sending him into a tree. Gunther paid attention then, for Eva was laughing. Yet, the boy was in his face once more, and kicked him up in the air before his fist slammed him down into the ground.

"Gunther, I'm not without a line...the boy is all I need! You've awakened his blood!"

Negi began moving even faster, before he had simply surprised the vampire, now he was actually out-performing him, picking up more speed and power as he continued to pummel him. When the pale man blocked on of Negi's kicks, the boy punched him up, making him soar over twelve meters in the air before gravity grabbed him and brought him back down.

"You've pissed him off, awakened his blood to a rage, the best way to awaken if you want power...you were always stupid like that, you never knew when it was time to watch and wait... and when the time came to strike!"

The boy rushed in again, and pressed the other against a tree before a punch upwards sent him soaring to break the lowest of its branches. His second punch sent him to break a few higher ones before, finally, Negi used all his strength to send the other above the tree.

_Holy hell, his strength and speed enhancements are even more than __**I**__ expected._

He jumped up with the other, and grabbed him in the air, tossing him down to the ground, shaking the earth. Negi landed on top of him with an elbow, making him gasp for air. A sweeping kick sent him through a tree, and the boy jumped after him to dish out more punishment.

Not even a second later, Gunther's body exited the brush in transit to smash into a boulder...

+--1--+

"He hasn't taught you anything!"

Anya frowned deeply as she looked at Asuna. She didn't like the girl bashing her sensei, and told her so. Negi had taught her plenty. She just didn't display it like the others did. At the end of the day, you'd find her playing with something quietly, not blasting rocks to bits.

"Yes he has!"

Don't get her wrong, she did get stronger. A lot. Just, she didn't like using her power like the others did. When Negi taught Asuna a trick in magic, she practiced it all the time, even if she got it perfect. Still, she'd show it off in practice.

"During practice, I see you just sitting there though, you know he'll never pay more attention if..."

Anya just wanted to move on to something else when she got something. Like trying to gain enough power to break a Deflexio of Negi's, or trying to get down "Cage". As a result, it looked like she knew very little, or had little power, for she only trained one thing at a time.

"No, no, no! I know lots of stuff..."

Now, in all honesty, Asuna was only trying to rile Anya into greater ambition, but it had turned into a full on war about Negi's teaching methods and Anya's ability to absorb it all. This was not her original intent.

"Oh really? Then why don't we test you out then?"

"Huh?"

"You want to prove he's taught you something huh? The spar with me. Watch out!!"

Anya's surprise was evident when Asuna suddenly charged her, and the girl only just managed to scamper away. She managed to get out a few words edgewise as Asuna swung around to kick her, a sneaker just grazing by her head.

"F-fugo secundum supremus, foveo! Sagitta Magica Trias Spiritus Ingus!"

Asuna had managed to get quite close in the time it took Anya to chant, and ducked under the three arrows, taunting Anya with a flash of her tongue before making Anya fly with a kick, not all that soft.

Still, the girl had been learning a few things about close combat, and managed to land on her feet, all a bit awkwardly. She was already chanting again.

"Sagitta Magica Undecim Spiritus Ingus!"

Her arrows sheeted at Asuna, but the girl's speed allowed her to step lighting in between them and bearing down upon Anya to grab her, and skittered away when the girl sent more arrows at her.

"Sagitta Magica, Quattor Spiritus Ingus! Sagitta Magica Decim Spiritus Ingus!"

More arrows from the heavens rained down upon a very quick and agile Asuna, who really was only testing her opponent at this point. Anya wasn't a combat mage, she wasn't to surprising in her arsenal.

"Sagitta Magica, Trias.."

Like most mages, the only thing she seemed to be able to do was send magical arrows her way. Asuna rushed in here, but she had not listened to Anya's chant correctly...

"Fulgurans Ingus!"

_Oh crap, I forgot about those._

She shot away from the larger and more brilliant red arrows that Anya sent her way, the combination Fire and Lightning ones that Negi had taught the girl early on, tricky things, for the chant for them was extremely similar to regular arrows...

Anya came in now, using arrows are cover, but Asuna shot off to the side and charged at Anya's side. Still, Anya surprised her by turning around and quickly holding out her hand.

"I-incendia Laques!"

The spell didn't come out completely however, and ended up being just one big ball of darkness and fire consuming itself as it shot forwards and hit Asuna in the middle, sending her skidding back a bit.

Seizing a chance, the girl jumped forth, fist glowing brightly as she called out another spell.

"Igneus Ambitus!"

She didn't manage to hit Asuna with it however, for the other recovered quickly enough to slip away and grab Anya's wrist, bodily lifting her and tossing her away. She tumbled and ended up on her back, yet when Asuna jumped at her, she rolled away and jumped up.

"Reprobo inter mihi..."

Her fists condensed with heat until they were set ablaze, and she lunged at Asuna, bearing them as weapons. Asuna twisted to the side, yet Anya had stopped short right in front of her, as Negi was prone to doing, blasting her back with her enhanced fists.

"...impendo extrarius, praemium versus meus hostilis...ingus!"

_Shit, don't tell me Negi taught her __**that**__ spell!?_

At such a close distance, Asuna was right in the blast range, and all of her speed couldn't help here with such a wide range move, especially as Anya actively tried to keep the distance small.

"NOVA CONTEGO!"

Lucky for the older girl, Anya's blast was nowhere near as wide ranging or as powerful as Negi's, but it still managed to send her skidding a distance away. Anya bore in again, fists shining with condensed energy.

She was not the same girl as she had been when Negi picked her up from Swallowthorn's hold, and she meant to prove that as she spun her, or should we still call it Negi's, star wand. She had gotten better at the spinning too, no more poking out her own eye as she snapped it straight.

"Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus Ingus!"

Going for her maximum, she tested Asuna's ability to dodge, and even though the other dodged them all, she had little time to twist away from Anya, who had charged in with her fists. At this time...Asuna stopped playing games.

She caught Anya around the middle with her foot, sending her skidding backwards to land on her back, and rushed in at her, to drop and elbow, which grazed by Anya's hair as she rolled away. Asuna then made the mistake to reach for her blade.

Eyes widened and her hands flew together as she began to formulate the spell Negi had been recently triyng to teach her, not cage, but another spell he employed himself often. The magic condensed as she put all her hopes into it.

"O-Of o-bleh! Of obscurum quod flamma adveho quod vultus mihi a telum et Haurus Abyssus mucro!"

When Asuna's blade came down, it met another, dark blood red one, made completely of magic, and her arburn eyes fixed upon the sapphire ones that Anya held, which were actually burning. Anya had regained her fire after society had doused it, and burning it all the brighter because of.

"I'm...not...weak."

Still, the drain was too much, and in the next instant, her sword evaporated into nothing, and she herself fell to the ground, panting. Asuna sheathed the blade she had been given to by Setsuna thoughtfully.

"No Anya...I don't suppose you are...Negi strikes again."

+--2--+

Speaking of Negi...

Gunther coughed. If he had been anything but a vampire, he might have spat out blood, but as it was, he just continued to hack as Negi stood above him, eyes on his own hands. Marveling at what he had just done, what he was capable of doing.

Eva had stepped to stare down at Gunther, her face appearing upside down to him from the way he lay. She looked at Negi briefly before focusing on the downed vampire.

"It appalls me that I could have come from something so weak, Gunther. You should have kept me close when you had the chance. Noooo, you had to attack me for blood, you weren't interested in a runt as a family mate, heh...now I suppose I've got my own runt."

Negi looked up at this comment, surprised. _This _was her vampric creator? _This_ thing? The addressed coughed lightly before groaning as he sat up, surprising Negi, but he only shook his head. Vampires. They were a whole new animal entirely. Their endurance on a whole 'nother scale.

"That was nearly-"

Eva cut him off however, she knew it was a long time ago; she didn't need him blabbing about it. Negi just watched the two bicker back and forth for a bit before he got bored and stomped his foot on the ground, drawing both of their attention to him.

"You gonna kiss the dude or let me kill him? Which one? Cause' I'm going to tell you honestly, I can't tell."

Eva blinked. Honestly. That was what she had for him, a blink. Not a comeback, not a smirk or anything, a blink. In the clothes she was currently, wearing, she looked just like any girl on the street, having been stumped by Negi's comments...

Only Eva wasn't stumped, and she was quite a match for his intelligence if you factored in her experience. She blinked again and Negi sighed. He turned around.

"Perhaps I should give you two some privacy then? You look as if you might want to try something without my presence. Maybe some old family reunion stuff? Just tell me if you want to go out with this dude, otherwise, the next time I see him, it'll be to sever his head from neck with a toothpick and smash his brains out with an ice cold lemon slice wrapped in tin foil..."

The boy walked away then, leaving the still grounded vampire to stare, he pointed at him for an explanation from Eva, but she offered none. I mean, what kind of explanation do you give for a lemon slice wrapped in tin foil as an appropriate weapon for brain smashing?

Meanwhile, off somewhere else, Alberio was deep in thought, which was unusual for him, so whatever he must have been thinking about was most likely important as heck, and it was...it had to do with Negi and Arika.

In all honesty, Alberio had a secret, one that he kept his mouth shut about because it involved his pactio with Nagi. Yet, it also had to do with Negi, and Arika, two were pieces of the puzzle that existed without knowledge of the secret he kept, the puzzle.

A lot of times, Arika would tease Alberio about his getting drunk in a bar one day with Nagi and instead of picking up two girls as pactio partners, they missed their kissing targets and caught each other instead...yet, this was a fictional event.

In other words, that is what Nagi and Alberio had agreed to tell the world had happened, that they had gotten drunk and kissed, as had so often happened...(The drunk part, not the kissing part.)...and as useful as his pactio with Nagi was, he still was ashamed as to how he had gotten it.

Partly because it involved a whole lot of potential trouble, and Nagi's bright idea as to how clear it all up. A crazy scheme that, unlike most of Nagi's crazy schemes, and Alberio's for that matter, actually worked flawlessly, but left them both with an extreme guilt.

Still, this was old, dead news, stuff he only rarely allowed himself to think about in his darkest moods when he was looking for an excuse to down a few orders of sake and sing along with a few bar mates...

Yet, Arika had brought him news of Negi being revive by Eva as a vampire, which had sparked him to rip open the old scar. Negi's incredible power potential, and his dark secret of being a catalyst, his now being a vampire, which made things a whole lot worse, for she worried about him being linked to some old fart's ledged...

Hey, even if he wasn't part of that old story, he still was scary as heck to think about now. If someone managed to control him, they'd be set for life. His power was growing so fast...it might not even be long before he conquers Eva. Then what? The world would be in his hands.

Sometimes, Alberio thought he stole the wrong son...ahh! He couldn't let himself think about that, not yet. There was still hope Negi would turn out to be Negi, the son of Nagi Springfield and Arika, scorned queen of calamity...

Yet, he doubted that. Truth was, he doubted that honorable outcome, of the boy accepting his family and shedding his darkness in turn for light, and rising up to finish the job his father had left behind...

Why? Well...he was Arika and Nagi's son...in a way...but he couldn't go there, nope! Don't make his mind go there, for he was not a genius when it came to the way of the universe, he'd get confused trying to think back on what Nagi did...

What was he talking about anyway? Negi was Arika and Nagi's son, no doubt about that...

+--3--+

"Focus boy. This is perhaps your one weakness, the chink in your current armor. The in-ability to fly. It's right in front of you now, so do it. Lift yourself, leave the ground behind, stop clutching to it like a baby."

Negi narrowed his eyes at Eva's comments. After she had "dealt" with her vampric..."father" as he called him, she had to deal with a kind of reunion with the others he had brought, and, even if they were oblivious, Negi had practically seen Eva's annoyance as a physical presence in the air, so great it was.

He had brought a whole damn convention with him, and Negi found himself stuffed in a room with the other "young ones" while Eva dealt with pleasantries. Negi was not one to be stuck in a room with a bunch of batty foggeys however. When one of them began badgering him, condescendingly, for details about how he had gained worth enough to be part of Eva's line...

Well, Negi punched her dead in the gut, and one thing lead to another...soon the whole room was in turmoil as a portion of the shining, new generation of vampric blood... got it's arse whooped by one ticked off Negi. It was only when Negi paused in his violent spree did he hear the ruckus outside the room, and he turned to look thoughtfully at the door, dropping his current victim.

It seemed that he wasn't the only one venting his frustration.

One of the remaining vampires lunged at his back, and Negi grabbed them about their neck before flinging them through the door, blasting it open and off its hinges into chaos. The boy stepped after him into a room littered with the fallen forms of vampires, knocked out and tossed aside like trash.

Gunther dodged under a blast from Eva, her spell catching her fireplace and flash freezing the wood work. Negi caught the man in his mid flight with a lazy punch to the gut, dropping him.

Eva wasn't surprised to see him as Gunther dropped to the floor, groaning from the unexpected blow. A powerful martial artist as a human, his bite had increased to match his new race, making him a formidable opponent to any ordinary, untrained vampire... They had shared a momentary alliance there, an agreement.

Now however, it was all business as the boy stood upon the roof of the student dorms, looking up at a pitch black sky. A new moon phase. Negi focused his energy and sent a huge blast of wind ripping through the gravel on the roof.

Yet his feet stayed firmly planted on the ground.

Eva sighed, and looked a bit...annoyed? embarrassed for him? pissed? sorry? He couldn't tell. She had at least abandoned the weird wardrobe in favor of her usual attire. Shaking her head a hand reached up to grasp it from the back.

"Not...that much...energy. You don't need to make a fricken _crater _to get off the ground boy...and your directed the gust all wrong. That's for use as a _weapon_, not to _fly_. Listen, I know you never used your chi much, but you have to learn how to control that type of energy now. You don't have it anymore."

He shook his own head before he rose his eyebrows.

"I don't have it anymore, but I need to know how to use it. I suppose the undead has a substitute energy for its lack of life energy, huh? Some kind of undead chi hmm? This is what gives you all of your vampric powers then?"

Eva gave him a small smirk. The boy was, as always, sharp as a needle point. He read between the lines too often, perceived as best as he could and made assumptions when he shouldn't. She bet he was already formatting a few ideas. Looks like she would have to explain to him just how a vampire worked...

"It's called Mortivis. A kind of anti-life force that keeps your bodily functions working...it also, as you claimed, gives us our abilities. Just like a human who gains special strengths as they practice their Chi, so to do vampires and other undead gain when they practice the use of the Mort."

Licking her lips, she continued her explanation. God, she hated talking this much. Yet she seemed to do more of it every single damn day.

"Vampires in particular have a very solid bond with that energy. Many consider them to be the closest thing to life an undead can get, I myself, consider us to be the farthest. After all, don't mirrors show you an exact copy doing everything opposite you?

You already know most of what vampires are capable of, I have explained that to you already, but now I'll tell you what goes where. Flying, mind clouding mists, regeneration, the ability to transform into a bat, which I never got, nor wanted too, so don't ask me how, creating a veil of night creatures, controlling creatures of the night...goddamn, I know I'm missing something...damn, I lost it...

Anyway, those are rooted in the use of Mort they can _run out with your waning energy_. The speed, mental and strength enhancements, plus the "mind control" that comes with enslaving another to you, are from your vampric blood, a part of you. Those don't run out, but hell knows, if we are tired, we are going to move slower, punch weaker, think sluggishly...

All our weaknesses come from our blood too, so you'll always be weak against a silver bullet or a douse of holy water, so no funny stuff with that...now, if you don't mind, take flight already you lazy bum!"

This continued for awhile, Negi trying, unsuccessfully, to get off the ground, and Eva berrating him. It seemed that the ever down to earth Negi was really stuck on the ground good, huh? Yet, Eva finally got tired and kicked him off the roof of the dorm into open air.

I might remind most at this point that the dorm building they had been on was over six stories high. Eight to be exact. That's a helluva long way for a little boy to fall, and plummet like a stone he did.

Eva was about to jump after him even when she caught herself. Since when did she care? She was mothering him, and he didn't need to be mothered, a fact he proved himself when, at the second floor, a powerful gust rattled windows in their sockets, breaking branches and even putting out fires in stoves through open windows.

Negi finally found his wings and blasted upwards as if he were a bullet from a gun, reaching the roof in a mere three seconds, hands down as if they were holding him up. He glared at Eva, but the glare was only half hearted, for he was smirking too.

He was the typed you tossed into the water and expected, not hoped, to swim out and win a marathon, pick up a sunken treasure and save a drowning child, all before returning to you to carry you off a deserted island, to civilization...and by god, he would do it!

+--4--+

The week had flown by so fast. It was hard to believe. Yet the young boy was already packed as he looked over the list in his hands. Alma sat in a corner, looking down upon her suitcase as if it were a waste. Negi had convinced her that, no, she would not be able to ride on one of them, security would capture her in a second.

"Is that all you are going to take?"

She seemed to be lost on the concept of laws and security. Maybe she was stuck in some kind of middle age serf-hood mode, but Negi was a sensible boy, and he was not about to be tossed off the rickety chair that was his waning sanity. Not for a second.

"Wah...where is...ahh! Oww...who put a suitcase there?!"

Negi sighed. Then there was Anya. Who seemed to want to take everything she owned. Which was not all that much admittedly, as she was still quite young and had only been here for a relatively short while...but still.

"Band-aids are in the closet Anya. So is the Bacitracin and Mehthol. As for your socks, I already packed them for you."

Negi didn't turn around to see her pout, and when he did turn around, he was immune to her puppy eyes. If there was one person who didn't understand the fact he had changed just a little bit in the past week, it was Anya. He was still the same Negi, she had been forced away when others dealt with his..."deal with the devil" so to speak.

To her, he had just been sick. He planned on keeping it that way too.

He went to the closet and got the objects he had told her to get, and administered the care she could do herself, but apparently wanted him to do. He also told her to take out some stuff from the bag she had been holding as her suitcase was already dangerously close to being overweight.

In his head, he went over the expense of the trip to London, and then the price for the portal to the magical world. God, if he didn't have to do this, he wouldn't. He was doing it for his mother, and because he wanted so badly to hand his father's ass to himself on a silver platter.

Yet, even he knew that would be hard to do, he had to _find_ the dude first. Forget about his strength compared to the mastodon of a man for a second, this was a game of "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" or maybe more appropriately, Find #$%+!& Waldo.

Arika, Anya, Alma, Chisame, Eva, Issac, Jasnin and Negi...wait, did he just go in alphabetical order? No. Alma should have been first and then Anya. He got the "A's" messed up. Who cared though? Certainly not him as he thought about the sheer amount of yen it would take for them all to travel on a flipping plane to London.

Just the adults alone might rack up somewhere around 30,000 yen, and that was if he could iron out the times properly and tapped a few connections. Pretty cheap actually...but add Eva and Chisame, considered young adults, and himself, Anya and Alma...you had a mess. Not only that, most places only let you have a max of six passengers per reservation, his party had eight.

Oh it was a headache alright, but only because of the money. He had plenty of it for this, but the fact he wasn't the only one paying made it all complicated. Arika was insisting paying for him, but he was the main monetary source, how the hell could she cover it?

She forgets that this is not Ostia, where the fare for her and anyone she wanted could be just about zero on a flying ship. This was the old world, and there were no exceptions here, not even for scorned queens, and her nursing job had only marginally racked up money in London over the years...

Eva suggested flying to London herself, being what she was, but Negi wouldn't have it. Even if he did travel with her...she could easily slip away when he wasn't looking. True he could use his pactio card to find her, but that would waste precious time. Case in point, the leash was very loose on Eva right now, and he didn't want to loosen it so far she could pull it off.

To besides, flying along with Eva alone, in the air...that was something he wasn't quite ready to deal with yet, not with that particular vampire, who was more unpredictable than the weather, for they had the farmer's almanac for that.

Yet, Negi was planning that, somehow, they would all be in the air by Saturday the latest, even if today was Thursday. He walked away from Anya as his phone began to vibrate, and he snapped it off his belt to answer.

Unlike most, Negi's phone almost never went off with a ring, unless something was wrong. Not because he was a teacher and normally in school, but because he had not customized the ring yet, he never needed to use it. Vibration was enough, especially with his ears.

"Hello, Springfield speaking. No I left the keys with you....the hell you mean you can't find them, I gave them to you in your hand. Ohh, you say you don't remember that huh? Let me remind you..."

The boy walked out of the room as he continued his conversation with the unfortunate staff member who had misplaced the keys to the roof, meaning that the gym was cut off from all but a few extraordinary beings who could get to it anyway through more uncivilized methods.

Taking a quick glance around, Anya grabbed a black notebook from the coffee table, a book that, of course, she had been told to steer clear from. This wasn't exactly Negi's journal per se, he wasn't the type to keep one, but this did document a few thoughts and spell work, plans and the like.

She managed to open it just as Negi came back in the room, allowing him to witness her face getting splashed with an excess of ink before the book slammed down upon her fingers, making her howl. The boy shook his head.

He had _told_ her not to touch it. He had spelled it to his hands, so no sticky fingers could open it without a consequence. Seems like Anya was today's sticky fingers. Once, Arika had picked up the book by accident, actually, it just was yesterday, and, as Negi had not warned her about it, she had opened it to receive a similar fate. Anya had been out with Asuna somewhere.

He sent his eyes up to the heavens and walked to save Anya from the "evil" book, as Anya was dubbing it. The thing continued to squeeze upon her fingers, oozing ink, until Negi wrenched the thing from her. All the ink it had spilled quite suddenly disappeared...except the amount that had stuck to Anya's face. She blinked at him.

"I did tell you not to touch the book, didn't I? this thing needs to be protected, as there are spells written in here that would kill in the wrong hands...just be happy the book didn't do anything worse.."

Sending her to wash up, he could only shake his head. Sometimes his life threw him interesting curveballs.

+--E--+

Before I hand over the control, I'd like to say that I am going to try with some fluffy stuff, maybe. I'll try with some more deeply involved emotions though. I am a skittish writer when it comes to these things. Perhaps I'd be suitable to take control of Magica Erebia for myself, I have a hard time describing happiness, but I thrive in writing despair, discord...they say a person can create best form what they have experienced. Tis' true I've seen plenty discord, but come on...

I am not satisfied with this chapter however. I chalk it up to nerves, but also to a kind of inability...anywho. I failed in trying to type it all blind. I was only able to do it marginally.

As per an agreement, I have to allow a skit to take place. I wonder what these guys will do...*sighs and goes to sit in a corner. I might remind you, rules run a little differently outside the story here...* Camera off me! *Hands over a nothing remote to Vastler75*

Vastler75: "Nothing remote?"

.....-_-... ... ... -_- *... It's a remote made of nothing. The strongest material in the universe. Never breaks, never bends, cracks, fails, burns, it's perfect, a grand gift, you should be happy.

Vastler75: "It's also nothing."

Ahh, but that's where you are wrong. It is _everything_. It's powers are unimaginable. Most Authors are holders of something called, ahh, creator's powers, no? An..."imagination"? Well, the remote is a physical representation of the imagination, I.E, it is an invincible force, one who possesses one of these is practically a god here...or a fanfiction author, whichever comes first...by the way, where is your girlfriend?

Vastler75: It's your fic, you're supposed to know. I did ask you for-"

I know what you asked for, but you've got the remote, did you forget? Not that I use the remote for my own fic, it's just a gift for you, take it with you...but what I'm saying is that you could do it yourself...I'm going to sit in the corner now if you don't mind...narrator mode for me again.

This time, it's Negi who walks up to Vastler, skeptical.

"You can spend time with her but if you touch-"

Negi, may I remind you that you are not Kazumi's father? Sometimes, you stretch your teacher role a bit...let them have their date, by god!

"Guilty as charged, but I ain't letting this guy just go, go find her if you want to see her."

Don't tell me you _hid_ her...

"No, she's off doing whatever she does at this time of the-"

Quite suddenly, Negi is turned into a sheep. Wait...a sheep?!

Vastler75: Sorry, I think that was the wrong button...gah!

Put simply, Negi doesn't like being turned into a sheep. He attacks Vastler viciously, but Vast waves his remote threateningly before Negi disappears. Ahh, no, he's a very angry, powerful ant. A vampric Negi ant...interesting....Vast! don't squish him! Ouch...that bite has got to sting. Yikes, you got him! Oh wait, no, he escaped through a gap in the cement...would you go and find Kazumi now?! Leave him be!

Oh, and take your remote with you too, it is a far more sinister tool than the fan pit, I assure you, it can even control the ravenous strength of your fans in that pit, or edit the pit itself...deeper, more slippery, bigger...it can replace a thousand rays...

Vastler walks off with the remote, headed for the first place Kazumi might be, the newspaper printing studio. Yet, he finds she is not there. The remote beeps quietly, but it is ignored. Hello, Vast..that thing has a search function on it! Gods, he can't hear me. I'm only the narrator. Curses.

Finally, Vastler finds Kazumi at the city's shopping center, where, eyes aglow upon see him, she allows him to catch up to her. It was obvious she'd been shopping for something or other, the bags in her hands were the evidence of that.

Vast offers to carry some of them for her, as his hands are empty, a now slient remote in one of his pockets. She allows him to take a few lighter looking ones, but holds on to the others. A quick peck on the cheek silences any protest.

She can't let him see what she bought just yet, can she?

Sure it had been over a year since becoming official together, but it had been to this exact date, a certain amount of years for the beginning of their friendship. A bit romanticizing, she knew, but hey, he might have forgotten, but she hadn't.

They spoke for a bit, walking along, but as silence tends to do, it grew between them until the only sound was that of their shoes together on the sidewalk.

Finally, they reach the fountain, where Kazumi indicates the edge to take a seat. Vast follows her example, sitting on the pool edge. She turns to him, her face a bit close to his.

"You remember what today is?"

He blinks. Not that he doesn't like it, but her face is so close...

"...Thursday?"

She punched him lightly on the arm, breaking the mood momentarily.

"No silly! Besides that!"

_Aww man, I didn't forget her birthday, did I? No. It's too soon for __**that**__ day too. What is she talking about?! I'm gonna get it now._

Kazumi doesn't look mad however, she simply smiles, which eases him a bit. His nerves were very apparent on his face just then...

"Don't get all in a knot. It's not really important, but...it's our friendship Anniversary!"

"Huh? Wait...it's been that long? Oh wow. I thought I forgot something like...hey, don't scare me like that! Geh!?"

Kazumi had pulled out something from one of her bags, a shirt, and Vastler felt he knew where this was going, getting pale.

"Come on, try it! Hey! Heeey...come on, don't be shy!"

The two bickered a bit, and when she lunged at him, he lost his balance, sending them both into the fountain for a douse. They both came up at the same time, sputtering.

"See what you did?!"

"Hmmm, yeah, but I kinda like it. Your hair looks nice wet, hmm Vast?"

With a shove, she sent him back in the water, prompting a protest from him.

"Gah! You're evil!"

"Ahh! I never, me? Evil?"

The two of them ended up laughing in the water, drawing odd looks. One man in particular shook his head before mumbling.

"Youth."


	38. Chapter XXXVII: Travel

Now, all will come forth. I have so many confusing details here, don't I? None of them seem to make sense either. Negi's connection to a ledged, Negi's connection to Jasnin, HeartBreaker's will..His ever increasing power, growing steadily darker, those around him ringing in to circle him...now, the possibility that it's all a lie? His vampric powers, the boy's destiny is up in the air, and what of Alma...? What is her gift really? Is it _just_ illusion? What is the tie to an ancient civilization that Jasnin has? Is Eva's past going to come up and haunt us all now?

Have I dug up all of your questions now? Or are there others that you are pondering? Maybe you've dug deep and discovered secret questions I lay there for you all? I said I didn't like last chapter, well...let's see if I'll like this one.

I'm still thinking about how to improve my "lighter" scenes. That skit helped me a bit, but looking at it, I think it's too slim...use that trump card as soon as possible Galerians, for I am hard at work to improve that chink in my armor... Oh, by the way, I still have that poll up about rating me, of course, the vampress thing got me there but meh. Vampire, vampress, we know Eva's...well, Eva.

I'm also thinking about working on my humor aspects a bit. Horror I think I've down pat. Although I am out of practice...I am trying to, ahh, make my insanity more understandable. The last one had..I don't know, no real connection..Ahh! Vianmor, you staked the problem right on its tail. Little interaction. Most of those in that chapter were paper cut-outs, not people!

I keep finding that people are mentioning Traingham. I am no-where near their skill, I had already put them on a pedestal as soon as I came on Fanfiction. One of the first I noticed...it's been a long while since I read any of Traingham's work too...

+--+

**_Chapter Thirty Seven: Travel_**

Engrossed in his work, Negi didn't pay attention as the flight attendant made her rounds, asking passengers if they would like this, or needed this, and what would they like for lunch, basic, everyday sentences she probably said three thousand or so times a month. When she reached Negi, he waved her off, indicating Anya already had something in her lap, and he didn't want anything himself.

Even if he might have warmed a little to those around him, he was still a gruff business mode to others. Alma sat in front of him in the next row, next to Chisame, who seemed to have her headphones on full blast.

He wondered how people could still hear _anything_ after that kind of din. Yet they did, and no one was complaining about it. He stuck to his writing. He had a publication to finish... otherwise the convention's might think he died or something, they were already up his arse, barking, for he normally sent some kind of report every week, but Mahora had slowed that process dramatically.

Most only gave in a paper when they felt like, which was every few years when they decided to poke at some old topic to keep their jobs. Why the hell they bug him so much was easy. He was young, unbelievably so, and he always had something new to bring up, something radical.

Alma whimpered quietly in her seat. Negi had learned the hard way that she was one of those to whom flying did not agree with, but she really tried to stay quiet. Most would be groaning openly or vomiting up a whole damn sea at this point, the way she had it.

Yet she was just extremely green, her mouth a very thin line, and she jerked forwards every now and again. He had to admire her resilience, but it was okay for her to puke. The worst that could happen was that she killed Chisame's laptop...which was not something that made Chisame happy upon his mentioning it...

His mother sat on Anya's side, looking mildly bored, every now and again twisting her hand to change the station on the provided radio. One speaker was held off her ear, so she could still talk to someone while listening, that someone being Anya normally. Eva sat next to him, playing perfectly into the typical bored person.

A book lay over her eyes, yet she wasn't sleeping, for occasionally she muttered something about killing the pilot for going so slow or some other such violence. In front of her, Jasnin sat twiddling thumbs and craning her neck to look out the window, for the eight of them were in the middle row.

Hey, it had four seats in a line, so it was best to get them all close, neh? Issac sat next to Chisame, actually _reading_ **his** book. The only sound that came from him was the occasional turn of a page.

Negi sat back. Security check had been hell.

Between HeartBreaker, Issac's positively HUGE blade, Jasnin's slim rapier, all of Negi's hidden weapons, Eva's personality, Arika's anklet..._again_, Anya somehow tripping the radar with nothing but a fricken keychain, Alma inexplicably tripping the metal detector and giving security a headache as to trying to find out _why_...Chisame's laptop needing to be checked...

The only people who didn't trip anything were Negi and Eva. Negi because he fooled the sensors, and Eva because...well, she didn't have 'nothin.

Still, security had heard her mouth, and Negi had been forced to, stupidly, draw HeartBreaker to stop her, which started a whole new slew of prodding and poking, Negi was forced to mind wipe the whole lot of them and stuff them in a broom closet...literally.

Idly, he wondered if they had woken up from being knocked out yet, or had gotten out of there. Ehh, not his problem, it was his problem being with a traveling circus, yes, but it wasn't his problem what he did to make sure that circus got where it had to.

"Peanuts?"

The same damn woman again. Didn't he just tell her no? He felt like berating her for her stupidity, but Issac looked up at her mention, and saved Negi any need to explode on the poor woman by calling for them over where he was. Jasnin offered to pass them, so she wouldn't have to move much.

Negi knew he didn't need any damn peanuts...he was using tact. At least some people had tact around here. Indeed, when he got his peanuts and the attendant walked away, he placed them in his pocket and picked up his book again.

The boy sat back in his seat and closed his laptop, which told him it was low on a battery. He searched for the charger and slipped on the converter to plug it in the arm of his chair before deciding it was time for a nap.

Ever since becoming a vampire, Negi found he really didn't sleep anymore. Not quite. He had been such a light sleeper before that now, with his even further enhanced senses, unconscious sleep ranged to nearly impossible. Instead, his body had adapted a kind of waking rest.

He was still aware of all around him, but his body functions slowed. As if in a trance, between wakefulness and unconsciousness, he hovered there as he recharged his strength. He found that he kind of liked this new form of rest, no more waking up in the middle of the night because the damn fridge decided to turn back on to keep the food inside cool, and yet, he was aware of it happening.

A few hours later, he "awoke" to a dry throat, which he knew had nothing to do with a lack of water. Crap. He looked to Eva, who was now bored. She was watching the clouds go by from behind a man who was snoring with his head on the head of his seat...yet Negi's movement made her shift her head to look his way.

She knew a thirsty one when she saw one, he didn't need to say anything. Yet, she had to admit, he was right to make the face he was. What a time to get thirsty, huh? Right in the middle of a fricken forty five hour flight. Stupid thing was, he couldn't even hope for sleep to take him away from the fact. He had just woken up.

Oh well, he'd just have to deal with it, nothing to it, right? How wrong he was. It only took three more hours of ignoring it before it seemed to extend to a need for water too. He felt dehydrated on such a level, he felt that if Niagara falls were right in front of him, it would not quench his thirst...forget about salt content.

+--1--+

He walked along the corridors to the men's bathroom. Finally off the plane, his head panned back to the flight, in particular, a talk with Eva, revealing more complexity to the whole vampire situation.

_"If you are going to drain someone either just take a little bit or take all and kill them. You can't be making vampires of your own quite yet...the results might be dire. Just take a little from a couple of people, boy...you'll find that every vampire has their own..."taste"...a preference so to speak."_

_Negi shook his head and looked about. It was "late" so many were curled up with blankets draped over their seats or something similar. Anya and Arika were among those asleep, but Chisame forged ahead on her laptop, while Alma still looked a bit green. Jasnin had decided to try and comfort her a bit...Issac was simply staring straight ahead, blinking rarely. Did he sleep with his eyes open or something?_

_"Oh? So what's yours?"_

He shook his head at the memory. Just like magic, the undead had their own set of rules and were multi-layered with complexity, all so that they could fit into this world with little qualms. It seemed that they all, just like mages, sure as heck went out of their way to make the life of the mundane...

Well, peaceful. Everyone seemed to favor the "un-gifted" the ones without any special powers, as if babying them, keeping them in the dark of what's really going on, giving them a false pretense of what they had been taught was..."normal."

The result was people like what Chisame had been not too long ago. Hardheaded and narrow minded individuals who stuck to their guns like bigots on a sinking ship. The others who accepted the truth were labeled "insane", or "free minded", the "loose screws" of society.

Again, his mind drifted back, and his back stiffened as he realized he wasn't the only one in the bathroom...

_"Unfortunately, I have a certain taste that is rare these days...the taste for one with a heroic nature...it used to be so common place...chivalry and the like...now? Hah. You'd be lucky to find someone willing to give another a few yen so they can pay for the bus fare. _

_I acquired another element to my taste after a while to survive...one for power. Any kind of power would do...physical, political, mental, emotional, girls in Mahora tend to have such powerful emotions racking them all the time, so I was normally pretty well off..."_

_"So not only do I have to drink blood, I have to find the type that I like. God, it makes it sound like a buffet."_

A buffet. That's what it was, that's what she had told him, quite simply. The mundane were sheep to be flocked and slaughtered at the will of those above them, that is what those who knew the world was more than the mainstream were taught. Magic was a tool to use, to shepherd the weaker ones, the ones who would offer no understanding, no real and true praise...To a vampire or an undead, they were simply food...

_She paused as a flight attendant drew near, fixing her with a glare until the woman moved on. Negi simply blinked when she looked his way, almost as if asking for an explanation, but he offered none._

The other man in the bathroom paid Negi no mind as he went to wash his hands. Negi looked him up and down. He could tell this was a normal man, no magic, no affiliates, nothing. Just a regular guy, walking through a regular life, oblivious to all outside his little box of society. His teeth shifted inside his mouth, his tongue gliding along them inside closed lips.

He could _feel_ the extension of them...soon he would not be able to hide them, they would extend past the realm his closed mouth could hold, if he didn't attack. Still he stayed still, his eyes fixed upon those hands as the water ran over them...so _slowly_...

_"...It is. Just like people picking out things they like in a buffet, there are several types of humans, and all different types of personalities. It's your job to find out what you like, and what makes you want to puke...and believe me, there are types of blood that will make you want to die with the way it goes down. Ugh..._

_For instance...the blood of a liar is bitter to me, which is odd, for Politian's often lie, and they have power. I normally find they are okay if I'm desperate...terrible after-taste though."_

Temptation was building inside him, blossoming into an ugly flower, rearing its head to spout it's vile pollen into his face. Growing, strengthening, his hands shook as he stood upon the stool set aside for the janitor to reach the ceiling with his tools , the stool Negi had borrowed to wash his hands.

_For the love of god, it sounded like they were talking about coffee...He turned to her again as she continued._

_"If I had to guess, you might hate the taste of a liar too. Maybe a business man might be good for you to try, a white collar worker, one of those just barely holding on to his workload with a false smile. That kind of worker who also lies might be bitter, but it's the best you might find at the airport. _

_I have a feeling that an innocent person, like your friend Anya or Nodoka, someone who honestly tries and humorously fails...those might be worth your taste..unfortunate, for unlike me, you are bound to protect those people...you'll need to find a good substitute..."_

The man paused when he saw Negi stiffly climb down his ladder, shaking all over. He went to him and asked him if he was alright. Negi stiffly told him he was fine, but he shook all the harder as he approached. Temptation...thirst...it was such a powerful force...just get away, why didn't he?!

He told him again he was fine, to go on with his business, he'd get over it...just cold, that's all, which was bull, as the heat was quite stifling in the bathroom...

Stupidly perhaps, he came closer, asking if he was sure. Negi turned around, his head down, and for some reason he didn't know, the man stepped back, a shiver sent crawling up his spine. Yet, he had not time to run, or even squeak as Negi lunged at him.

**_"I told you to go..."_**

_((How appropriate that just as I am typing this, "Animal I have become." pops up on Pandora radio.))_

Fangs exploded outwards, sinking deep into the man's neck as Negi's hand slapped against his mouth, silencing him completely as he drew on his power to render him helpless with magic. Deep, deep into his they went, and quivered slightly before they drank of him.

Eva had been correct, he was bitter. More bitter than she had told him he would be, a lowly worker who wanted money, needed a position, had stolen ideas and watched them fail, whose position in the company was shifty at best, one who knew failure.

Yet the boy sunk deep into that life, he was too drained to care. The bitterness was sweet upon the tongue. He had never know teeth to be so sensitive, but those fangs felt every nuance the man had, every inflexion of his personality, through that blood, relayed it as tastes he had never known existed.

He _knew_ now, what a liar tasted like, what failure tasted like, what bitterness felt like to the tongue.

There was no blood anywhere when he was finished...Negi slapped a bandage on the man's neck quickly to seep any blood that might fall and prodded his unconscious, limp form with a finger before delving into his memory.

He pushed aside business plans and appointments irritably as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve, more to rid it of saliva than any blood, he was a clean drinker apparently. He wiped clean the memory from the man's mind, but not before he felt the man's horror, his helplessness, his shock, the pure consuming power Negi had had over him...and it all only served to bolster him.

He had sipped of the forbidden drink of the gods, ichor, the same that ran through their veins. Just so, had he sipped upon what ran in his own veins, he had found his first taste bitter, but oh so _empowering_.

He left the body where it lie. He had given him a feeling of being dizzy, or losing his balance, weak from lack of proper nutrition, the jet lag catching up with him. It would not be odd to find oneself passed out in the bathroom after that.

No recollection of Negi would be there...but because of Negi's skill in this art, the memory would be vivid in his head, and he would forever ponder why he could remember so clearly, the day he collapsed in the bathroom due to jet lag...

The door slammed behind him and Negi calmly went to security to alert them that he had just seen a man collapse in the bathroom. Having already wiped the camera clean, he waited until the security left before wiping the electronic trace from the system as well...turning a cold shoulder to it all, he walked off to find his party.

+--2--+

London hardly ever seemed to change. There was so much historical architecture, and people willing to stand by it until they died, that the place seemed trapped in a time capsule, a moment in time.

From London, it wasn't a long trip to Wiltshire. There were many speculations about that country, but one of the greatest, it's main tourist attraction, was his destination. Stonehenge, a primary example of magic being hidden from the rest of the whole damn world.

For god's sakes, some crazy people were calling it a landing pod for _aliens_, ALIENS FOR THE DEVILS SAKE! ...While Negi didn't contest with the existence of aliens of not, he did know that Stonehenge was not for an alien star ship to touch down and say hi to Earth.

It was built for several purposes, but that wasn't one of them. It was originally erected for a meeting place for mages, a place for them to hold council. Later on, it became the key to connecting the magical world to the old world, and yet still, it continued to gain other purposes, it's astrological value for instance...

The only reason no one fixes the damn thing is because it gained so much damn popularity as a ruin and as a world wonder no one bothered. It was a good cover anyway, let the poor magic less think it was some alien pod. Keep a few of them away and in their beds at night instead of wandering where they ain't supposed to go.

Negi had his hands stuffed in his pockets as he sat on the grass inside a large circle of stone. The place had an invisibility spell placed around it as old as time, one that had the power to make those who were invisible also insubstantial to those unaffected by it, meaning that those without magic (or knowledge of it) wouldn't see or feel the people sitting inside Stonehenge, which was weird, because if a tourist stumbled and landed on top of you, passing through you...well, it was an odd experience, let's leave it at that.

All about him, a circle of seven people enveloped him, and he saw other mages milling about too. Negi wondered what would happen when the spell upon this place would fade. So far, in the years it had existed, it had held up well, but no spell lasted forever...unless it had a self sustaining core, and this had none.

No mage in the current field of Magister or even Magus really knew how that spell worked integrally. Of them all, maybe the principal of the magical academy in London, or the one in Wales, had the best shot at replicating the spell and casting it.

Besides them, perhaps Negi could formulate a spell to emulate it's effect, but he did not know the original spell for Stonehenge's protection, no. He didn't know enough about the monument, couldn't find enough.

Anya burning to the ground one of the main sources of magical knowledge was another thing that helped none, but he wasn't even thinking about that. He had long disregarded that as her fault.

He checked his watch. In about thirty minutes...

It was then that Asuna arrived, dragging Nodoka and completely throwing him off kilter. The hell, was she doing here anyway?! Ahhh, shit. He forgot the art club and the library exploration had both decided to visit Stonehenge as their trips! One for artistic purposes and one for more studious reasons...shit, and _they_ could see him!

Lucky for him, they had seen him here yesterday when they were with their groups, and had not said a word, just ignored him tactfully...so much so he had hoped they had not noticed him, yet, apparently, they had, and were here now, away from their groups.

He counted three. Yue, Nodoka and Asuna. Haruna had been left out in the Mahora festival inner circle, and she had been a dead weight in the night this time too, as it was early morning. Negi licked his lips as they approached...at least they had sense to wear covering robes at this time of the day, even if it was extremely misty.

Yet, the ticket counter stopped them, for they were headed right for Negi, making it obvious that they could see him and that if they could see him, they needed to pay the fare. That stumped them...what fare? What was this...a bus?!

The boy sighed and was forced to leave his group to go up to the man and pay for them. God help him. They weren't supposed to be here, but they would never leave, he knew that. It was easier just to let them come.

Eva's eyes were silently laughing at him as he came back trailing the three of them, explaining Stonehenge's true purpose to them dutifully. Let her laugh. He was doing his fricken job and teaching them goddamnit.

The three joined the group a bit awkwardly, Negi now finding himself in the middle of ten people instead of seven. Which wasn't very assuring, the bigger the party, the more possible casualties. Yue stuck with Anya and Nodoka, as the girl had been drawn into their circle after the pactio bound her to Yue.

Talk ensued, and things seemed to pick up where they had left off. Yet Eva continued to silently laugh, until she leaned close.

_"So, how was your first taste?"_

Negi paused, stock still for a split second. H e would ask what she meant, perhaps even further stall for time by asking how she knew, but he knew those questions would only appear stupid, and the fact that he knew the answers already meant it would accomplish nothing.

Eva had been a vampire a long time, she knew when things happened. Negi licked his lips.

_"Bitter as hell, but I don't think I cared at the time."_

The gathering of magic for the transportation shut them all up and Negi tapped Chisame on the shoulder five times before, pissed, he slammed her laptop shut. The magic could screw with it in ways she did not want to find out how. In other words, time to shut the damn thing off.

+--3--+

Power...it was an odd thing. It drew unto itself. Power to power, to feed off from one to another. As he stepped onto the platform, the silver haired individual felt that tell tale draw. Perhaps this would be...entertaining...after all. He felt an incredible magical force, one he recognized from his last mission in the old world...

The power of the dark evangel, her power now sitting complacently calm after having exploded outwards upon her appearance near him. In such a calm, open state, it was far larger than before...yet...

There was another power, familiar but also not. He tried to place it...but couldn't. It's power was strange, and in turmoil. Between light and darkness, it could not chose, even as it tilted farther and farther into darkness, it still held a core of light.

At peace, he walked along the crowded pathways, watching people stroll by. Children, parents...these were not his concern. His mission was to seal the portal, they would not be harmed here...or would they?

The power was drawing closer, the odd power, it pulsated strangely. Not quite worthy of any concern, but still, ever so interesting, for he was sure he had felt something of it's like before. Yet, before he could make any action, it was behind him, _right_...behind him.

'It's appalling to meet you here. Remember me?"

Quickly he turned around, easily he summoned his magic. Flawlessly he struck out, and unmistakably, he hit air with a stone spear. Once more, the voice behind him persisted.

"Tut tut, and here I thought we were friends! I thought that, after Eva beat the crap out of Sukuna, you'd decide to be nice."

Fate ducked under a high kick, only to be slapped with one of Negi's open hands. By god, he'd just been b!+$h slapped! He recognized him now. Over double in power, and even darker than before, the form of Negi Springfield stood in his way, a typical martial arts stance held steady in the face of the other.

"You should learn to be nice, I only want to talk."

He didn't belong here, didn't have power to match him, and yet still, he stood, and had the speed and gall to slap him no less! Yet, even as this was unexpected, it played into his plans well. He extended his arm to sweep about him, taking all the people in his expanse. He knew Negi's eyes followed his movement.

"Do you really wish to fight in such a crowded area?"

"If I recall, you are the one who initiated the fight by trying to stab me, dunce."

This played perfectly. All he had to do was fight the boy, cause a ruckus. He shot forwards quickly, almost to quickly. Negi twisted away, relying on his enhanced speed. Fate sent his palm out to strike him, but the boy bent inward, extending his fist to hit him in his chest.

To him, hitting his face once was incredible, but twice in one exchange...who was this boy? Fate sent him flying away with a kick and rushed in, giving him no pause as he punched him into a pillar, making it crack.

Negi landed on his feet however, and rushed back at him, reaching almost catching Fate's side, yet he twisted away and tried to elbow Negi in the back, but the boy curled in the air, rolling to avoid the blow.

Landing, he twisted to duck under one of Fate's punches and sent his own fist into the other yet again. Three in a row. A record. Yet, Fate was done playing games, twisting around he shundoed to Negi's back, sending his spear forwards.

_Still_ the boy twisted away! _Still _he lunged at Fate, still he landed another punch right into his face! Fate kicked him brutally, sending him into another wall and bore in at him, pummeling him. At this point, others arrived, One reached to her belt and cursed when she realized she had no blade.

Negi rushed in again, his fist just barely grazing by Fate's middle. His speed was inhuman…perhaps he _wasn't_ human. That was an interesting concept. After all, if the dark evangel was once again walking free, who was to say that the son of the thousand master could not have been turned?

Portal security saves him here weapon wise, but no rest, for Negi kicked him away and jumps after him. Fate takes his chance and stabs at Negi in the air, yet the boy sends a powerful gust of wind, blowing himself backwards, away from the spear.

Touching the ground, he lunges at the silver haired boy, a sword of magic forming in his hands. Not the sword of Haurus...the Executioner's sword. He swings out and meets the other's stone spear, yet in an instant he is gone, and finally, Negi is sent pitching forth, a spear protruding from his chest.

"Gah! Shit!"

Magic pools in the other's hands. He is done playing with Negi. Reaching out, the world goes black as he calls to him.

"A shame..I was actually starting to have fun...but! No. If you don't die, I look forward to our next battle...now, you are in my way..."

Blasting forth, the darkness consumes all. Negi only has time to see the other lazily reach out and destroy a pillar supporting one of the area's buildings. Fist clenching, strength failing, he curses.

How could he proven, so easily, to be weak? What was the purpose of this if he could be defeated so easily? Would his father do the same thing if he finally met him? Just brush him aside like the fly he was to Gunther? Was the world trying to show him just what kind of power existed here?

+--4--+

Anya was in a panic.

There he lay, right next to her, completely still, a gaping hole in his chest, below his heart. She didn't dare look at him, but couldn't help but keep her eyes trained on his face...He couldn't die. He couldn't leave her all alone, not like this, not now.

_No, no, no...please, don't leave me here all alone...it's too scary..._

You couldn't save her from one certain death just to toss her into another. Yet, even as she worried away the time next to him, completely helpless, he stirred. Somehow, he stirred, miraculously, he was able to take a breath, incredibly, he sat up, painfully. Anya yelped and tried to help him.

_He's up?! He's alive?!_

He should really stay down, he knew that, but Negi wasn't one to stay lying about. He pushed himself up, closing his eyes to pain. Gritting his teeth, he recited:

**"Rastel, Mascir, Magister...Precor...lux lucis , signum vulnus , conforto vulnero Aceso... Achelois, lavo mihi in vestri lux lucis, succurro meus in meus vicis of postulo , restituo , Amplitudo Rememdium!"**

Knitting, beautiful and calm power, pouring along his skin and mending him, reaching deep into his body. He could feel the drain, but he could also see the worth. Bones, muscle, veins and arteries, repairing as he watched, all glowing lightly, bathed in white.

Such a power he could control, and yet, it was difficult to form, to hold. Healing magic didn't like him, it did not...yet he held it tightly, not letting it go. Not until he was satisfied that it was finished.

_This type of power needed you to baby it._

Another derivation of a spell, another thing to add to the lists of spells he knew, another thing to bog him down. He was no healer, but he was finding he needed to expand upon this particular art, if he wanted to survive.

_Yet, even so, it teaches me, makes me feel my spell, join with it, meld with it._

Damnit, he should be stronger than this! How could that guy just...brush him aside like a fly?! His power must be insane, and yet, Eva had dealt with him quite well...or was it just that he let her? Well, no matter. He opened his eyes to look upon Anya, her face was pale.

_Poor girl, I must be like a zombie to her, and, in a way, I am._

She had just seen him knit a hole in his chest back together. While she was, in a way, happy he was alive, glad not to be alone, overjoyed that she would not have to get through this by herself...she still wondered...what Negi was really...what was the difference between them, how much of a gap lay?

He had lain there with a mortal wound for what seemed for hours, no blood pouring from it, and yet still, up he had risen and simply closed it up like one would a coffee can, it was as if he were a god, an unstoppable force, a freak of nature.

Negi forced himself to his feet, prompting Anya to stand with him as he surveyed the landscape. She realized she they were both soaking wet, yet that fact didn't perturb Negi any, as his least concern was a bit of dampness.

"Come on. It's time I started tutoring you one on one Anya...and the first step is to find out where the hell we are."

A bit stiffly, he took a step.

+--5--+

_"It is a sin to write this."_

That line echoed in her head, as said by her brother years ago as he read from a book by candle light to her that day. Jasnin shivered. In many ways, her borther was like her father, for they both had none to look after them, neither was their mother present, yet Issac was both old enough and able enough to provide any council she needed, except for things of as more personal, physiological nature.

Yet there was another problem Jasnin had, one of mental stature that Jasnin kept from him, mainly because it had to deal with her love for her family, her love of even her brother.

She had an old race's blood in her veins, and thus, ancient powers, long dead besides for her bidding, lay dormant inside of her. Powers that followed none of the rules ordinary mages had to follow.

Her power was so old, she needed no incantations for it, no runes. The knowledge of her race, upon command, could be called up in spell work, fill her and drape her in its magnificent hue. No words, just power, raw power to crackle from her fingers and be sent forth.

_'It is a sin to think words no others think, and put them down on upon a paper no others are to see..."_

The power to call up darkness to consume one's eyes, blinding them forever with your scorn, or to crumple their limbs into useless hanging appendages...rain fire and ice, lightning, from the sky, bring about plants in full bloom even in the midst of winter...

Or, to use her powers for what they had been wrought for, wrapping and warping minds, controlling them, digging deep into them until they could only think for you, like you, to serve you. Creating beasts of sorcery so powerful they could both be ghostly and deadly. Stealing souls from the very body the belonged to...

Like a mythical dragon, she inherited all the magical knowledge of those who had come before, she only needed to look for it in the recesses of her mind…. Like a vampire, she had no reflection...but it still existed. Her reflection lived as another individual, one she had searched for her whole life, and would continue searching for. For once she found them, she would have to kill them, or be killed by them.

She was what is known as a Snow-walker, an old race of mages who once served the great snake in North mythology, which wraps it's body around the earth, slowly swallowing more of its tail until it crushed the planet in between itself, or until Loki swallows the moon, in which it will bite off the end of its tail and release the earth from its grasp, letting' it's blood run down to enchant animals into beasts as monsters to sail unto the harbor at the end of the world...

It was once thought, that long ago, Cerberus Canyon was once coated in ice, that it had once been the great 'Gunninggagap" at the end of the world, in which, beyond it, lay the land of the Snow-walkers, a time-less area where the world's abominations ran free.

Yet, her secret wasn't this. Her brother knew quite well what she was, even if he may not know exactly all of what she could be capable of. No, her secret from him was how her power deteriorated her morals, how it burned her soul.

_"It is base and evil."_

Snow-walkers were almost always considered vile things with pale eyes and gripping cold fingers, but they might not have always been that way. Their power...it eats at them until even the most noble soul can fall to corruption.

She could rule a world with her power, seep into the minds of all about her undetected and twist them slowly until it was too late, until they no longer had power to resist her, rob them of their health and their continence until they could only think of her, and if not, she could simply rob their soul away...

Anything she wanted could be hers...no one protected their minds, yet they considered it their sanctuary...still, it was the question of what she wanted, right now, that killed her. Jasnin didn't love her family, had no remorse or real feelings for them, except for one of them. She turned to look at her brother, who had finally fallen asleep next to the fire he had banked up.

She tore her eyes away from him however. His mind was an open book, dreams peddling about on an uneasy liquid surface. So easily could she enter it and turn his thoughts, make him think of her even, enter dark thoughts into his head...

No. This was her sin. How could she though? She had read that some people did indeed fall to this plague, but they fought through it, and regardless of how deeply disgusted they were with themselves, they got on with their life.

Yet, Jasnin was not disgusted with herself, which prompted her to withdraw away. What could she say? That she stupidly...had feelings for family that extended beyond the usual bond? What was the usual bond?

How far would her morals deteriorate? Yet, even as she thought this, she was reminded that royalty, and even still today with some rich families, customarily took siblings and other family as mates. She gritted her teeth. It was stupid to think about this...

_"...there is no greater transgression blacker than to do or to think alone..." _

That book had ended with a moral very different than that statement in its first paragraph, but even now, Jasnin was comparing it to her own powers, her power to make others think what she though, destroying their individualism, repairing that sin of thinking alone...no.

She would go to sleep, and in the morning, forget all about this nonsense...yes, that is what she would do...a task she knew was futile.

+--E--+

I wonder if any of you saw that one coming. Ehh. Catherine Fisher owns the idea of Snow-walkers, and Norse Mythology...is Norse Mythology. The book is "Anthem" by Ayn Rand, a book I read a while ago and one that still I find interesting today. Anywho, what can I say? Things are getting deeper. Makes you wonder how so simple and suspense lacking my story seemed to be, heh, everybody kept asking me why I revealed things so quickly, well, now you have an idea. All I revealed then only makes this whole mess seem more twisted. Short chapter to get you all thinking. Hmmm...by the way, now I have over ten times the amount of words the original has, yippee.


	39. Chapter XXXVIII: Unrequited

Ha. You may have realized by now how deep I will go to make my characters as real as possible. Balanced with faults and strengths, desires, pasts, futures... just like any author who cares to do so will. I have showed you their sins to, haven't I? No one is safe; I will leave no story out, mark my words. I'll get to them all, in good time. I already told you, I have finished setting the mines. The only thing left to do is deploy them.

As always, I still don't own Negima, and if I ever do, well...I'd be both incredibly lucky and flabbergasted, especially for the fact that they would leave it to me of all people...Galerians, I wish I could match you there, but that trump of yours will always remain, the ability to draw from more than one language! I try, indeed, I try, and what sticks, sticks, but not all of it does.

Vianmeor, how the heck did I miss the "e"?! Finger must have brushed past it on the way to the "r". So sorry there. As for Nagi against Fate, Fate kicked Negi's arse, which is a nice change, hmm?

I do not own Negima!

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty Eight: Unrequited_**

+---+

They say we don't really chose whom it is we fall in love with, or whom will wrong us, who will fail us... Yet, there is only one word that connects it all, Unrequited. Unrequited wrongs, unrequited love, unrequited faith. Of these, legends state that vengeance shall come. Valkyries, fiery spirits of vengeance, would come down from the heavens and smote thee who have wronged others, scorned hearts.

Valkyries of fire, but what of darkness? Is there such a thing as a vengeful spirit of the deep, dark? A hell spirit that will wreak vengeance on the one who has wronged you for justice? Perhaps. Yet these dark spirits come with a price to pay...

Eva's eyes opened slowly. A pair of lucid red eyes stared back at her, making her momentarily stiffen. They were so close; they seemed to swallow her with their sheer size. She sat up and the eyes moved with her, allowing Eva to see that it was Alma who bore such a piercing gaze.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll get out of my face."

Alma simply blinked. That was it, and one could almost see the heat in Eva's face rise as her very simple request had been just as simply ignored. She felt she should repeat herself, but what use would that do? She simply got up and walked away from Alma to survey their surroundings.

They were in a cave, a cave carved into the craggy rocks of a bare mountain scope, it's surface bare save for a few scant pieces of vegetation. It was steep, and she could see she was quite high up, with nothing but a sea of water underneath.

It was a nice place really. Truly. She turned around and almost took a step off the ledge. Alma was _right_ behind her, and she had gotten there without Eva even hearing her come up. She gritted her teeth. Negi's lapdog was really annoying...

"Listen girl...don't do that. I'll throw you off the ledge if you do, and I don't think you can swim, can you?"

Alma gave Eva a blank, slate stare, which could really unsettle most at a point like this, but Eva blew her off. She walked past the girl, going back into the cave for lack of anything to do. As she sat, she felt her pactio card against her waist. The pactio...

She took it out to hold it up and kicked outwards, for Alma had somehow appeared in front of her again. Only she was far enough that the kick hit air. What, was the girl bugging her so much that she couldn't see straight now?!

"You were about to call master."

"Like hell I was. I was just admiring the card you dope. The hell do you want with me anyway?"

Alma gave no answer, and Eva swore the veins in her head were showing with her annoyance. This girl...was either dense as hell, or weird as heck. She opted for the weird as heck. Ignoring her, she placed her card to her forehead drawing a blink from the other, was that all she could do? Perhaps...but that wasn't any of Eva's concern.

Her card gave her the impression of Negi being somewhere behind her, on the other side of where the cave she was in opened up to the sea. Maybe...oh hell, she couldn't tell, but it couldn't be more than thirty miles...

He gave off the impression of being annoyed. Annoyed and concerned at the same time. There was also a small part of him that seemed distracted, and Eva automatically attributed it to a lack of needed nourishment, not food, blood.

Last she had seen him, he had sported a huge stone spear sticking out of his chest, and healing that, or regenerating that, as well as keeping alive after it, would pull one hell of a thirst from him, yet he had the impression of holding back, perhaps he was with one of the others, like she had been stuck with his annoying, big-eyed, puppy dog of a serf wanna-be.

She considered trying to contact him, as she had already placed the card upon her noggin, but for some reason, she felt she should leave him be for now. Perhaps too much contact with her was a bit too much for the boy at the moment...but, that meant she had to spend her time bored with Alma until she decided it was time to fly outta here...and then she'd have to carry the girl.

Boring. Or would she have to carry her? One way to find out.

"Girl."

"..."

"Oh come on, I know you can hear me, and I know your kind don't like to be called by name unless your "master" does it, believe me, I've lived long enough to see a billion of you all."

Alma fixed Eva with those almost unnaturally large eyes, eyes that made you neglect looking at the rest of her face, which was delicate and pleasant enough, even pretty, if pale. If only the vampire knew how old Alma actually was...what would she say, Alma wondered.

"...Yes."

"If I leave here, do I have to carry you over that damn water, or can you fly yourself?"

"I am able to levitate myself."

"...Good. You should teach the boy."

It's not like she was made the way she was...she had made a lot of mistakes, and done one incredible sin that had led her to be here, or there, in Library Island, near the false Dracula, when she herself was real.

"You have taught master how to fly."

"He's no good at it."

"Master has a quick mind. He will learn."

Yet, in that time frozen castle, it was inevitable that the outside would not wait for her, and that she would lose her time. At first, when Negi had saved her, she had disregarded his clothing as a signature of rank or something, she had worn nothing but a simple kimono...yet, as time went on, it became more and more apparent that something was odd.

"You know, for such a young girl, you give me the feeling you are older than I think you are. Maybe you really are one of those damn serfs, sent forewords in time, heh, _that _would be fun, I know how to break those."

The style of buildings, the way her master and his friends talked, interacted. Her master was supposed to be their sensei, and yet they interacted with him in such an intimate way...originally, she had thought they were his wife and concubines.

"..."

Yet that had been tossed away. Then she had learned the date, and it had broken her manor. She was in a place she didn't belong...shouldn't belong. Her age was long past, and yet, here was this vampire...living for how many untold centuries, the one who had turned her new master into one...what would happen if she became one, if he ordered it? Would she have to serve him forever?

+--1--+

"Jess. Jess...oh come on Jess, don't make me tickle you."

"...Just five more minutes."

Issac rolled his eyes at his sister's sleeping form, her body curled up fetal like near a now out fire. Lucky for her, he had no way out here to tell when exactly five minutes would pass, so he would have to go by how time felt to him, and usually, he underestimated how fast time slipped between his fingers.

He always wondered how she had gone through the selection system of the magical army, and how the heck she had survived the training camps. If he knew that she had used her magic to do it, to trick those about her that she pulled off her tasks with aplomb, what would he say?

The young man would probably would just shake his head and give a half hearted smile. Issac was a live and let live type, and he didn't harp over the past, not really, not unless it mattered. If you punched him today, in a month, if he met you again, he'd probably have forgotten you two even had met. Yet, it you had given him even ten cents, he'd meet you a year later and present it to you, if he had no earlier chance.

The male sent his eyes skyward as his sister rolled in her sleep, kicking a rock and almost beaning him square in one of his eyes. He ducked. Her sheet had slipped some, and, before she had a chance to pull it back up, he yanked it away from her to fold and pack away. Let the cool morning air do the rest.

Customarily, she relied on her long over coat as cover in sleep, and whenever Issac warned about bugs biting, she always told him, simperingly, that sleeping with something covering her there was uncomfortable.

The only thing it served to do in their current adobe was make her cold as she shivered and pulled herself in a tighter ball. Anyone who cared would get smacked by her for a view they could see, but Issac wasn't paying any mind to such a kind of thing.

She was his sister, and the only thing he was concerned with was waking her up. He rolled the blanket into a ball coating his fist and proceeded to box her upside the head with the softened projectile. Once, twice, thrice. Jasnin was up, fighting him off.

"About time you woke up. I was about to get some cold water, and you would not have been happy about that, would you?"

She gave him a sleep clouded look full of...something akin to spite, but the effect was lost with a yawn she was forced to cover. Issac tossed her a bowl, which she caught quickly and her eyes wandered to a pot suspended above a now dead fire. Up to wait for the sun, that was her brother, and ready for a day before it even decided it was time to get around to beginning.

He picked up his blade from where he had stuck it in some rocks last night. He inspected it before tossing it into the sheath for it upon his back. How he managed to do that without stabbing himself or cutting the thing to shreds, or missing, was something Jasnin thought she would never understand.

Finishing her light breakfast quickly, she picked up her belongings, what amount her brother had not taken unto his own load, and exited the little place they had found to see him looking off into the distance, one foot propped up upon a dead log.

She approached him slowly, as quietly as possible, but he still whipped around, army drills making him bristle, but he realized when he saw who it was. He nodded to her simply as she came up, allowing the sun to nearly blind one of his eyes as he looked at her, for it was facing the sun.

"One of these days when you try that trick, I might end up nearly slicing you in half, Jess. If you keep doing the on purpose, when the time comes and I need to rely on my training, I might think it's you instead of an enemy...instead of the other way around."

'I doubt you'll ever get that careless."

She put a hand to his shoulder, feeling it burn there. Her power could so easily enter him, turn him to her will, but she wouldn't let herself think of that. A snow-walker's power was something to be controlled, not utilized.

A power without language, the only race to still use their powers in such a way. A devastating thing, just to have your power respond to your heart's desire...a dangerous thing. It burned, but she ignored it and pulled herself back to the present, as her brother was outlining travel plans for the day...

+--2--+

"Anya, stop looking at my eyes, focus on the chest. Place your feet farther apart, more to the side... there you go. No, focus on the chest area, that's what will move first. Forget about my eyes, you're not fast enough to interpret what I want to do by them yet, and they can trick you besides...now...move!"

Negi swung both his arms out, hands coming together as if to crush Anya's head between them. He didn't move to quickly, not wanting to access his vampric speed, but he moved fast enough, yet, Anya, who had listened to him in focusing on the chest area, caught the movement before her peripheral vision would have, and shot up her arms to block Negi.

He nodded. Good. They were getting somewhere. He tried again and once more, she blocked, although she was slower this time, she thought he had been done. Again and this time she was about the same, but on the fifth try, she was faster, expectant. He backed away.

"Good. Now let's see how you can dodge a kick, shall we?"

Only paying attention to her, she was his only student at the moment, and Anya thrived in one on one environments, Negi could see that. The continued for quite a while, even into the darkness, for what Negi was teaching wasn't strenuous, it was training the reflexes and developing muscle memory, but it was ever so useful, the basis of all hand to hand, good instincts.

"Okay, I'm behind you now, and my hands are on your shoulders. What are you going to do? No, don't try to turn around; I've got you tight...ohh… nice!! That might work, but I'm a bit too fast for a back kick to there, Anya...

"Don't do that though....no, men will be expecting that. Raise your right arm, it does matter which one you know. Good. Now, I want you to turn as quickly as you can, and bring your arm down, over mine, so you trap them both underneath the crook of yours. Yes, like that. Now you have your left hand free, right? Both of mine are trapped....

"Turn back around and let me put my arms on your shoulders again. I want you to, as fast as you can, raise your right and turn around, bringing it down and, while you do that, use your left arm to try and punch me in the face....ready...go…Ha!"

He slammed his hands on her shoulders and watched, calculated, as she rose her right and swung around. At the last second, he retracted his right hand before it got caught and blocked her blow.

"Good! No, no, don't look like that, you think I'd let you punch me in the face? That was good though, most won't be able to block that when they're not expecting it...now, I think it's time we took a meal break, huh? Okay, I left some food in my pack, you can go get it from there, and I'll go looking around to see if there's anything I can find for later..."

It was only when he had left Anya behind in the bushes did Negi narrow his eyes. He was thirsty again, god damnit. Thirsty as hell. Eva had told him animals could work, but they were not quite as nourishing, often bitter... and you needed a lot of animals to substitute a human's blood, quality over quantity, she had told him.

He went off into the forest, looking for something, anything. A squirrel scampered away from him; almost as if sensing his intent, but he wasn't interested in something so small anyway, it would only serve to make him want more...and he wasn't interested in making any vampires squirrels...wait...didn't Makie shout something like that on the first day of class?

Who cared?! He forged ahead, ants, more Squirrels, once a tiny fox, a rabbit, nothing useful. Then he saw it. A deer. It bolted from him, a pure instinctual movement, but it set a fire upon Negi. He lunged after it, going into clearer spaces, more open areas, following the animal as it dodged through trees.

He paced himself. Deer's were sprinters after all, it wouldn't last long against him, it would need to stop and rest...and rest indeed, it needed to do. It stopped near a pool of water, heaving as Negi kept his distance in the trees. Silently, he crept near as it fanned about, looking for him. It bent to drink its water...

Negi had no luck in catching the deer however. for as he lunged forward, he had to diverge from his path, for a roar blasted in his eardrums and the deer stood stock straight before trying to bolt. Yet, it was caught in the claws of an immense beast, and Negi looked up into its golden eyes.

He was having his first stare down with a dragon. A friggin dragon. Negi blinked as the supposedly mythical animal paid him no mind, ripping apart the deer in front of his eyes to take a juicy bite of its hide.

Blood rained from the sky. Blood. The scent drove Negi nearly mad. That was _his_ prey...his. Magic pooled in his hands and quite suddenly, the executioner's sword was in his hands, shining. Negi rose it and shot at the animal, roaring at the top of his lungs and making the beast look up momentarily. It paid him no mind and continued to eat.

Big mistake. The vampric boy teleported to the dragon's back, grabbing unto one of its spines and stabbing out with his blade, striking down as hard as he could on scales. The sword sunk about four inches, making the dragon shriek in pain, before Negi had to pull it out and strike again. This time he slashed at the back of its neck, hacking at it.

Thick fluid oozed out from the cut as the beast threw Negi off, swiping at his downed form, but Negi rolled away, bringing his blade to slice at the fingers of the dragon, nearly amputating them and making his opponent roar in pain. It swung again from a different angle, and Negi jumped up on its wrist, slamming his blade down upon the joint and feeling the tendons strain and sever.

Leaping away from another slash of claws, the boy landed on the ground, launching back up in the air to slice at the soft underbelly, once, twice, thrice...no blood fell, his magical blade froze the very area it cut, disintegrated atoms into the void of absolute zero... The dragon's roars fell on deaf ears.

It spread leathery wings, beating hard against the ground as it tried to rise. Negi gathered his energy as the beast took flight, and with a powerful gust that failed the first time, he sent himself awkwardly into the sky to slice right through one of the dragon's sinewy wings, making it flip in the air, undulating it's pain before crashing to the ground.

Rushing at the great lizard, Negi bore his sword up and came down upon the dragon's legs with all his might, managing to slice halfway through one of them, all the way to the hard bone. Negi withdrew his blade and slashed at the beast's neck, severing its voice.

The boy gathered his power together, coating the sword in a magical aura of electricity before sending it forth with all his strength into the chest of the dragon, reaching just past the heart to strike right through the spine.

Paralyzed, the gasping for air was finally silenced. Negi looked upon the soft under-skin of the neck...who said he couldn't? He approached slowly, watching as golden eyes fixed upon him. The beast had little life left, and its last memories for the next generation...

Would be of Negi, lunging forth and latching unto it's neck, lancing pain up where it could still feel, and a feeling of being drained...drained....weakness flooding me...the blood was sweet, so, so sweet. The boy found himself latched on, unable to stop the flow into his body, into his being, fortifying him, being stored away, filling his veins.

Crisp, sharp, powerful, instinctual, one who preyed on other, beasts, the top of the food chain. Thoughts rushed through Negi's mind, of conquest, of the hunt, of flying in an open sky under a warm sun, or of curling up tight and warm in the dead of winter. Or battles one, fought, deer bounding across an open field...meat.

Negi tore himself away, reaching into his pockets to draw out a pint of water. He tossed away the water, and drew upon his power, drawing the blood from the dragon in front of him and making it pour into the bottle, compressing it into the tiny space, filling it up to the top and sealing it tight.

He stood, quickly, the ground rushing away from him, and his hand felt his cheek, warm, alive. At peak. Perhaps Eva had never tried to drink of a dragon's blood, why when you have an equal or greater quality available for so much less work?

Still, as the boy approached the beast again, completely drained of blood, it's eyes clouding over with a dying brain, the boy couldn't help but think that he'd prefer this kind of chase. It whet the appetite...satisfied him oh so much more...

The cold blade of Eva's fare sprung from his hand, eager, quick. Ever since becoming a vampire, spells could be incanted mentally so much easier, faster. He had become aware that humans had a time delay. Their brains had to relay the information they were thinking to their bodies, so, even after a spell was cast, there was a tiny delay as the body awaited for the signal to send the power forth, activate the spell.

Child vampire as he was, he jumped up, as high as he could, soaring almost four feet into the air before twisting, flashing out his blade as gravity grabbed him and he flew down, using his strength, momentum and weight to slice right through the dragon's neck, severing head from body.

"Rastel, Mascir, Magister..."

As nice as it would be to have a zombie pet dragon, Negi wasn't interested. He landed lightly and walked a distance before he turned around, calling upon his power. Perhaps severing its head had been enough, but you could never be sure...

"To Sumbolaion Diakonētō Moi, hē Krustallinē Basileia! Epigenēthētō..."

He was almost sorry as he gathered the power about him, concentrating it, controlling the spell to only hit a small area, one blast. He gave a half smirk. He was feeling sorry for a dead dragon he had just killed. Was he a piece of work or what?

"Taiōnion Erebos, Haiōnie Krustalle! Pasais Zōais ton Ison Thanaton, hos Ataraxia! Kosmikē Katastrophē!"

He turned around as he sent the spell forth to encase the dragon in eternal ice. Negi walked away, back into the trees, but he turned back his head to the right for one last look, his left hand raising up.

He snapped his fingers simply, mentally releasing the last word of the spell, shattering the glacier behind him, the sound sending small animals scampering, tiny daggers of ice stabbing through leaves as Negi left the scene...

+--3--+

Yue closed her eyes to all of the incredible sights in front of her, there were too many to absorb all at once, too many overwhelming facts. Chisame also seemed to be overwhelmed, but for her, all this was just an annoyance. Just another world, with problems of its own, only difference was magic really.

_It's so different here...is that a mixed breed?!_

Arika was acting as their personal guide through the city, as the three of them had been bunched together, and she knew the most about this place, having lived here most of her life. Yet, even for her, things had changed, and she went around with a hood tossed over her head, employing royal magics to create the same kind of disguise she had in London, before she had realized who Negi was.

Royal magic could attack another's mind and read their thoughts, but it could also hold a more passive role, simply making one's brain misinterpret what their eyes saw, in other words, she could cast an illusion on herself in which nothing changed about her actual appearance, but instead how everyone else saw her.

It was a tricky thing, but it was the best she had at the moment. She led the way through the crowded streets, leading the two teenagers upon a merry stroll to some run down pub or other. They had been supposed to meet one of Nagi's friends at the airport, but apparently, that option was gone, and, while Arika was pissed the man had not shown up, she was glad in a way that he had managed to escape the hands of Fate.

Fate, she explained, was an enemy of Negi's father, a being whose power was incredible if not equal to Nagi's. A being that always seemed to rise back up every time Nagi defeated him, this was the _third_ time she had seen him around.

Twice, she swore Nagi had killed Fate, and now, here he was for a third round, and Nagi was nowhere to be found... Instead, he had attacked her son, and she wasn't even sure, in the aftermath of that attack, if he had killed him...again. Yes, she said it; he had almost killed him _again_.

_...but...can you kill something already dead?_

The boy had already died once, and the question of whether or not he was alive as a vampire held the same answer as to whether or not he was "alive" now, that answer being, simply, that she did not know.

Was a vampire alive? Scientifically, she'd have to say no...Life was defined as the ability to grow, interact with one's environment, reproduce, and perform basic chemical actions that kept them regular and...well, functioning.

As much as she hated to admit it, Negi had a zero chance of reproducing now, and he could never physically grow anymore. Not that the fact she would never see grandchildren from him was the main point, although it did tear at her...it was the whole thing about him being alive or not that killed her.

Should she grieve for the death of a son who was still moving around and talking to her? A son who still went to work, brought a paycheck into his house, who thought and produced ideas, contributed to society, a son who still did everything he did before? Or should she just assume he was alive and forget about it all?

_Or am I just over thinking things here?_

Nagi wouldn't have cared, not really. His son was still moving, and talking, hell, if no one told him, he wouldn't be able to tell the difference...until Negi decided he was..._"thirsty"_ that was. That wasn't what she should be focusing on now however.

What she should be focusing on was her illusion and where she was going. Still, she found her mind being drawn back to Fate. Each time he was reborn, he seemed to become stronger, every time, he was smarter, each time, he was more human seeming. From a simple puppet to something that now seemed to express...emotion, in a small way.

Finally, she found the pub she was looking for, and ushered Yue and Chisame in the door, telling them that she would be there in a few seconds. Once they were in, she went quietly into the empty alleyway next to the pub.

There were too many people in there, she couldn't use her illusion trick there. To many eyes, in to close proximity, to many of them with magical power, unstable due to their intoxication. She reached deep into her pockets and pulled out a piece of paper. On it was an incantation.

She had known it was wrong, but she had, when she had tried to sneak a glance into Negi's journal book, found a spell for changing one's looks. The spell that was embedded into every magical pill, the spell that the chemicals inside that concoction let loose, only, when casting it yourself, you had to substitute that power with your own.

It was obvious this would drain her extremely. Arika had never been one for much magical power, it was the type of power she held that gave her an advantage in situations. Her hand shook slightly as she read form the paper, the magic coming about her.

She wasn't used to magic consuming her like this, normally she sent her magic outwards, spiraling away into another's mind, there was nearly no connection between caster and spell, that technique was a requirement. If you connected yourself, you would feel the other's pain, their emotions, as if they were your own, it would consume you...not only that, but it would leave a trace.

_Levo mihi , muto mihi. Juvenis, parumper dum, foris muto ut compositus mens votum , paulisper. Verrimus meus vox quod me change mihi, paulisper..._

Condensing, she felt herself shrink some, lighten, around her, the magic seemed to become brighter, sharper in detail, not by much, but still some. When the spell dissipated, she stuck out one of her hands to brace against the wall, breathing.

Finally catching her breath, she stood up straight to access the damage. She was perhaps in inch shorter, nothing much, but mainly, it was her apparent age that would strike anyone observing her. She didn't look a day older than eighteen, and her hair fell right down to the end of her back, whereas before she had kept it strictly to the middle if not a bit shorter.

She was brash, straight, and unconquerable. That was her stance. A half smirk graced her lips. This spell worked better than she was yet able to see, but she could feel the difference, life and energy danced at the edges of her finger tips, and that unstoppable feeling was unmistakable.

Tossing her hair back with a wave of her hand, she exited the alley and entered the pub, but not before quickly braiding her hair and tossing on a hood. Common sense before brute power, Arika...

She weaved her way through the occupants of the pub and found Chisame and Yue in a corner, away from the noise. Luckily, no drunken fool had tried to pick them up yet. Yet when Arika approached, removing her hood, she received two blank stares.

"Uhhh...hi?"

She swore, she could bash the two of their heads together right now. You mean to tell her they couldn't recognize her?! The hell, she didn't look at that different!

"Were waiting for someone so..."

"Would you shut up, before I crush both your minds into a gelatinous pool? It's me you dolts!"

"Ehh?!"

"You're the old hag!?"

"WHO YOU CALLING OLD, YOU THUMB SUCKING E-GIRL!?"

Yue had quickly gotten over her moment of density, quickly enough to grab Chisame before she tried to launched herself at Arika, who was glowering, daring her.

"Now I know where Negi-sensei get's his tongue from I suppose..."

+--4--+

"Asuna, look out, to your left!"

The pigtailed girl in front of Nodoka quickly bolted off to her left just as a giant clawed hand swiped there. Twirling her blade expertly, she allowed her magic to run along its edge before running up, slamming it into the dragon's shoulder, drawing a roar from it.

She jumped off its shoulder just as it swiped there to catch her. The girl landed on her feet, blade striking earth to balance her. Nodoka yelled a warning and she jump back in time to see another appendage slam into the ground in front of her, and she slashed out, cutting into the scales with difficulty.

Another roar and it withdrew again, watching Asuna with bright golden eyes for a few precious seconds while the girl allowed her power to flow along her blade, intensifying. She recalled a few tricks Negi had been teaching. Yet her thoughts were tossed away when the beast struck forth, quickly.

Leaf Shield!

She twisted off to the side, swinging her blade out. Twirling her wrist as she spun the blade, achieving a double effect that removed any air from the area she swung, and also creating a vicious fan blade for dicing, a move adopted form what Negi had shown her, Foliage Defense.

Another roar as the enemy retracted it's arm, laced with bleeding slashes. Yet the girl kept spinning, now holding the blade above her head as she twirled it like a baton. She threw her blade, making it fly away like a boomerang to cut through the dragon's soft belly before returning to her, the Arial Disc.

Nodoka almost dropped her book from the earsplitting roar the dragon issued.

"Damn thing makes so much noise, but he ain't so tough! Ahh!"

The girl jumped off to the side, grabbing Nodoka by the shoulder to save them both from a powerful blast of fire roaring from the mouth of their opponent. Who said he could start to spit fire now, huh?!?

Pooling power in her blade, the girl eyed the beast. There were several things she could do...but just about all of them required close contact. Asuna was a close on fighter, and Negi had realized that early on, her range attack strength sucked, so he limited her training to close on ones. Arial Disc had been one of the few successful range techniques Negi had been able to teach her...

She bore in like an arrow from a bow, blade out as she gathered energy around it and stabbed it right into the dragon's gut, slashing it upwards once inside up as high as the animal's ribs would allow. She retracted just in time to avoid it's counter.

"Asuna, to the right! Gah! Watch out, it's going to breath fire again! Now to your left! Duck!"

The book in front of Nodoka constantly updated, playing out a story in her hands, a live fairy tale that she could both see and read happening, an ultimate experience in which she could take a peak and see what happened next before it actually did. To the left, dodge to the center, duck, pivot to the right, jump back, the commands came quickly, and were obeyed just as quickly.

Together, Asuna didn't need to think about what to avoid, only listen. Her mind could focus on what to do. Nodoka didn't need to fight, just focus on what to avoid. Working as one, they were a force to be reckoned with, and when Asuna slashed through the scales of the wyrm's legs, it trumpeted a final call before spreading wings and taking flight, sending her sprawling on her knees with the gust of wind.

"Hey! Get back here you overgrown iguana!"

Yet, even as she grabbed her blade from where it had flown out of her hands, the dragon had already gained too much height, and was painstakingly beating it's wings to get away, bleeding from numerous wounds. Asuna stood there, breathing heavily. Damn thing.

Nodoka approached her, closing her book and canceling the artifact neatly, taking the card as it reformed and slipping it in a pocket. Asuna had broken the lock on their weapons, but the meant that Asuna and Nodoka held all of the parties weapons...except for Jasnin and Issac, who had licenses...

But Negi's weapons were split between the two of them, and Asuna held his pactio card, useless to her, at her side. Eva had somehow managed to slip her copy past the security...blame her evil mage powers or something...

Still, Auna doubted Negi needed his weapons really, if he was even still alive anyway. That dragon could have been blown to bits against something like Eternal Glacier, or Thousand Thunderbolts. Hell, one of his punches could shatter any boulders that came his way, who said he couldn't knock one of these hard-heads silly?

Just like before, in the library, Asuna severely doubted the boy had kicked the bucket this time. Hell, he was had died already, right? Only to come back tougher. In Library Island, he had done the same. He had yet to meet that thing that would ultimately defeat him, she was sure of that one.

Question was, if she was right, where the heck was he?

+--5--+

Negi contracted his power about him, condensing it as he gathered his strength. He wanted to show her, just what he was building up to, what he wanted Anya to eventually learn, for, out of all of them, this was her specialty, fire.

"Anya, you must understand, I believe you have the potential for this. Don't look at me like that. You've seen the power of those spells, haven't you?"

She had, but to cast it herself, she had never cast a spell without fire to help her, even her combo arrows, which had lightning and the sword of Haurus and Cage, which had darkness, used fire as a proxy. She even told him so, she never managed to let go of fire...but the boy shook his head.

"I'm not telling you to leave fire behind. I never said you were casting the thousand thunder bolts or Eternal Glacier, did I? I said I want you to be able to cast on that level, eventually. I have ten years, until you reach the age of eighteen Anya, my goal is, by that time, you'll be able to cast the spell I am about to show you, easily."

His power pulsed about him as he gathered his force. He had never cast this spell before, so locked away it was within his mind, yet he was confident he could. There was no reason he would not be able too, but still it was a delicate thing.

A mage could not just cast any spell they learned, they needed to feel it, be able to have an affiliation with the element, otherwise, they had difficulty, like Negi did with healing spells, or couldn't cast it at all, like Anya with water arrows. Still, the boy knew he had fire on his side...but this was a great test.

Was it on his side enough to cast its end of the world level, Primal Prominence?

"Rastel, Mascir, Magister..."

He was putting too much power into it. He realized that even before he started, and held back on the reigns. The two of them stood in a large clearing, and Negi stood with his feet apart, his eyes closed as his two fists pushed against each other.

"Τὸ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα..."

Anya took an instinctual step back as the power about Negi rose. Magic sprung to life visibly, ringing him, encasing him in its embrace. Anya may not be able to tell very well if a magical source was near, like most mages, but she could feel Negi, his power beating down upon her door, making her body draw back, shrink.

"βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή...!"

It bore such a familiarity to the other two, as it was of the same seed. After these, there were few others more powerful, the end of the world classes only trumped by the Ultima, Omega and Alpha classes.

όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs!"

Admittedly, even Negi didn't know all of these spells, not even after all of his painstaking research. The Alpha class spells seeming to faded into obscurity, and the Ultima and Omega classes only existing in arcane texts, and Negi's memory.

**"****Πρώτη****Τονίζονται****!"**

The fire exploded outwards, centering upon the air in the clearing in front of the two of them, setting all inside ablaze, and beyond, the fire was so brilliant, the sun seemed to dim, and Anya couldn't watch, it was too bright, even as Negi's eyes squinted and his hair flew back.

The heat was incredible; a single second in it and already her face was covered in a film of flash perspiration. Coat flying back, the boy looked like a specter of the darkness against the inferno in front of him, and yet, it was not complete. It burned away, consuming itself and the air about, and finally, the fire imploded upon itself, shrinking in as the air it ate up made it die.

The vacuum was stable for but a second before Anya was pulled forward, air rushing in to replace what was lost. Negi stood his ground and grabbed the girl's arm as she flew by. He grinned openly at the success of the spell.

Anya could only feel terrified of it. He wanted her...to be able to do that?! To consume all in one's field of vision with flame, consume all of the air and leave all breathless, break everything into its primal ingredients and fling them back out into the world?

That...that was too scary. She could never get enough power to do something like that so easily...could she?

_Should_ she?

+--E--+

It seems like I have shortened my chapters to this, or is it a lack of something to write about? I feel like I am waiting, waiting...for what though? I believe I know, but I can't tell you, grrr! As always, I feel as if I am missing something, or that something is wrong. Still, if I wasn't this picky, I wouldn't be able to improve. Mesh. I really need to improve...I have a goal to reach.


	40. Chapter XXXIX & XXXX: Duo Duo

I decided to "back up" a current version of my story so that in case something happens, I still have it. Yikes, that's all I have to say. On WordPad, the thing is 1,610 Kilobytes. It's 1.6 Megabytes of pure text...and I don't want to know what'll happen if I try to save it on word. 560 pages of nothing but my nonsense. Impressive. Any who, I'm bored, so let's scram.

I wonder, would it make much of a difference if I were a computer program written with Visual Basic? Nah, no programmer could make something like me. They'd be more insane than I am, and a super genius to boot, not only that, the program would be huge...I've been thinking about making a chat bot that actually thinks, but people would grab their pitch forks against me, screaming something silly like "I Robot" or "Skynight."

Alfador, they aren't here! Konoka and Setsuna are enjoying a nice vacation somewhere in Kyoto! The sports girls are with their teams playing off somewhere around the world! Kotarou is sulking around near Chizuru and Natsumi, also with the acting troupe somewhere in Egypt! As for a waifu, you hit the nail on the head good man. I've never even had a girlfriend! I must have no life. No...perhaps it's just because I'm too busy running around like a fool being a renegade student teacher and insane boy. Don't pity me.

Oh, and yes. Arial Disc is owned solely by me, unless someone I know nothing about thought it up first. I mentioned it earlier in this story somewhere; Negi used it with HeartBreaker in practice. Having been perfected now, it is passed to Asuna. Leaf Shield too, is something I thought up. She had other techniques, but I don't want to spoil the fun. Typically, all these guys are speaking in Japanese, just, since this is an English fiction...why not ask her yourself?

Havelock Vetinari, how nice to hear from you again. You see, every mage gathers their power. Some do it during a spell, but Negi likes to gather his power _before_ he actually begins to chant, that gives him a head start, you see? The same thing happens when you force magic into a blade, you're not casting any spell, just moving you magic around, like Chi. This approach also means that the boy can bunch up his magic in one place, so that when he enters a rapid fire mode with spells, he won't have to stop to gather power, just cast one after the other after the other.

As for Negi drinking of the blood a dragon holds...he, he, he...I'll let you see for yourself, what it does to the boy. Now, to look at Fate's sins...yes. I do have a plan for that one, and yes, I do have a theory as to why he keeps getting brought back, and it does have to do with a few..."sins" he committed. Good eye, now... awkward wording...typo's again? Or...I think you are picking up on my attempt to be funny, using more "colorful" ways to connect words together. I'll stop if it bothers you...but first, the chapter!

I'm trying something different again. You know how I used to give themes for the Challenges? Well, I normally don't do that for Young Negi chapters, as they take quite a bit longer to create, neh? I only once included a song as a kind of "song-fic" style chapter. However, now I will tell you that I think this chapter is mainly inspired by: "Bittersweet" by Plumb. I also changed my "+---+" formation again. I made it more of a sight aid now. Okay... I hope this author's note is long enough for you!

I don't own Negima, silly!

+---+

**_Chapter Thirty Nine: Reconnaissance_**

Negi's bangs flew back as he stood, a lone figure against the rocky, barren cliff. The night air whipped at his face, and dust, dust that would have brought stinging tears to lesser eyes, danced about in the moonlight. The boy tossed his head, a large skeleton key clasped tight in his left, while HeartBreaker lay bare in his right, shining a defiant blood red.

A black cape flapped behind him, its red velvet insides reflecting the sheen of blond hair. Eva stood next to him, looking out upon the same scene he was, the darkness consuming all to the eyes of a mere human, but these were vampires. Powerful, proud vampires.

Yet, even as the boy watched the scene in front of him, the sound of gravel being kicked aside, of dust ground underfoot, made him turn and observe. A lone figure, cloaked in mages robes, ascended up the steep slope.

Nay, the figure was far from lone. Behind them, several cloaked beings followed, silently. Negi watched as they approached. A pale hand extended from the leader's cloak, clutching a tall staff. The hand was young, strong.

A cross flashed from its neck as it sent its staff down into the earth once more, leverage for its climb up towards him. Negi watched as it rose. Its light brown cloak, tattered, flew lightly in the breeze. The boy could make out a short blade thrust into the belt of the other, and the boy felt their power.

Brilliant, glorious power, power that shone to oppose his, which unfurled and wrapped about him, defiant. When they came close, Negi could see it was his inner circle, Asuna, Anya, Alma, Chisame, Nodoka, Yue...only his mother and the two siblings weren't present.

The boy stood tall against the stranger, who lifted a hand to toss back their hood, allowing Negi feast his eyes upon the other, and once again, Negi felt that clawing urgency to escape, to overcome…

He was staring at himself, he whom smiled benevolently in the face of his gritted teeth. Negi's fist exploded with dark power as he sent it flying forth, like lightning, the speed it flew, and yet, the other caught his fist calmly, his own hand flowing with calm magic of light.

Struggling against the other, he pushed; he was stronger, faster, better. Yet, in the instant the other's foot slipped, Asuna stepped forward, her hand coming upon his shoulder, and the boy gained strength, his stance holding.

Each time Negi pushed forwards, another stepped forwards and lent the boy their strength, until they stood on even ground, one of light and one of darkness, Negi attacking, the other defending. More of his party stepped forwards, and Negi feasted upon the rest of his class coming up the cliff, forcing him back, and back...

He turned to Evangeline, only to see she had faded from sight, a whisper in the wind. Alone. That was the pathway he had always chosen to travel, was it not? Even now, Negi could see his mother climb up to join the party against him...his power burned against his veins.

More, he needed more! Against this light, he felt weak, and weaker he was growing still against this force. The other reached to his neck and lifted the cross. The Immortal Rosary...he held it high, above the moon even, it seemed to climb.

It touched his skin, and he felt it burn, cut him, sear his skin and through it his very soul. Consumed with pain, Negi could only scream. Holy light, consuming all, her fought, struggled, wrenched the cross from the other's hands, tossing it over the cliff. Yet the boy calmly held out his hands, and into it, the cross returned, slashing right through his chest as it came to the light, drawing precious blood from him.

It was clean as it landed in the boy's hand, and he closed his bright fingers against its shaft, spreading wings of pure light to take to the sky, from up close, they looked like an angels... The cross in his hands shifted, lengthening, forming its blade...

A cross, when turned, does indeed, show itself to be God's blade. The other came down, quickly, too quickly,_ impossibly _quickly, descending from the heavens to stab right through him, running him through with the burning blade, searing his flesh and consuming his vision with brilliant bright light...

It was his screams that he awoke to.

Negi stood there, breathing heavily as he looked off into the night from where he now stood, atop a large boulder. It appalled him, it did, how well Anya did sleep. He himself, well, he wasn't so sure. He had just had a dream, and he was supposed to not be able to "sleep" anymore, right? Well, no one had said he would stop dreaming, but he had grown accustomed to dreamless nights.

It was quiet here… that was why. Too quiet, the silence pressed upon his ears, beating down upon the door to his soul, if it still resided there in his body that was. Was that what the dream was trying to tell him? He had lost his soul to his ever growing strength?

Or was it telling him that his lone wolf style would lead him to destruction? If that was the case, screw the world. He was going to be destroyed anyway, being a vampire didn't change the fact he was a damn catalyst.

Closing his eyes, he sighed heavily. He breathed deeply of the forest air, crisper than any Tokyo had to offer him. As a vampire, one seemed to gain a new respect for the life about them, which was ever the irony. You don't know what you have, truly, until it slipped, gone from your hands.

Negi gathered his energy about him, practicing what Eva had taught him, calmly drawing upon what she called his Mort to lift himself into the skies. Slowly, surely, he floated upwards, the heavens reaching down to finally except him.

Weightless. He was weightless in the air. He felt as if he were perpetually falling, his body struggling to stay up in a constant downwards spiral, like in an elevator going down ever so quickly, yet, still he was, in the air.

Lifting himself higher, he touched down upon the branch of a tree, so lightly he touched upon it that it did not even seem to acknowledge his presence. It was a tall tree, the one he had chosen. He walked along the branch, reaching the trunk to put a tiny hand upon it, feeling the rough bark.

To think that single small hand, his left, he grasped the lives of so many in its hold, the ghostly images of those it affected encompassing a gravity far wider than its actual stature. Live had been taken with it, ripped from their chests, and in the same breath, life had been saved with it.

Off in the distance, Negi saw a mountain range, barren and alive all at once, capturing his gaze. It was the only landmark for miles. They would head there then. He would practice flight tonight, let him stretch unpracticed wings so the morning would dawn upon a fledgling fast losing its soft down.

Quietly, he jumped off the branch he stood upon, catching himself awkwardly on a cool breeze. He would learn, and soar among the skies upon wings fashioned from the feathers he had plucked from the fallen.

**+--1--+ **

Deep into the foliage they plunged, Issac was in front, his blade nothing but a silver arc as it flashed out, everywhere, clearing the path for them. Jasnin stepped quietly behind him; it was her job to listen, ears piqued for an odd sound, something out of place. As rear guard, it was her job to alert front guard of any blind side assaults.

_Always he puts himself in front, as if he still thinks of me as something needing to be protected._

In this mode, one could forget their feelings, just let training take over them, forget about the outside and only focus on the mission, the mission at hand, that was all, it encompassed your mind, it was the world.

_In training, they teach us that our backs are just as important, if not more so, than our fronts. So perhaps it is not that he thinks me in need of protection, but he trusts me to watch his back. Still, it is implanted in me, to think of the front as being more dangerous. _

They arrived at a small clearing, where Issac called halt. It was midday, and as such, there should be a motion to begin looking about for food and the like, and a pause for rest, the like. Issac opted to go out and fetch something, and, as so often happened, the boy would be off hunting before she could let out a squeak of protest.

Not due to his speed, no, he always gave ample pause for her to interject her comments, for he always felt that, every time he went out, she wanted him to stay for some reason or other, and he would be correct, but...she could never bring herself to explain her protest...or even begin it.

_When we were young, it was so easy to voice what I wanted to him, so easy just to do anything and be listened to..._

Her brother was the hunter, and he was the one who actually went through hell to gain his position. It was he who worked hard, while everything had been handed to her. Magic was the difference. Magic, and a sharp tongue.

One who was meek and eager to please, one who was calm and let things slide, they are the ones the world walks all over, she had learned that through observing her brother...or perhaps that was just her interpretation of it...

He always grinned and bore it. When pain came his way by their family, in an attempt to hide him, teach him something he wasn't meant to learn on his own, force magic into him, he made no sound. When the government battered him for information on magic, he kept a face of stone. The magical army could toss any task his way and he would take it without a wince.

Obedient and yet intelligent, the perfect lapdog for the army to dish out punishment upon and never expect him to want more prestige, for he had no magic. Still, he wasn't completely docile. He had fire, and did what he wanted when he deemed it necessary...

Jasnin had no idea when her simple feeling of...pity...for her brother had turned into affection for him. She had always been cold, a perfect heir, grace and a core of steel, uncaring and unbending. She was the type who could calmly tell her own parents to go to hell, and then arrange, quite simply, for them to be able to do so whenever they wished, no pressure.

Hell, Issac used to be like her slave in a way. The first born tending to the needs of the one who would take the title of heir from him, the one you told to go get you a cup of tea or something. What had she been thinking? Degrading him to such a point that his only purpose was to wait on her bidding?

Well, it wasn't what she had been thinking; it was what she had been grown to do. When they had been growing up, Issac was never mentioned as her actual brother, he was simply her caretaker, then her playmate, then, simply, her "maid". It wasn't even like they had much to inherit, most of their royalty had been bred out, and what was left was only a penny's grace. An illusion of great power and wealth, a house of cards in the midst of an impending earthquake.

When she had learned he was actually her older brother, she had been surprised, and the boy who had simply been an object in her life turned into a more interesting specimen. They was when the pity had come she supposed.

Yet, when did pity turn to love?

Issac loped through the trees, feeling his heart beat in time with the rhythm dealt out by his feet. In tune with his internal music, the boy weaved through the trees as if he had been born in the forest he now traversed.

Lithe, he gave chase when a rabbit scampered away, brown tail nothing but a flicker at the side of his eyes. Under brush, over the rocks, through the vines he rushed, until the rabbit disappeared from his sight and he had to stop, breathing heavily.

For all his speed, he had made very little noise in the quiet ambiance. His eyes flashed to and fro, a squirrel scampering along a branch; a frog croaking off in the distance...water must be nearby. A bird squawked and beat its wings irritably; the water must be enclosed in the trees embrace, a thin stream perhaps?

Little details like this...they led him to the guilty stream of water and he sat down on one of the bed rocks, staring at his reflection. He looked so old, at least to his eyes. Eyes whose brown hue, in the light, looked almost golden.

Thin fingered hands, their knuckles appearing gnarled and overlarge, dipped into the cool water, it was only then that he realized how warm they were. His hands, burning with a kind of fever pitch. He saw a reflection and his hands twitched. A blur of brown, which his hands shot to close upon.

He held a fish in his burning hands. Well, that was a surprise, but also a blessing. Fish. Jess had never liked fish, unless he cooked it, for some odd reason. The way the family cooked it would make her vomit.

Yet, if you just added a few key spices and scaled it well, she enjoyed the dish. It was an odd thing, so simple a change. Fresh fish was best. Fish form the local markets were a disaster...yet he had no time for that, didn't he?

Scooping the fish, he tossed it unto the bank, instantly feeling sorry for it as it flopped on the dry land. Yet, if he felt sorry for it, what would they eat? At some time, life still held a kill or be killed flavor to it, and Issac tasted it now.

_You can swing you blade out in practice without a thought._

It was a bittersweet pill to swallow it was, but, as his eyes scanned the river and caught another movement, his hands flashed out once more. Bittersweet or no, he would down it if it kept him alive. He had never been a picky eater...once, he had even been tricked into eating spoiled rice and "aged" curry.

_Yet, even after seeing so many die, you fail to immunize yourself to the thought of killing._

He had hardly noticed and his reaction was next to nothing when told. While others might have fallen ill, he still went on with his day by day activities, regardless of how he felt. His insides had become iron after multiple attempts at such a thing. He wondered if they had enjoyed it as a joke, or genuinely hadn't cared for his lively hood.

_...Of feeling your blade go through another being, you shrink back. Even to those who would kill you._

Another fish fell next to the first on the bank, and then a third. Issac wasn't one to let his past distract him from his duty...it was the only reason he was still alive in the end...when Jasnin had decided to leave the household, and had ordered him to pack her things, he had.

_You even have a problem with killing a few fish. _

Perhaps she had not expected him to follow her, but it had been his job to be her caretaker, and if she left, logic told him he should too. They had come after her of course and he had fended them off, sometimes with her bidding, sometimes without.

_It was the times without that made me realize that it wasn't logic that made me follow her, but my will, I was not a simple puppet to be moved about and controlled. I had a destiny I could control all on my own._

Soon the orders had stopped. No longer did she order him, but request, ask, as if he had become an equal in her eyes. He held to the title with the same kind of shaky grasp he kept upon his rank in the army, which was the best he could do.

_It made me realize that I never thought of my sister as a master, but as __**my **__sister, and that my parents were the masters that needed to be overcome, parents that failed at being parents._

After all, when it came to life in his situation, a shaky hold was better than none, and the best he could offer. He managed to catch five fish; he felt that was plenty for a meal to last until tomorrow night.

He gutted them and cleaned them right there, getting the job out of the way as early as possible, and then heading back, loping through the trees at the same pace he had started with, but with a slightly different heart beating along in time to his feet.

A heart filled with memories, analyzing the good and the bad equally, looking to the center often and analyzing the future with a cloudy looking glass. By the time he got back to Jasnin, the shadows were beginning to lengthen, and the sky, darken. He grabbed some spices from his bag and began the task of re-cleaning the fish for the pot, and then the fire, the water, a task in which one could lose themselves in doing.

_Not even the army has hardened you all the way Issac… that is both a shame and a blessing you should not analyze, but accept._

Or watching. No words passed between the two of them as Jasnin watched, exercising the use of her magic silently, and Issac cooked, focusing his mind only on how long something had been on the fire.

**+--2--+**

It was the power that had led her, ultimately, to him. His power, and the pull of the card, that had drawn Eva with a tailing Alma, towards the boy. Negi Springfield had put on a fantastic display of power that day, and Eva had seen it. As brilliant as the sun, it could only be a spell whose magnitude equaled that of an end of the world class, the class the boy often referred to as "Delta-Gamma" classes.

It was his belief that there were higher levels of spell work, and Eva knew this to be true...after all, she herself knew one of them, and its power was a devastating thing. Alpha classes were considered the greatest of powers. She herself kept a firm hold upon an Omega class of Darkness...

She had never needed its bite, for by the time she had discovered it her power was enough to avoid using all of that energy in one wasteful blast. By that time, she had already developed a technique capable of surpassing that spell in usefulness.

When her eyes had locked upon that incredible display of power she had seen today, it had made her think. She had left that technique for power far behind, it was too hard to control, to demanding, far too complicated for good combat...

Yet, it was her creation, in a way, her child. Brain child, like Negi was now to be considered, loosely, as her blood child. That same boy who had already claimed for himself his niche in magical history, bringing back to life long dead spell work and creating spells of his own, reviving old ones...

What if he discovered her technique, abandoned so long ago? What would he do then? What would she do? As she gathered what little had been brought with her here, a dark corner of her mind laughed at her.

What is she introduced the technique to him? Would he fall into such darkness that his only hope was to cling to her council? That, indeed, might be enjoyable...but unneeded. The boy had been blasted apart by Fate, and it was obvious that he was not training himself even harder, pushing his limits so he could overcome this obstacle in his path.

If she introduced Magica Erebia to him, and it didn't kill him outright, he would be able to handle it. He was a vampire now, not a simple human. A human would die, and even if they did not, they would be poisoned slowly every time they used it, magical poisoning, degrading their body...but a vampire was stronger.

She touched down lightly upon a tree to see Negi float into the air. Practicing flight. Slowly, like a fledgling, he circled the air, testing it, allowing his body to get a feel for it, all while Eva watched, he flew. Haltingly at first, with little grace, he picked up his pace, going faster and faster, stopping less often as the night passed them by.

"I told you..."

She swiveled about to see Alma, who had been watching the both of them, keeping track of time. Blinking slowly, the girl fixed Eva with those ever present, over-large eyes.

"Master has a quick mind. He will learn."

Indeed he would learn, wouldn't he? Spinning in circles the moon reflecting off her eyes, Eva continued to watch as the night left the earth. He landed finally as the sun peaked over the horizon, obviously tired, drained. He had flown all night, and his body, not his arms, was tired.

Such energy and power he held, all he needed was to learn how to control it. Control what he already had, and he could very well defeat Fate without anyone's help...no, even as she thought that, she knew it was false.

The boy would need to become stronger still. Stronger still, so much so that he would be near unrecognizable to the boy who had stepped quietly unto the portal platform into the magical world. She would teach him, teach him and bring him to Rakkan.

It was he who would hand him to tool he needed now. She would bring both of her creations together; create one being that could finish this, all of this. Defeat the puppet Fate and finally blast Nagi out of that damn hole he's been hiding in all this time.

She followed him after a while, landing upon the tree he had used for his practice. Down below, he was milling about, setting up a fire for breakfast. She reached for his card and felt it. He wasn't thirsty anymore, and Eva cast a curious eye to the sleeping Anya.

No, she knew a victim when she saw one, and Anya was not one, but then, what, or who, had the boy used as a blood source? Eva watched as the boy went into the forest, and gave chase in the air, keeping him in sight.

That glint in his eyes, even from distance, was unmistakable; it was the look of a vampire going out for the hunt. The thought sent a slight thrill through her, an instinctual one. How many times had she done this before being locked by Nagi?

Did it ever get old? The thrill of the chase, feeling the helpless squirming of the prey as they bolted...cornering them, watching them realize what was after them, the fear sent power crackling through you...

Below, Negi bolted from tree to tree. A deer saw him and shot away, but the boy paid it no mind, shooting past. Squirrels, frogs, rabbits and foxes, they brought the forest to life as he ran along with them, beating out a path for his body to take, into the clearing, now chasing a deer...he ran it down, not bothering with his magic, sinking teeth deep.

Such a brash approach! It was almost a prideful feeling to see the animal fall...the boy took out a bottle, which she recognized was full of blood, and he took a swig of it before siphoning the animal's blood into it. He made quick work, decapitating it and then cutting its flank off, searching its body now for a different kind of food, the meat.

The boy was saving the blood of his victims, thus meaning he always had a supply, lest he have to go without. It was a smart thing, and to compress the blood magically, so he could store a great amount in a small space was also the intelligent choice.

It made her sad actually, she had hoped to come and find him starving, weak on his will, thinking of nothing but sinking his teeth into something, anything...to stay alive. Yet, Negi was Negi, and he was resourceful if nothing else. He caught sight of her as she approached, and a single eyebrow rose.

"So, you finally decide to show up again ehh? I was wondering if you and Greyfield had gone out to dinner or something..."

He made no mentioned of his restless dream from the night before as he saw Alma come up behind her. This was reality, and that was the land of dreams. There was no reason the two should converge, none at all. He put away his bottle as she approached.

"Don't push me boy. He wiped the floor with you, which means you still need to train your ass off."

Negi knew that already, heck, he would be stupid not to realize that, after surviving Fate's ever so easy victory of him, he needed training. He welcomed that prospect, yet still, he felt obligated not to make things easy for Eva in any way, after all, that was just how he was.

"You think I don't know that Vonleech? However, I didn't see you doing anything during that battle, and don't you give me any bull about thinking I could handle it either..."

Vonleech? What the hell kind of title...oh forget it, it wasn't worth mentioning, although, in all honesty, he had no right to call her that anymore, after all, he was a vampire now too. He no longer could poke her on that fact, unless he wanted to diss himself as well...but Negi never seemed to tire of dissing himself anyway, so what was the difference?

"I didn't do anything because you needed to get your ass whooped for once. Just for once, so you could see how weak you really are and simmer down a bit. Just because you have power doesn't mean you're strong, boya."

She thought he didn't know that? It was the first thing that had been beaten into his head by a snowstorm and a big, ugly demon. Whom he might add, thought that asking a person if they wanted to be a garden statue was an extremely funny and clever line, and who was currently serving just that purpose on a barren, scarred landscape. Poor fellow.

"Well, you got it, I meh' arse kicked off my damn body and handed to me on a golden platter to be stuffed down my throat so it could grow back again! Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go do some of that training you mentioned, huh?"

He knew that whatever he had planned would not be enough, obviously, and she pointed that fact out to him easily. Negi was stuck between a rock and a hard place, on one hand, he was too strong for the mere animals in this area, even a dragon wouldn't fare to well she bet, and yet, the thing he had to face was way out of his league.

Too strong to train normally and too weak to fight, a real pickle. It was time to get a master. A point that Negi smirked at. What, was it time he started trying to kick _her_ rear to get to where he wanted to go? Not that he minded...fighting her was about the only real good challenge he got.

After all, with her having no need to hold back her full speed, she could go at him full physical bore, even if she still had to hold back some of her magic. Yet she shook her head, no, it wasn't her that he would have to fight. No, they had somewhere to go, and once they got there, then she would show him what his new task would be...

**+--3--+**

He was...a spitting image of him. Every glance of his eyes, every turn of his head. Yet, Negi's eyes burned no matter what expression his face held, and their fire was akin to Nagi's, only amplified with the intelligent quirk that came from Arika. Still, if he looked even deeper down into those eyes, he saw undertones of something even darker, a burning desire, a tormented soul.

"If he's worth it, then let's see what he's got!"

The boy stared back at him. A powerfully built man, whose dark complexion had seen much sun, even as he himself was not _quite _human. Yet, anyone who reached this point in power could never be called human, no, the technical term was "monster". Yes. It was a monster Negi stood in front, as sure as a monster he himself be.

"I'm not here to play, Rakkan. I think I remember you not being where you were supposed to when we arrived from the portal...do I remember correctly?"

Then he turned to Eva. Little old Eva, come back to play. Yet, he couldn't play with Eva, she was one of the few who, if he tried, she would beat him up. Well no, she couldn't really beat him up, she'd end up the same way as Nagi in a way...but she could freeze him solid and leave him like that for a few centuries.

"Hey, hey, no one told me Arika would have come too, if they had, nothing would have stopped me, but I was bored, and I went for a drink. I lost track of time, ehh? Heck, if they had told me you'd be coming, I might have remembered a little..."

Two pinpricks locked on Rakkan's form, and he felt them burn into his skin. Such a stare he held...

Still, for this shrimp, and by shrimp he meant Negi, to become a disciple of Eva's...that was something. Made him wanna test the boy out, but, after hearing how he had, basically, gotten potty trained by Fate, he lost his enthusiasm. Yet the boys eyes seemed to promising...made him wonder, it really did, but that wasn't why Eva was here.

She was here for _**it**_. That thing that Eva had abandoned, the thing she had left him in charge of holding. The damned scroll, and the forbidden technique hundreds of years in age. Magica Erebia. It surprised him, to see her opt for that thing, after giving it up for a bad job. She seemed to think that her saying this boy had created originals of his own meant he could handle hers.

"Your eyes tell me I don't have to explain a damn thing, so if you please."

In all honesty? Rakkan thought Eva wanted to punish Nagi through this kid. Yet, it wasn't any of his business, right? It was her scroll, and he owed her a favor for that time...it was why he took it into his care...but still...

"You don't think I can handle myself?"

Negi looked up at the man. His fist clenched tight, he looked upon Rakkan while he massed his strength. He didn't believe in him? Thought him weak? If this man wanted to test him, he had gotten his attention. The other lit up like a Christmas tree.

"You gotta love those eyes. Burnin'! Alright kid. Give me your best shot, punch me right here, huh?"

Eva almost, _almost_ pulled a cartoon character's move, and face-faulted. Her knees had suddenly gotten quite weak with aghast. Was he _kidding_? Punch him? Rakkan was like a friggin war tank, and Negi was like an ant. The hell...still the boy shook his head, smiling. He massaged one hand with the other, cracking all his stiff fingers at once.

"Sure big guy. I'll be happy to punch your guts out."

It was out of her hands now. The hell was it with men anywho? They were going to settle this with a friggin punch. The boy gathered his power, feeding it to his vampric strength, amplifying it. In his mind, he called to play his Burning Circumference, and pooled magic into arrows to glow along his fist.

_If the bas+rd wants me to punch him to prove myself, fine. I've had enough of this stupidity._

He further tapped into the Mort, placing all of his faith in the punch he was performing. Hell, the boy was going for it all. He took off at a run, gaining momentum as he went, power flowing through him, centered upon one thing.

_These damn people believe they're so damn powerful. They think I can't do nothing because the dude that they can't kill beat me. Hypocrites. You want me to blast a hole in that trunk of yours?! Okay then!_

The vampric boy only jumped up when he was but inches from the other, sending his fist flying forth with a such speed and power that when it connected, it caused a literal shockwave blasting outwards.

Yet, the other only skidded back a token measure, and he made no other movement, at least not for the first two seconds...opening his mouth, he let loose a cough that brought up dollops of blood, and his own fist shot upwards. Negi only just managed to throw his hands in the way of the punch, yet, even with him blocking it, he was tossed in the air by sheer momentum.

"That..that _**hurt **_goddamnit!"

A bit later, Negi was looking up upon the darkening sky. Once Eva had received the scroll, well, actually, when she had snatched it from Rakkan, she had set him at ease, for the man had been reluctant to give it to Negi.

She _wasn't _going to give it to Negi. At least not yet. The boy needed more training first, _obviously_. He needed to be hardened, perhaps a bit less than she had anticipated, but still, he wasn't ready for it yet.

Now, the boy may have had no real idea what the hell was in that scroll, but he had an idea that it was some kind of technique, some kind of spell. Now, he really didn't care one way or the other, in all honesty, at this point in his life, he really didn't care if his foot slipped while he was walking along a path and he fell down a cliff.

All he really cared about was getting three things done. One, whatever chaos pertained to him in this world, meaning finding his joker of a dad and after beating the tar out of him, chucking him back where he belonged, next to his mum. Two, whatever mess his father had stirred up, meaning kicking Fate's arse for good, and Three, getting the heck out of here after finding all those he had brought here.

A simple enough objective, no?

**+--4--+**

Negi walked along the streets of the town. Last night, he had discovered that Eva had taken him and Anya to one of the main ones, Megalo-Mesembria. That name meant nothing to him however, and he had set out with a hood to find out where the heck he was in a more detailed way.

Just like London was a smoky, cool place with bustling main streets and quiet, crowded suburbs, and Tokyo was a similar, if much warmer and clearer-skied area, Negi sought to cement Megalo-Mesembria as a place, not just a name.

Names did him nothing. Negi could read a million names in an hour and memorize them, reciting them a year later to any who cared, and the details given to him, ages, origin, the whole kitten and it's meal too.

That did not mean he knew these people however, to him, they were still nothing but names, bits of information. He could learn all he wanted, storing fact after fact away, but the information meant nothing to him. He needed to see them, interact with them, to _really_ learn them.

Just like people, places shouldn't be described in textbooks, that was his opinion. They should be videos at the very least, for these things _moved_, _interacted _and_ changed_. The boy sidestepped to avoid a girl, whose blond hair was flying loose as she ran laughing. Not far behind, a boy gave chase, yelling at her to wait.

Neither of them were human, but of the Hellas race. Negi heard the calls of a peddler, and ducked off ot the side to avoid a ball some children were using for play. Negi heard the catcalls of a few men as someone walked by, and a few drunken calls from the local bar.

This was Megalo-Mesembria, a place full of life and energy, but which prominently displayed it's worse with its best side by side. No hiding, just brutal what you see is what you get style honesty.

A place like that was rare back home. Negi turned sharply when he heard a scream, his eyes focusing on the bar. That call...it sounded familiar...internally, his core fought for release, as his primal instinct made him shot for the door and blast it open with his body.

A man flew by him, going the opposite way as he flew. Another man joined him out the doors as Negi's eyes focused on three girls at the edge of the pub. One of them was glowing a bright purple, her face incredibly familiar.

It didn't take a genius to figure out it was his mother as she sent her magic forward to knock another man away from her. She had made herself appear younger. The boy couldn't see the other two, but he had no doubt they were two of his students.

Another figure stepped forth, and dodged his mother's magic easily. His power obviously one of the combat mage, and he barely flinched as she sent another, invisible attack forth. Her mental attacks had little strength against him.

Tendrils of darkness shot forth and wrapped about her, a cocoon of darkness to strangle her as more came to capture the others. Negi had seen enough, and shot forth, his own mental attacks sending the other literally spinning with the force he put in them.

He put his body in front and quickly summoned the Executioner's sword, shooting forwards and stabbing the other, sending him flying back, out of the pub. His hood came off as he ran after him, shouting back

"Can't you do anything yourself, woman?! Lucky as hell I found you!"

The boy shot out of the pub, and stopped short at the entrance, looking for the man he had just blasted out here. He side jumped away when a powerful hammer of darkness slammed into the ground where he had been, and shot arrows of light at the other, which he countered with spears of darkness.

Dark magic seemed to be popular around here, didn't it? The man wrapped spears around, calling them to rip through Negi's spells, and the boy found himself dodging. The hell?! He condensed his power, calling it to life.

_**Sagitta Magica, Centum et Centum et Centum, Spititus Lucis!**_

Negi sent his arrows at the other, and watched as he summoned hundreds of his own shafts to shoot down Negi's own, and more still, to make the boy dance, utilizing his speed. By this time, his mother and her party had exited the pub.

"Get the hell out of here would you?! Shit!"

The other had managed to exploit the vampire's weakness, sending one of his shafts to take a bit of Negi's arm, drawing a token amount of precious blood. He gritted his teeth, his eyes burning an odd fire. He jumped up, taking to the sky to meet the other, who had alighted atop a kiosk.

_**Sagitta Magica, Centum meit Centum Spiritus Lucis!**_

A thousand arrows to rain down upon the opponent, as the dark puppet user summoned his dark shafts, a thousand to darken the sky and meet Negi's light, canceling it, overpowering it, bearing down upon him.

_How can I be so weak?! Does everyone overpower me so?! I refuse to be shut out!_

_**κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση , έκλειψη!**_

As the other's arrows came, Negi raised his axe, crashing down upon the head of the man in front of him, raking at his defenses. He would not be out done, not so simply! Still, the man avoided the shot, making Negi completely destroy a perfectly good kiosk. He himself went higher, to land upon a building's roof, but Negi followed him, landing upon another.

_**Ex Somno Exsistat Exurens Salamandra Inimicum Involvat Igne! Captus Flammeus**_

_Don't mess with me you masked freak._

**"κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση , έκλειψη!****"**

Both of his spells he sent barreling forwards, only to have them both canceled neatly by the other's thousand barbs of darkness, still, Negi had only used it as cover, for as the light faded fast, the boy slammed home into the other's gut, knocking him back and sending them both tumbling off the building. The boy disengaged as the other flew up, and he followed.

Sheeting darkness at him, he caught Negi's face with a full one, sending him spinning downwards. The one who was famous for clipping wings had just gotten one of his snipped. Yet, in the next instant, a third person joined the conflict with a yell.

"Hori ken!"

_Who the hell?!_

A white robed figure shot upwards, a gigantic blade of magic forming in his hands, which he slashed forth right at the shadow user, catching him in the midriff and sending him flying, and the other did not let up.

"Hori Yajirushi-Ten!"

From his hand, arrows flew into the sky, only to come back down raining upon the other with heavenly vengeance as the new comer shundoed in mid air, coming upon the other's back to slam his elbow into him.

"Balore kobushi!"

Jumping back up towards his opponent, he sent his fist out, and it shone a fire red before he it homed into the shadow user's back, blasting him forwards as an incredible shockwave emanated from it. He was sent crashing into a building, kicking up dust.

Still, the white robed newbie didn't give chase, only let himself land back down upon the ground, where Negi had landed. He looked him up and down before addressing him, and the boy spied a cross swing free from his white robes.

"You hurt anywhere else besides that arm of yours?"

**+--E--+ **

Finalage, you are cruel, doing this to people. You give them a new person to chew on, but you leave them hanging too. How nice, huh? Well, actually, you are wrong there. Remember way back when I said I would be writing, oh, I don't know, DOUBLE CHAPTERS?! I did it once, but I still need another, don't I? Another to even the score, welllll... ... ...

You decide for yourselves, ehh? Oh, and I would still like people to try and use the Alomegague Productions: Challenge MFT story. Now it has three purposes, not just for challenges, although I still take challenges, neh? Now however, it has a few new sparks, geh?

Separators in this chapter shall be labeled with a "2" in front of the number, like this: "+--2.9--+" I doubt I'm going to use a nine for this chapter, so there you are, the nine is the regular one to whatever number.

Do you think that my ownership status to Negima would change in the same document? Well, if you did, you were wrong. I still don't own Negima.

**_Chapter Forty: Gathering._**

He was a bit short, but not by much. Issac was about 180 centimeters, and he was perhaps two centimeters shorter, maybe less, they would look eye to eye if he was here. He was light skinned, and piercing blue eyes zoomed over the collection of people in front of him, many of whom he had never imagined seeing up close.

Thin and wiry, he was about the same age as Issac, yet he looked far older, both in his stance and in his weather beaten face. Hands that were gnarled and spidery kneaded each other as he waited for his judgment. Eva's eyes zoomed over him and then shot, laser-like, upon a crest on the left sleeve of his robe, and the cross from his neck.

_That's a new one. He's a Vicused Priest. Ha...and here I thought I had killed them all._

A Vicused, he must have revived the line of them. Unlike most, who focused on demons, or vampires, or just general good deed doing, a Vicused was an acronym for a kind of "jack-of-all-trades." Priest. A Vampire, Inferi and Common Undead Slayer, plus an Exorcist of Demons.

Unlike the others, who were popular because, as specialists, they were powerful at doing one thing, Vicused's were useful in just about any situation, but they had the downfall of being the personification of the "jack of all trades, master of none." Predicament.

Yet, this young priest had managed to save Negi, so his power must be quite progressed, and may in fact be the famous, and predictable, situation, a dying art, that rises an incredible, powerful youth in an attempt to stay alive.

"Kago Masato, resident Cleric and battle priest, at your service."  
"I knew that already you whelp. I thought I had killed all the Vicused's out there."  
"Vicused?"

That came from Arika, who still held on to the illusion of being an eighteen year old, and driving Rakkan utterly up the wall, especially since the robes she he didn't quite fit her younger form, but that was a different story entirely.

"A Vicused is a Priest that has no specialty in battling creatures with an affinity to darkness. Against Vampires, Other Undead and Demons alike, they have an equal usefulness, but the price is they aren't as powerful in any one situation as they would be had they specialized. I wonder boy, would you have saved Negi over here if you had known he was a vampire?"

Kago's mouth thinned into a line. Faced against a legendary vampire such as the Dark Evangel, he literally had no power. Her strength would consume him utterly and leave nothing left. Yet, to learn that, after so long, she had suddenly gained more power after taking another to form her own line, he wondered if he really would have saved the boy, had he known.

"Of-Of course. It is my duty..."

Of course he would have. The answer was clear there. Not saving him would have made him as bad as any other. It was his duty not to discriminate, to treat all equally and help them to the best of his ability, no matter what his imperfect and flawed human flesh desires might have told him. His eternal soul would have the final say.

Or would it have?

Her face was so close, he was forced to take a step back, and she grinned at him, a sinister grin that he didn't quite like. Without warning, she shot forwards, her hand moved out, nails apparent. He flashed backwards and jumped up, without thinking, jumping off the very air in instinct to kick her head off, oh if only he had landed the hit!

It would have done nothing anyway, he told himself, even as he landed on his feet, skidding from the momentum ,and turning around to look at the grinning vampire, who had dodged ever so easily. Negi was looking at him as if he were an alien.

_I've seen that move before...but where?_

Eva laughed easily, grinning again and unsettling Kago's heart. it felt to him that, which each vibration of the diaphragm, an icicle was shoved deeper into his soul.

"You're just like the others, trained and honed until your body is as tight as a bowstring pulled taught. Ready to defend, ready to spring. You just acted in the text book reaction to a vampire charging you forth. Back dash and jump up, drop kick on their head. Effective combo, but far too practiced. Against someone like me, who's killed scores of you, it's a useless thing...and you boy, you look like you've seen a ghost."

She was referring to Negi, who was looking at Kago with interest. He snapped out of it at Eva's comment however.

"I've seen the move before, in Library Island. A bunch of skeleton's with red scarves used it to try and knock my damn head from my body..."

Eva shrugged, it wasn't a surprise. It was a fricken copy of Dracula's castle, why the hell would it not have animated skeletons of failed vampire slayers walking around and using their techniques on whatever the hell decided to move?

"Fallen Vampire slayers boy, honestly, use that brain of yours in your head sometime, why don't you? You, priest boy, why don't you show him your scarf?"

What choice did he have? There was no harm in reaffirming for the boy what he had seen, fallen comrades of Kago's seed. He didn't know the whole story, so he could only assume they had been real people, whom he prayed silently for as he removed his hood, shaking loose some light, sandy blonde hair and tugging his scarf loose, letting the blood crimson scrap fly loose in the open wind.

_In this world, you meet everyone you do for a reason, there are no real accidents. This is but a test Kago. Can you live up to your title and conquer it, or will you fall to into the hands of the devil? Whichever one it is, this is your destiny to chose. _

_Your job it to just have faith. _

Of their party, Negi was pleasantly surprised to find that they had found quite a large portion of it. Anya and himself had joined with Eva and Alma, and together, they had traveled to the city where Arika, Yue and Chisame had been located. Yet, even with this small victory, they still had to locate Asuna and Nodoka, who had everybody's weapons and pactio cards, besides Eva.

They also had to find Issac and Jasnin, although that wasn't to high on Negi's list. The two of them were soldiers, mercenaries, they had weapons licenses here, and this wasn't their first time, I.e; they knew where they were going, if they were even going anywhere.

For all Negi knew, the two of them could be somewhere in Megalo-Mesembria, just chilling in a hotel or something. He didn't know how wrong he was, but ehh. He also wanted to get his hands on that shadow user and beat the crap out of him, after he trained a bit of course.

Beating Fate too, would feel good. Actually, beating up just about anyone who could handle one of his punches sounded like a good idea at the moment, so frustrated he was. It seemed that all he was here for was to beat up people and then leave...

He'd be wrong about that one too...

**+--2.1--+**

Another generation has passed before his eyes, and yet still, he remains. Sometimes, being a puppet really, _really_ sucked. Well, not exactly a puppet. He had been a puppet once, but now? He was stuck somewhere in between, a life in the middle of being a "real boy" and a wooden dancer, a true Pinocchio story, which Fate was sick of.

_The sound of a blade whistling through the air, Tsukuyomi was at it again, slashing at nothing as she spun around, flashing sliver from her hands. After being defeated by Negi, she had decided it was time to rethink, and bring back out reflexes lent to her by inhumane means._

It didn't help that every time he was brought back, he felt more, was that much closer to humanity, only to have it robbed from him. He could never be "real" could he? The promises of the mage of the beginning had been nothing but a ghostly wall to lean upon, a safety net of soap bubbles. It killed him.

It was okay the first time around, when he had been ensnared in a web of magic, a simple boy whose power had been extraordinary, but no. It was he, a crown jewel for his village, who would be sacrificed in the name of them all.

Only to be brought back by one powerful mage, the first man to cheat death, and wreak his rage, his wrath, upon all who had wronged him...for a price. A price of becoming a slave, with the promise of being soon released, if he could just do one thing.

_Screeching. Ear-splitting screeching. Shirabe, at it again, trying, and failing, to play her violin properly, only succeeding in sending the powerful sound waves her pactio item was capable of outwards into the poor air._

Destroy the world which had done him so much wrong. That wasn't so hard, was it? His power was great, even more so with being reborn, yet his soul had been ripped from him, gone, traded in for his newfound power.

With the power of the very earth he sought to destroy as his side, he destroyed all in his sight, obedient to his master, lifeless to all outside. He was a perfect weapon, without a soul and feeling for others.

Yet, he had been defeated, and destroyed by one reckless, red headed man, full of life and bursting with ego, a picture to mirror and oppose he, a mindless stick in his way. His master had cast his strings and brought him back together again, the same magic making him more powerful yet again, and he was charged with destroying the one who had, once again, wronged him.

_Kyomi was perhaps one of the few who was at peace, somewhere off, getting a cup of coffee, which he, Fate, had called for a while ago. He knew it took awhile to blend the drink, yet still, he couldn't help but feel impatient. Shirabe was giving him a headache..._

A bit more emotional, suitable for a dull rage to give him drive. He raged at the other with his own element, the power of wind, upon his side. This magic the other used...it made him a golem. A golem of earth first, and then one of the air, the wind. Yet again, the man's soul, his pure, free, _will_, had defeated him, and he had went on to destroy utterly, his master.

Yet, the spell had been cast, and Fate was trapped. There was no rest, and he was revived again, given the power of water now to add to his strength, and once more charged with the destruction of this world, a bond upon his very soul that he could not go against.

_Besides him, only Tamaki seemed to genuinely understand and appreciate the magic-like effect the drink had on him, the others pretended, but could only fail in the end...and Fate knew Tsukiyomi preferred tea no matter how much she play acted._

Each time, his power increased, and the spell lost a little of its hold over his soul, yet still, that was only to give him feeling, emotion, drive. The bond was still there, driving him helpless. His task was to destroy this planet, and all who stood in his way...

Using this, he had erected this time, an army, a party of girls he had rescued form the ashes, his own spell enslaving them too, to him. His drive to destroy the world that had wronged him was passed through him to them, charging them with the task to come with him, and to watch the world collapse.

_Tsukiyomi, Shirabe, Kyomi, Tamaki Homura and Shiori, these had been his army raised, carefully over time, without the knowledge of the famed party who had destroyed him alone so many times._

In that time that he had erected his army, his opponent had disappeared from the canvas of the world's surface, sinking into obscurity before disappearing all together. He was free to destroy that which had wronged him, and finally set his soul free...

Yet, there was another problem, as the next generation had risen up to defy him, the son of the man who had destroyed him twice rising up to meet him for the third round. Yet, he was weak, still weak yet, as he was young.

Too young, and still, he fought brilliantly. His strength...if he were the age Negi had been, he would have easily tossed Fate aside, destroyed him utterly...yet he was not. He was but a bulb, being forced as recognition for a flower.

_Where was Homura and Shiori? _

He held much anger, incredible darkness, darkness that threatened to consume him and grant him incredible power...at the cost of his sanity, his very life perhaps. This was Nagi's son, the boy whose name was, ironically, Negi, was there no imagination anymore?

Well, he had seen enough of the work an imagination could do...one only had to look around at the world around them to see what an imagination could do, this false world. He would reveal the illusion, sunder it's foundations so that he could finally get the rest his soul so desperately sought.

In that moment, it struck him how very old he sounded...

...and how old he really was.

_It matter not, not as Kyomi brought him his coffee. They never got into any trouble anyway, not any that they couldn't get themselves out of. Taking a sip, he allowed the drink to work its effects. One of these days..._

_Maybe he'd work a plantation with this stuff, if he ever got to live such a life. _

**+--2.2--+**

"Focus your mind boy, it's simply an illusion."

He stood tall, quite tall in fact. At five foot five, the boy was typical for a fifteen year old, if he was all but fifteen. Eva's hand flashed out, pinching the bicep. Still not quite solid. Again. He must do it again, and with more conviction this time. In a hail of magical "bats" the boy was once more his usual self.

He closed his eyes before they came back to him, covering him before the figure darkened into a silhouette, shooting upwards to form out, and once more, Negi stood, a bang covering a single ruby eye and appearing to be fifteen years of age. Once more, Eva tested him, before, in a blast of smoke and swarming bats, she joined him with her own illusion.

"Now all you have to do is hold it. It's solid. Try again if you like, but it's good enough for now. When you're ready, I'll meet you outside. You still need to increase the strength of your magic."

She left him near a mirror, which did nothing for him, as he couldn't see himself in it anyway. Negi may have a large store or magic, but that didn't make it powerful, even if it was. What made a person powerful, in truth was how much magic they could put in a certain space.

Called, ironically, your compression rate, this statistic was the true measure of your power, for you could have all the magic in the world, but if it wasn't concentrated, you frankly sucked in power output.

Due to all the focus on increasing his store of power, Negi's concentration of his power had suffered, and thus, even when he should have a far stronger standing against those he had met, his incredible rise in power had been his downfall...Rising too quickly in overall magical content, he had neglected his ability to concentrate it.

That...sucked.

Negi un-screwed his bottle, taking a generous swig of the contents inside. Damn it all to hell, he'd need to go out soon to replenish his store, all because of him getting injured so many damn times. Perhaps there was another dragon he could decimate?

No time for that now, not as he exited the room and walked into the night air. Eva stood there, still in her illusory form. His own bang blew back, away from his eyes, as his longer ponytail lay upon his bare back.

His face was set, clean and strong. He focused his power, calling it up and forcing it to shrink, condense, drawing in more from his surroundings quickly, forcing it to stay that way instead of seeping through his aura.

Eva held in her hands the scroll. Above the wind, as her own locks blew to coat her in gold, she called to him.

"You have two roads ahead of you boy. Within you, there is a turmoil. A true war, the intensity of which rips at your very soul. The battle between the darkness in you and the light you hold at your core. You, wither you believe it or not, are meant for the light, yet the darkness calls."

She tossed the scroll at him, and the wind took it, almost blowing it away from him, into the night. Yet his arm flashed out, and in the instant the scrap of ancient paper would have passed him, it appeared in his hands.

"The path of light is the one your father walked, and the one, that, regardless of the hate you hold in your heart, you should walk. The road there is long, and you will rely upon your allies more than upon yourself as a singular source...yet..."

Here, she brushed away her hair, which was annoying her, getting in her way in the high winds.

"The road of darkness is a much shorter, if far more rugged, way to get to your destination. It suits you more, for the darkness ringing your soul has taken command of your actions, eaten at your personality. Without a form for this darkness to take, it will inevitably destroy you...damn this wind!"

Negi couldn't help but smirk as the other irritably shook her head, clearing her vision of blonde. This was why he wore a damn pony tail. She finished her statement with a clip of anger.

"You can only choose one path boy, and be warned, if you fail, you shall be unable to use dark magic ever again, that is, if you even survive the ordeal. The darkness in you is incredibly strong, but only you can defeat it. Tame it, and this new power is yours, fail and you die. You could even choose to avoid it all together and go on without..."

Negi's hand rose and he fingered with the release upon the scroll in his hands.

"Yet, you and I both know what your choice shall be. Be warned boy. If any here doubt you, they can take this dagger that I hold to that scroll, and you will be left without darkness forever more. Now, I ask you a question that I already know the answer to. Which shall you chose?"

The wind had fallen nearly silent as Negi held the scroll in front of him, and his hand grasped the tie. She was correct. There was only one choice for him, only one he could chose. He, Negi Springfield, had fallen so far into the turmoil his soul held that there was only one solution.

A single stroke, and the string came free, the wind gusting at that very moment, pulling the paper free from its bonds and making his robes fly back.

_I, Negi Springfield, have no choice but to choose the darkness._

In front of him, a familiar figure sat, in a state he had yet to see her before. He couldn't help but glance at the woman in front of him, and then at the girl in the scroll, grinning down at him menacingly.

"I was wondering...who would dare open this after soo long..."  
"You've really outdone yourself this time woman, you have no sense of decency at all! Ha ha! Oh? The hell?!"

Hell indeed, as the girl who was clad in nothing but her hair and moonlight shot her hand out to encompass the boy's head, his illusion dripping as all for him disappeared into the void that was darkness.

All was gone as Eva shook her head. It was up to him now. All this potential would do him nothing, he needed to utilize it, or die. Simple as that. She walked away, leaving the scroll where it lie. It wouldn't blow away, not now, not when the body of a young boy lay right next to it, his very soul drawn into its unending depths...

**+--2.3--+**

_Mahora Campus. What the hell was he doing here of all places? He looked around slowly, realizing an anomaly into the normally alive area. Everywhere he looked, there was silence, everywhere he turned, there was nothing but emptiness. His eyes turned along with his body to the light, quick footsteps of another._

_He turned to see Eva, dressed as she had been at the tournament, un-restricted. A sinister smile that fit well on her face, yet was rarely seen on the real one, sat complacently upon her form. A single, slender eyebrow rose._

_"Oh, you're a young one. What do you want with my technique? Oh, but you look so familiar...Nagi? No, illusions don't work here, not even with your kind of power. Could it be possible he had a son?"_

_There was no use hiding the fact, even as the boy opened his mouth, the other smiled, realizing. Ahh, what a twist. The son of the man who had scorned her had turned back to seek her help. Oh, how time proves us all fools..._

_"Fine then. Let see if you're worthy of what you claim as yours!"_

_She appeared behind him, almost instantly, the executioner's sword shining bright, slashing down upon him as he called his own to counter. The two of them faced off, both blades defying the other._

_"Ahh! So you're one of mine! Fool...I never thought anyone...would willingly choose the darkness!"_

_She disengaged from him and spun, swinging out for his middle, yet the boy stepped back quickly, jumping back into the fray to stab her, sending her flying backwards, skidding. She lunged back at him, slashing out, and, even as he blocked, her blade passed through his, and, his eyes wide, he could only gag as it passed through him, sending him sprawling away._

_Her laughter filled his ears as he rolled away, avoiding her impaling blade, and jumped back up, to slash at her arm, and her laughter faded to a chuckle as she twisted away. Her foot came up, crashing into his jaw and lifting him from the ground, stars. _

_He saw stars as he twisted away from another kick, this one a roundhouse that she turned into a lunge for his throat, which he sidestepped away from, bringing his fist into her. She laughed, kicking out to sweep his feet from under his and punching him dead in his nose, black. Now he was seeing black._

_Again, that laugh plagued him as he jumped back from another stab from her blade. He had to reform his as she rushed in, and once more, they met in a flurry of sparks..._

Negi's body jerked once before spurting blood form a sudden wound in the chest, raising the alarm in a watchful Arika's eyes. Yet, even as she rushed to the boy's aid, Eva's arm came out to bar her way.

The air was knocked from her by that thin, but surprisingly strong, limb. Emerald eyes focused on her as another wound seemed to magically appear from the shoulder down, lacing the sheets with blood as it stopped mid thigh.

Her eyes said the message plainly, even as Arika clenched her fists. Negi had chosen this, and she would not interfere. The vampiress, in command of her power, pooled her power into her hands.

Darkness was made to harm, to destroy, sunder, torment...wheedle and decay. Yet, it could, just as light magic could be made to damage, heal. Yet, even as she held the magic in her hands, she held it in reserve. She wouldn't be healing every single little hurt the boy received.

Only when his body seemed damaged beyond the means of moving would she resort to healing....Once more as she watched, his body jerked as a long slice appeared upon his arm, tracing all the way down...

_Negi ducked under a thrust of her blade, and then dropped to the floor, sweeping his feet to catch Eva, but she jumped up, sending her blade careening downwards to impale him into the ground, yet he twisted away, and then rolled when she landed, slashing out at him. _

_Her hands condensed with dark magic, and arrows exploded from her hands as she appeared behind him, raking his back with her sharp, claw-like nails. He simply gritted his teeth tightly against the pain, but he wouldn't give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream...she laughed in his ear, softly._

_"Ha ha...you have quite a resilient soul boy, but you've been fighting for a long time, haven't you? I'd estimate we've been going at it for nearly a week in here, over a day on the outside. You are exhausted, at your limit. I admire your strength, but you have yet to find the answer, and you're reaching your limit. I can let you go back...if you like...as long as you never pick up the darkness again..."_

_He opened his mouth then, even as she ripped himself away from her grasp, feeling the skin separate from his body in her hands. He screamed out as arrows shot from his hands, making Eva dance away._

_"Don't you screw with me you half assed b!+ch!"_

_She took to the sky, and so did he, following her, dodging and twisting in the air as she sent magical arrows at him, and yet, she outstripped him, pooling power in her hands, an incredible orb of darkness, which she sent flying at him, consuming him, wreaking havoc, and flashing pain he had yet to ever experience, to lance through his veins..._

Eva put her hands to Negi's body, and they glowed darkly as she pumped magic into him, reaching deep into his bodily wounds and healing him. Finally, after a full day and then some, she had deemed the boy's injuries severe enough to heal him. Her hands touched upon one of his wounds...

...and she drew back, hissing. His blood had touched her hands, and...it burned...like acid. She ignored it as she finished healing him, but she made sure not to touch him anywhere where he was bleeding again. Why had his blood burnt so?

She gave Arika a half hearted smirk. The woman hadn't slept, she kept on pinning over her son, not like she was the only one pinning, as the whole group had come down to pin, besides Eva...still, she couldn't help but raise her dagger, looking to the scroll in thought.

"Hmm. It's been almost two days...when that sun rises tomorrow and marks the second day...the way his affinity with darkness is...if he hasn't won by then, he never will. No soul can survive that much punishment. He'll beyond repair. Not that I doubt the boy, but I am mentioning it. If the sun begins to rise...don't hesitate to stab that scroll, if you don't have faith in the boy's success."

She passed the dagger to, of all people, Arika, knowing it would wreak all kinds of moral unrest for her, and relished in that fact. Would she stab it in a mother's love, dooming the boy to lose one of his greatest powers? Or would she trust him to his very destruction? He he heh...

_Negi twisted away from one of Eva's stabs, and grabbed her blade, the ice cold weapon, freezing his undead limb as he wrenched it from her, tossing it away into the fountain, kicking up a cloud of steam. He rushed in, punching her as hard as he could, sending her flying into a school building, breaking bricks._

_Still, she came out, nearly unharmed. Negi dropped to a single knee, panting, laced with injuries. She was still scotch free. How...how was he going to defeat her? She took to the sky again, and Negi, to tired to follow, just watched._

_"Your strength is done. Too bad. It was fun, boy."_

_She sent another one of her destructive spheres of darkness at him, and in that very moment, Negi got it. To defeat the darkness within you...one must not try to destroy it...He got up, painfully, and held out his hands to the darkness, and he caught it, feeling it come to him, drawing it in, quickly, fortifying him, bolstering him, he felt his body shift, change, he could feel the darkness crawl along his skin..._

_To defeat your own darkness, you must first accept that it will always be there..._

_"Ha! Looks like you finally found the answer boy! Yet, you are weak, drained, at your ropes end. Show me boy, show me what you have finally learned, if you dare!" _

It was still dark, he still had time...she would have to hold out, she would have to...but look at him, so damaged already, Eva had spoken of no soul being strong enough to last two days with this kind of punishment, but what kind of strength did Negi have within his soul?

He was strong, yes, there was no doubt he was strong. He had to be, but was it enough? Could he last the whole trial? He had stopped bleeding long ago, out of blood, but he had also stopped receiving cuts...for the most part...

She had to trust him, but could she? Even as she thought that, she found her hand was gripping the dagger tight. She thrust it from her. No. She would have to have faith. The boy was powerful, his mind uncanny in gravity...within him, there had to be an incredible soul...he would succeed.

He would succeed, for she couldn't afford to lose him again.

_Moving impossibly quickly, the boy slammed his fist into Eva's gut, the darkness condensing about him as she was sent skidding away. She laughed and jumped back at him, watching as he dodged and appeared behind her, making her twist around. She struck out with her free fist, meeting air, grinning._

_Worthy or not worthy, the boy had proven himself the first, and now he showed his growth, what he had reaped. He was perfect, and with that, he was ready._

_"Ha ha! See how you move now, as a beast in the night, you my boy, have taken hold of what is now rightfully yours! Come, let's see what else you have learned!" _

It was now, or never.

That was what she thought, as her hand gripped tight the dagger. Now, finally, after so long, she had decided that she, Arika **Springfield**, didn't care. She didn't care what science said, or what the dark doubts in her mind said. This boy was alive. Alive, and she was not going to lose him, not after fighting so hard.

As the sun rose, so did her dagger, zoning in upon the scroll, her eyes locked. With one fell swoop, her hand came down just as that skyward golden orb climbed higher than she dared to guess...and she found that her blade stopped.

No screams, or the rip of paper...her blade had simply stopped. She opened her eyes to see two fingers blocking her blade's progress, and looking up, she was surprised to find those fingers belonged ot Eva.

"Idiot woman. Can't you see he's waking up? Fool. You could have ruined the whole damn thing."

No. She had not seen that, as she watched, Negi stirred and opened his eyes, slowly, sitting up quickly to look at the scene in front of him, She with the dagger in her hands, and Eva, sitting in the same bed Negi lie, her hand out to stop the dagger.

"Oh shit, am I interrupting a family moment here?"

The comment was lost on her, for all of its intended humor. She had, in the end, not trusted him, to such a point she had been completely blind to his success. What kind of mother was she?

What kind of child had she, with Nagi, wrought?

**+--2.4--+**

Jasnin _really_ didn't like where she was at the moment...well, at least... her _mind_ didn't like where she was...good luck trying to tell her physical presence that she didn't like where she was...

It had happened again. In the dead of night, she had awoken to a chill, and to find that, once again, she had instinctually chosen her brother as the heat source...god, his face was too close for comfort...

She was glad his eyes were closed, even if that meant he would be aware enough to move away. Those things he called eyes had a flash of life that trapped the onlooker within them. Forget the description of them being, the: "typical brown eye black haired youth." Those eyes weren't brown, but golden.

She had seen them to many times in the heat of battle, or in the face of fire, to call them a simple brown, they were too intense....far, far _too _intense.

Rolling away from him quickly, she couldn't help but notice his hand lightly brushing her leg. God, she had to notice tiny details. This was her brother goddamnit. B. R. O. T. H. E. R. Forget about how different they looked...

So close his face had been, what would have been the harm in a quick peck? She had never known just how another's lips felt against her own, just a bit of practice never hurt anyone, a simple brush, not like it would have led to anything...

Again, her mind was in the gutter! It didn't help that he had just the right complexion, just the right height body type either, that was just unfair! She felt like kicking him, but that would just wake him up, and he was probably tired, just like she was.

She forced herself to look at him again, and see him as something other than a piece of desirable meat. She failed miserably, for he looked so at peace asleep, what was it with people when they were asleep? They seemed to drop all of their personality and stress, assuming a peace that they could probably never assume in animated life, not for real.

It was so easy to slip into his mind...gah!

_Darkness, darkness all around, light, a small bit of light, a figure stands there, big, tall, but it calls. I go even though I'm scared. I scared but I go, I must go, I go, to the fire, the fire calls, jump in, jump, jump, jump, jump in! It burns, oh it burns but I satisfy her, she, the tall, the big, the figure the light, light, light! I fade, fade...no more thoughts, only...black..._

Jasnin steps back from the fire, which still burns bright, the charred smell of the tiny body that had tossed itself there still wafting in her nose. Disgusted. That's what she was, with herself, she was disgusted.

She had been this close, this close to diving into his mind, and she had to let loose her pent up energy, on something...anything. She had jumped into the mind of the fox by accident and had directed it to consume itself in the fire, feeding its body to the flames...

Now she watched the burnt, charred body with a squeamish feeling in her chest. It was this that she could do, and ever so easily, to anything she wanted. It was so easy, she could do it with her eyes closed, by accident even.

Unbidden, her eyes turned towards her brother.

When one controls the mind, they can control anything they wish. The only limit to your power becomes that of the minds you hold captive. The more you hold, the greater your power. You could take what you want, do what you wish, and none would protest, for you control them, they would exult you.

_You, the power. Nothing to stop you. You could just so easily climb into his mind, just do it now, see how easy it is, do it, a simple whisper and you're in, there is no harm, you can make him do whatever you please, in way you could never even imagine..._

_Brilliant, glorious light, it welcomes me! I see the figure, dark and tall, she calls me to the light, and I must go, for it if my destiny, I will fulfill it...and it burns! Righteous fire she tells me, righteous fire to burn away sinful thoughts! I am cleansed, and I see no more..._

Again Jasnin covered her nose. Oh god, that is a _stink_. This time it was a skunk she took control of and the animal had let loose it's volatile liquid as it had burned, out of fear or out of pain, she knew not, all she knew was that it stunk to high heaven.

All because she couldn't control herself, two animals had given up their lives. Such a thing was a common place when she traveled with her brother, and yet, he knew nothing of it. Nothing. She kept him in the dark, for if he knew, he would avoid her, only to help her, but she would miss him, and need him, only making the desire stronger until she could not hold it in...

A third animal almost joined the others on the fire that night...

**+--2.E--+**

Pah. Probably full of typos, ehh? Oh well, here you go, you all, a double for your thoughts, now for a few final thoughts....nope, they are gone...grrr! I hate when that happens...pah. Look at Alomegauge Productions: Challenge MFT! I don't like these two chapters very much, except for the beginning of the first one, I like that for some odd reason...I'm rambling...next time, on Negima! Bad, bad, bad, pun! Finalage, staying crazy, writing two chapters at once, and all early for you. Crazy boy!

I have a feeling this is full of typos, but I didn't see anything, and I've no time to read it all. Bad Finalage. Oh, I didn't mention it before, but the 560 pages thingie is not including this installment. Gah ha ha ha!


	41. Chapter XXXXI: Worth

What are you Finalage? How do you keep typing, even as you mind is blank? Where the heck do you get the ideas from, your arse? No...I formulate them from thin air. Nay, even that is untrue. I am, simply, insane. No, I did not just notice, only just decided to point it out, I always read reviews.

By the way Galerians...we seemed to have read different versions of the manga, it strikes again. All those, just like last time, are intentional, due to the version I read. *Sigh* I must really have read an obscure version.

If your search any of them, they all come up with something, and just about all is legit somewhere, except Rakkan it seems, people don't talk about him much...and the doubles..that was the last time, don't worry, I only promised to do it twice to catch up with the numbers, and I did.

Yes, Kago Masato was the name used by older Negi, and believe me, there is a reason for that. Once again, had this planned, since then, to introduce this guy. The red scarf does have a story too, don't I always have a story it seems...yet that just makes it all the deeper. Just like the real world, everything has a story behind it, if you look hard enough instead of just accepting it being there, as is.

Anywho, about Eva stopping the dagger...there's a reason I did that one too...ruining the tension may seem to be the action at first glance, but...it only makes the tension rise. Fu fu fu...making Negi suffer...no. I do this for a reason. All this will only make him stronger...and something else.

I still don't own Negima, you are getting annoying, asking me that all the time. Yes, I am only now getting annoyed after forty chapters. I take a long time to get annoyed. This is the second time I have completely destroyed a section of a chapter for re-writing, only this time, it was the first and only one I had typed...

**_Chapter Forty One: Worth_**

"Come now, is that the best you can do?!"

Kago skidded backwards, holding his middle, his face a mask. Negi had just simply kicked him away as if he were nothing. His speed and strength were legendary, classic vampric, but his magic was...unbearable.

The priest removed his hand from his middle revealing a perfect boot print right upon his pure white robes. Dust had caught upon the hems of it and soiled it there too, but Kago was used to that. His robe never managed to stay white for very long, and in all honesty, trying to keep it that was only showed vanity. He didn't try.

Negi however, was perhaps showing vanity incarnate, as he had changed his very appearance into a dashing, fifteen year old boy, whose hair flew behind him in a solid braid, and which covered one of his eyes. A strong jaw and a beautiful face, he looked fit to be royalty, and yet he was also a hero, care-free and strong, beautiful...

Before, the boy had been strong, but now, with his fists an unbearable dark, symbols, incredibly light, swirled about his hands. They seemed to moved, to crawl along his skin as he pooled his power for another blow at him.

The blast missed its mark as the other jumped up into the air, high. Yet, even as he braced against the air as if it were solid and kicked off it, coming down to drop kick the other, Negi recognized the move and sidestepped him, swinging his fist out.

_"That move is effective, yes..."_

It landed in his chest, sending him flying upwards again.

_"...Yet far too practiced. Against someone like me, who had killed scores of you...it's useless."_

Kago landed upon a seat in the stands, he had no idea why Rakkan had an empty stadium as a kind of house, perhaps the ledged couldn't let go, in the end, from his roots. The priest was up on one foot and his eyes closed, his hands coming together.

"Oh god, don't tell me you're going to _pray_ during this battle!"

Negi rushed at him quickly, impossibly quickly, hitting home a drop kick to Kago's head as he stood like a statue, knocking him into the next row of seats brutally, yet the boy remained in his prayer like pose, even as Negi grabbed him and threw him from the stands and back into the ring area.

The other landed on his feet quietly, his eyes opening to reveal pure white orbs. Extending his hand, he called out.

**"Sevetibia!"**

In his hands, magic condensed until, in the instant Negi landed on even footing with the other, a whip of chain appeared in the other's hand, glowing white before fading into cold, and hard, silver. His wrist flicked as his eyes normalized, making the weapon snap.

It had a barbed tip at the end, and the boy recognized it in the shape of a tiny, sharp cross. The chain had barbs all along its length, shaped like thorns...rose thorns. Finally, the boy recognized that the handle was made of birch, and inset upon it was a vial full of clear liquid...

Kago still kept his face a calm mask.

**"You wanted me to fight you, and even though I did not wish to, I obeyed you. So I will fight you. If you planned on using me for a simple display, you won't get that. You'll get what you wanted...a fight."**

He shot out his free hand quickly, calling out.

**"Hori Yajirushi-Ten!"**

As the arrows shot from his hand into the sky, the other charged Negi, lashing his whip high. Negi smiled as he quickly side-stepped the weapon lashing out at him, being careful not to let it touch him. It was real. Up close, he could see that.

_Sagitta Magica, Centum Spiritus Obscurans!_

It had simply been hidden before, and he had summoned it into sight. Thus, Negi couldn't hope on "canceling" it. His arrows shot forth and destroyed the other's, the remaining barreled towards Kago, but he spun his whip, meeting them with the shield of metal.

"Igneus Ambitus!"

Negi had rushed in, teleporting to his back, yet the priest, while having been unsuspecting, was battle hardened. He quickly turned, his weapon lashing with the momentum out, and neatly sliced Negi's arm, making him grimace. Still, Negi's fist glowed as he struck out, and blasted Kago back, the fire eating at his robes.

_**Kyōdo wa, baitariti, seishin-teki na iyashi, fuan, shinu. Hīru no seishin, kurosu...**_

Landing lightly upon the ground, Kago extended his hand towards Negi, his whip held limp at his side. His hand turned downwards as he shot out his next spell, the blade materializing in his hands and its sheer size almost impaled Negi where he stood.

**"Hori ken!"**

The boy ducked under the summoned blade, running low to punch the other in the gut, once more sending him flying backwards, still, as he landed on his back, he rolled away from Negi, lashing out his whip.

_Incendia Laques!_

**"Kurosu!"**

Evan as the cage came about him, Kago lifted himself into the air, and the wind picked up, a true whirlwind that sucked all towards him, the dust lifting and swirling about him...the hell? Negi was getting sucked in! Yet, Magica Erebia bolstered him and he managed to pull, inch by inch, away from the incredible suction.

With good cause, for as soon as Negi was but a foot out of range, holy light exploded from the other, ripping the bonds of the cage he was in and blasting the area around him in the shape of a cross, ripping through the earth under him. He lowered slowly, to fall upon a knee, slightly out of breath.

**"Now that...we are finished with that...do you want to continue?'**

Did he want to continue, was the guy kidding? After seeing something like that?! Hell yes he wanted to continue! Hell, and most people thought priests just sat down listening to friggin confessions! He shot at him, and Kago twisted away, his other hand coming out again.

**"Chēn!"**

Literally, a chain shot from his hands, made of holy magic, which anchored Negi's foot to the ground solidly, and burned through his clothes to lay bare against his skin. Negi grudgingly braced his feet, heaving at them with all his might until he pulled free a huge chunk of the very ground, but it was too late to dodge Kago's next attack.

**"Ten Ripubīmu!"  
**_Deflexio!_

He swung out his whip to lash at Negi while his left hand exploded with powerful light, a pure beam to barrel and encompass Negi. His resulting bellow very nearly knocked Kago deaf. Still, when it was done, Negi was in his face, hauling a huge chunk of the earth, and with a fist enshrouded in darkness, sent him flying into the stands again.

His skin was raw, Negi's was, and he felt the wind rip by it as he leapt up to pummel the priest in the stands. Try as he might, Negi was faster and stronger, and no amount of skill in hand to hand could help the priest when faced with a master in the arts that Negi was, doubly so when hindered by his weapon.

The boy finally jumped away from him, landing in the ring, panting from his explosion. The priest lay still, or so he thought. Slowly, he sat up, painfully, not a wince escaped his face however, not a single show of pain. Instead, another technique issued from his mouth.

**"Hīru!"**

Unlike the healing Negi had seen before, this exploded around the priest, ripped through Negi's vision and cocooned him, quickly swirling about him in a sphere of light that, when it dissipated moments later, revealed the other, still in dust caked robes, but standing, holding his weapon in a determined grip.

_κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα_

His body was still bruised, but he leapt off the stands at Negi, face still a mask of calm, figure a picture of untamed justice as his whip flashed out, straight and true, more arrows flying from his open palm.

O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs

Negi teleported away to his back and spun to kick him, the priest turned back to look at him, his own foot leaping upwards as he shot his whip straight out to lash Negi. The boy caught it in his dark encrusted hands, his magic protecting it. His other hand came out, right to chop at the priests face.

_ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση , έκλειψη!  
_**"Kigen!"**

As the holy magic condensed quickly around Negi feet and shot upwards, a giant axe formed in Negi's hands and crashed into Kago's world, turning all, for both of them, black. Eva, who had been watching from afar, shook her head as Negi lost his illusion, body being burned alive with holy fire pouring from the ground into the open sky.

_They shall be good for each other. Let them grow together then, I won't kill the poor Vicused...this time..._

**+--1--+**

Cora sat, bored out of her mind as she watched a game on television of Woman's Lacrosse. This was supposed to be...interesting?! Oh sure, it was challenging enough to play, and she enjoyed, much to the surprise of her apparent long time friends, playing goalie. Her skill in the game was just about equal to the one she was posing as, due to demonic reflexes, which covered up for the lack of hard earned experience.

_I wish that monster kid would hurry up and get back here already. Between the practices the Lacrosse team pulls off, the lack of people to snatch dreams from and these boring "study" sessions of other Lacrosse teams in the majors, I am bored, tired and hungry. That kid always had something interesting to eat..._

Still, watching it on T.V was boring as all hell. No, scratch that, hell wasn't boring, it was full of stupid old stories and the occasional terrifying danger. Watching Lacrosse was like...listening to the weather man all day long say the same thing over and over...bah.

_Not that I'm not appreciative. Sure, this life beats being chained to a rock, starving and dying, any day, but still, it's kinda boring. I have to follow a whole bunch of rules, neh? Society they call it, why can't people just run around naked all day, I'll never understand. It's not like they need the clothes, it's not all that cold, not really anyway...but what happens to them in the __**summer**__? _

What was worse, no one wanted to bet on which team would win, they all were afraid of Sakurako's famous luck, which meant that, for now, the succubus couldn't tell if she could emulate well, that particular part of the girl whom she was playing as.

_They still wear the damn things. They've made a whole __**culture**__ out of it too. Styles, fashions, being..."naughty", holy heck, the ways in which these people think of teasing, it's no wonder most men simply swoon over a succubus with little to no fuss. Oh, the other team finally scored a goal. I'm pretty sure if someone had taken up my bet, I would be sitting on a good amount of change right now._

It surprised her however, how easily she had fit into this complex community. Negi had been brief, but he had explained the systems well, and, even though she was still learning, if anything seemed weird, she could claim she already knew that, or that she had forgotten, neh? The boy had laid down the ground rules, it was up to her to define the rest, was what he had claimed in so few words.

_The hell, isn't that illegal? Oh, I'm pretty sure a stick isn't supposed to be used to hit with...oh wow, a fight's breaking out. Okay...maybe __**now**__ it's interesting. Pfff...the ref is standing there without a single idea what the heck he's supposed to do. Culture strikes again. They should have never put a man to be ref, he's scared to __**touch **__anyone for fear of being thought __**inappropriate**__._

Alone, the succubus took a glance about her before allowing her illusion to lower just enough to protrude her wings visibly. The amount of energy she received daily here, plus practice and a little bit of "training", had allowed her to keep her illusion of Sakurako enough to not really have to worry about it, even in sleep, which was great, for that had been one of the boy's main concerns.

_Still, I like to stretch my wings every now and again, even if I have to keep this damn form...it's lucky I'm not wearing much, or that would have been ruined..._

She got up to turn off the T.V, and walked into the room she and another shared...she still didn't quite get her name down well, she'd have to fix that, for she typically had to wait around until the girl addressed her to say "Yeah?" or tap her so she could simply say "Hey..." no names.

_It is just me, or are these wings stiff? I rarely use them now, but since when did they get like this? I'll need to be careful with them...must be all the restricting shirts and what not, or people bumping into my back all the time in practice...another reason to like playing goalie...no one behind you._

She didn't seem to mind, as Negi had explained they knew each other a long time, but it was considered a great disrespect not to call one by their name here...yeah, it would need to be fixed, but not now...she was tired.

_Still, the coach thinks I do best at Middie, although he says I seem to have evened out my playing a bit, which is great, but I used to be a brilliant Middie, now I'm just __**good **__all over...he can't decide which one is better. I'lll have to be careful, but I don't think that he suspects anything as drastic as me being a completely different person, just a simple switch in technique, and attempt to play better, for the team's sake._

The other girl had gone out shopping somewhere with a group of other friends...she had invited her, but "Sakurako" had played the study card, claiming, truthfully, that she had not watched any of the ongoing games for Lacrosse yet, and she needed something to write up on to give to her teacher, after all, it was an analysis of technique, and that teach would sit there eating the T.V this vacation, so she couldn't fake it.

_Ach...oww! They are stiff. I think I pulled a muscle. That would be just perfect. Just perfect. I can't do anything for them until the weekend. *Sigh* I really need to just go out one night, completely free, and just fly, and not care who the heck sees me, they'll think it was an illusion if I fly fast enough. I promised I wouldn't attack any one, and I won't, there's enough free food around here to make me fat, metaphorically..._

That too, would cause a problem. No one had, up until now, seen her eat. She always made an excuse, she went out before, she wasn't hungry, she had a large meal prior, trying to lose a few pounds, the like, the teenage girl seemed to have a wealth of excuses not to eat at any given time...but the situation was getting kind of desperate, as some were beginning to approach her, worried.

_What can I do? If I do eat, it'll just sit there, and go no-where in me. My systems are still, unmoving. That's another reason I need that kid back here pronto. He knew how to fend nosy people off. Still, they've got no grounds, as, according to them, I must be eating something to play the way I am, and to not have dropped dead yet._

Crawling into bed, wings and all, she lay upon her stomach to stare out into an open closet, where both her and her roommate's clothes hung or lay strewn. Painfully, she folded her leathery appendages and made them disappear into the illusion of a purely human Sakurako. She blinked and licked lips that didn't need the moisture.

_Maybe I'm just over thinking this, over analyzing, worrying with no grounds. Probably. My grounds are solid. Once I remember that girls, name, I'm set. They can't pry to deep into my situation of food, I'm not losing anything, and I'm still alive, for a human that means they are eating food, regardless of whatever anyone may see. _

Rolling back so she lay on her back, she looked up into the springs of the bunk above her. Sakurako, the one before her, had stuffed a whole host of things there that had lent her plenty of information into how the girl thought, worked and felt on f daily basis. Heck, her dairy was somewhere up there too, and even though there was a kind of taboo in human cultures about diaries, the thing was, theoretically, _hers_, right?

_I'll just express to the coach my desire to be a more well-rounded player, and that being the reason I pulled back on my performance as a Middie and tried to, with success, apply it to other areas. I've got my eyes on being goalie, I never liked being it before, yeah, but that's the reason. I want to improve. Simple, solid and easy. He'll understand, he's one of those..."good guys"._

Closing her eyes, she attempted to feign sleep, and somewhere along the line make it real, as the door opened quietly and she heard footsteps announce the arrival of her roommate. A bag protested with a crinkle as it was dropped on the floor, and Cora heard the sound of someone bending over and picking up something, tossing it unto the couch.

Down to the "t" Cora had even purposely been emulating the behavior of Sakurako, and her tendency to push most of the cushions off the couch to sit more rigidly in it, using it as support, much to the annoyance of her roommate. Yet the succubus had to agree with the girl she was emulating...the couch was cooler and more user-friendly, without those cushions.

_I know her so well, as I am playing her, it makes me feel like I knew her, which is a good track to making me feel like I am her, but still, I kinda wish I did know her, for some weird, crazy reason. Maybe I just need a confirmation, or maybe I need a kind of release._

_...Or maybe I just need the girl to tell me I'm doing a good job, being her, saving her friends some extra problems, hmm? Maybe. Honestly, I think it's the last one. I need someone to tell me I'm doing fine._

Her roommate walked into the room, or half did. She stood in the doorway, casting a shadow upon the girl in the bed.

"I know you're not asleep Sakurako. How many times do I have to tell you about those cushions?!"

"...More comfortable without them..."

"Well at least put them back afterwards, I find it more comfortable _with_ them! They make a mess on the floor too! At least put them on the table or something...you're not listening...are you?"

"I...am..."

"Crap. She **is** asleep...damn. Oh well."

**+--2--+**

Finally, it was time. Time to rise up and claim what was rightfully his. The vampire smiled. Finally, his weakness was subsiding...and as he grew stronger, his friend Evangeline would grow weaker. Pale, long dead hands rubbed against each other as his eyes lit up upon where he was going, proudly walking in bold daylight.

_Now, now is the time to strike._

Gunther had been weak before, but that was because of his age. That same age that Eva was creeping towards even as he traveled, that same age she knew nothing about. Vampires are like time bombs they are...

_"You fool, you never knew when it was time to watch and wait...and when the time came to strike!"_

It wasn't that he was weak. No, you see, once a vampire reaches a certain age, about the age of ohh, the turn of their first, they quickly weakened. Yet, when their first arrived....heh heh heh...it all came back, exploding back into them, and more than before.

_Now that, that is where you are wrong my dear little girl. I, oh I, indeed know when the right time come to wait..._

Evangeline...she had been ten that day, no? Oh, he remembered her well, the little girl he had snatched away, almost ready to take on the mantle her parents were leaving behind, almost considered to be an adult in that day and age...

_...and when it comes time to strike...don't tell me you have forgotten that day? The day I made you what you are today?_

The year had been 1112...just between the middle ages ending wars and the dark ages rising tides. The sun had been brilliantly bright during the day, and he had been starving, waiting for night fall. He was a new vampire himself...only about eighty or ninety...ninety. Ninety and waiting for the enemy, the great golden orb in the sky, to fall.

_It had been beautiful outside, a cloudless day, the sky an almost pure pastel sky blue. The wind was just right to be at the beach, staring out at the shore, as you had been. The sea air blowing your hair back, you were the picture of a youthful beauty, ready to be married off to some man at the coming of age._

Such a foe you cannot defeat, only hide from until you are strong enough to defy. He had hid from it that bright day, watching as a girl who had caught his eye stared out into the horizon. She was exotic, compared to the normal fare, blond haired with startlingly green eyes.

_Humans appreciate such color, such vibrancy... Vampires must learn to avoid it, to hate it. Otherwise they die. I decided to take you and make drain you, for my life meant more to me than yours, I knew not that I had been sloppy..._

He had decided he would take her, and, just his luck, as the beach she was looking out upon emptied, she stayed, continuing to drink up the scene...it had been quick, painful, but quick for her. He had snuck behind her, but he would never forget how she whirled around, the fear in her eyes.

_Forgetting to disarm you, you came back as a vampire, a mindless abortion, for I had not created you customarily, like you had your little boy friend. You spent years running on instinct, amok, drinking whatever came your way until your power was enough to give you a semblance of a mind..._

It was the only time he had seen such an emotion from her, and he doubted anyone would ever see the little girl in her ever again, not to such a point. No. Too many years had gone by, too many memories, too much evil, far too great, the amount of pain.

_Through that, you continued to grow, increase, greater power. You met me on several occasions, and always, always you hated me. You shunned me for the gift I had mistakenly given you, or was it simply the fact that it had been a mistake? Had you wanted me around I wonder?_

She was, at that very day he had come to her, to turn nine hundred. It was a special day for her indeed, both her long forgotten birthday and her release date, but also the day her power would begin to decline...

_Would it have turned out any different? Well, of course, obviously it would have, that is a foolish sentiment...but. Always, you made me...a kind of proud. In a way, I see you as my child, even htought that is not customary; normally the first one you turn is your mate..._

She had felt nothing obviously, as her power had just been released, but now, as it had settled, she must have felt it slowly decrease, unless it was such that she did not even care. He was past the hundred years of weakness...she was not. Hers was just beginning...

_I had come to help you, and all I got was a scolding. You didn't know what was going on, and I failed to explain myself properly, even if I had, you would not have listened. So it comes to this my child, a battle in which I will win, and take you back into my fold, whisked away where we shall wait in the moonlight for you to grow into your coming age._

Vampires had several stages of growth and power, and not all start at the beginning. Eva had not, but he, Gunther, had. Yet no matter where you started, at the nine hundred year mark, you lost all the hard earned power you had gained over the centuries, for a solid century.

_I see you as a child, but I cannot do so, the vampire legacy does not allow it to be so. If we as a race must wait for your boy to grow, we shall never survive as a people. He is not powerful enough to protect you, and you are not the type to live another thousand years, regardless of your strength. _

No one knew why, but many believe it was a kind of cocoon, a shield in which was ripped back at the turn of your first millennia, giving birth to the final stage of vampires, the elders' race. Elder vampires were powerful, ancient beings, whose wisdom and power extended beyond the realms any ordinary vampire could, their mind encompassed a thousand years worth of memory and more.

_You are the type to die in battle, or to chose a good time to simply lie down and wait for death to arrive._

After such a long time, he had finally regained what he had lost, and been reborn better than before; he practically radiated outwards his strength. As strong, no, even stronger, than Eva herself. He walked along the streets of Megalo-Mesembria, feeling out for that power signature, which was slowly retracting, growing weaker even as his bolstered, strengthened.

_Choosing your destiny, you would call it. I would call it cowardly, or foolish, but you wouldn't listen, you would call me the coward for avoiding death. How double-sided the sword really is._

Power...power. It was all. An elder vampire was the final step, for it was from them that natural vampires were born, not created, _born_. Behind him, his convent walked with him, spread through the crowd but always moving forward, following their leader, their family head.

_"...and when the time came to strike!"_

The elder. He was coming for Eva. Yet, even as he approached, he felt an incredible surge of energy, nothing near his own, or Eva's retracting strength, but still incredible. He stapled it to her runt, the one who had humiliated him. The boy.

_The time to strike my child, indeed, the time to strike. It is now._

He would show him too, what he was now capable of. Onwards! They had to get there soon, so they could plan their siege...abandoning the shadows, the strongest of his group walked along on the dirt road with him, marching to the beat the life laid out, the sun beating upon their brows, defied by their power.

_The time to strike is now._

With the vision of Eva in his eyes, hair floating back in the sea tide winds, and his convent behind him, the vampire took another step forwards into the town, heading, bang on course, for Rakkan's house, were Negi lie.

_You shall see my girl, how winning the battle almost never guarantees winning the war._

To where Negi...and Evangeline, lie...

... .... ...

Negi couldn't believe his eyes. He shot out his hand and felt Eva's forehead with the back. Her eyes closed as his hand landed there. Holy hell, it was burning like hell. Flushed face and all, was this for friggin real?

It was his turn to gather magic, allowing the light to come. It wasn't like light magic could not heal a vampire, one just had to be careful not to let the magic go awry. Light attacks did a whole crap load of damage, yes, but light could still heal. Hell, that was a common misconception; healing spells did _not_ damage them for Christ's sake, just like dark attacks meant to hurt don't heal!

Yet the magic did nothing for her, and he noticed she was shivering. Shivering for Christ's sake. She had a blanket over her, but she was shivering. The heck, it looked like she ate something that didn't agree with her, but she didn't really eat you know...vampires don't need to…they can, but they won't really take in anything from it...

Maybe she needed blood or something? He reached into his pocket to pull out the bottle, but Kago, who was next to him, grabbed his wrist urgently.

**"Tell me what kind of blood is in that thing before you give it to her."**  
"Does it _matter_? It's blood."  
**"It does matter. You blood burned her when she tried to heal you during your trial with whatever it was you were doing."**

"My blood did what?"  
**"What's in the bottle!?"**

Negi rose the thing to his lips, taking a long pull from it, and draining it none, for the contents were greatly compressed into the tiny space. He focused on Kago after doing this, saying simply something that made the priest heart fall out of his chest and shatter upon the tiled floor.

"It's dragon's blood, and some helluva good one's too. Now can I give it to her?"

Shaking, that's what he was doing. Shaking. Like she was, he was shaking like a leaf, as if suddenly cold all over, which he was. Dragon's blood...was he lying? No, not the way his eyes looked over Kago.

**"No...you have to go out and get some other kind of blood...dragon's will only make it worse...No."**

Negi looked at him oddly, his shaking body, and pulled a foreboding premonition. He spoke slowly to the other, seeing as how he seemed on the verge of spilling something, perhaps the reaosn Eva had never mentioned Dragons as being fine cuisine...

"Exactly...what is wrong with drinking the blood of a dragon, may I ask?"

Kago involuntarily swallowed.

**"It's poisonous my friend...to most vampires that is. It burns them like acid upon contact, trying to drink it is suicide...to most. Those that aren't affected...are rare."**

"You're kidding right? Godamn....why the hell do I always have to be fricken special?!"

**+--3--+**

Speeding through the woods. A fox scampers away, a frog croaks and hops along, ignoring him as he rushed past. Blasting leaves form their branches, he runs, with all the speed of a vampire within him coming forth and blasting all. In his hands, he carries the precious bottle full of blood...deers blood mostly, as that is the closet animal he can find that has a kind of life to it, near a humans fare.

A dragon's fare, in this place and time, is forbidden fruit. The boy jumps over a fallen log, landing on his feet and rushing still. He needed more. He had collected several, but still, he felt he needed more...damn Eva and her incredible power, it took humans to feed her, not animals...damn her. He rushed along, wind whistling along in his hair, shoes destroying wildlife underfoot. Horrible person, Negi. Horrible person....he rushed along, blood beating in his veins, the blood of a dragon. The last one he had killed...he had been in a rush, Magica Erebia flowing through him.

He had not killed it. He needed to kill it now. lest it rise from the dead and go on a mindless rampage...little would be able to stop it...it had been a powerful dragon in life...the boy pounced upon another deer as it scampered away in the woods, wasting no time in sinking down his teeth into it's side, drawing the blood from it, not to drink, but to cipher to the bottle in his hands. A roar off in the distance was heard. A dragon's call, yet it was a live one, flying high.

He didn't need blood right now, and so he let the sky beast be, his feet growing wings as he scampered along, breaking apart the deer with his sheer magical power, ripping it apart with lightning magic and leaving the cauterized pieces where they fell. Rushing, he jumped high over another log...and teleported away from a sudden upwards stab of a thin blade. He twisted in the air, calling magic to him quickly and landing, his fists exploding with the power he had been given, the dreaded Magica Erebia, free for him to use as he pleased, to train...his eyes saw nothing, and then, a sea of white. He twisted away as a sheet of silver hair fell and he looked.

Jasnin. Only her, the stupid girl had thought him an enemy! Her attack had squashed all good feelings brought up from finding the girl...still, another roar echoed, and out from the brush exited a nightmare...

Negi had burned it raw in his hurry, and this was the result...charred, sickly black scales glinted in the setting sun as the undead beast tossed it's head. He was too late. Too late. Its maw opened wide, displaying broken teeth, chipped fangs. That was Negi's fault, he had entered its mouth when it had snaked it's neck at him to swallow him whole...and he had ripped it's mouth apart with powerful slashes and claws. A body, torn and beaten, moved swiftly, and Negi saw a figure enter his vision, rearing up, blade flashing silver in the falling light, and slashed right through one of the beast's limbs, making it roar in pain and strike out, lightning crackling from its claws.

Fire roared from its maw at the boy, and Jasnin rushed in, to no avail, for Issac held out his blade flat, and took the furnace head on, blade quivering in his hands as he held off the fire with his steel. Negi rushed in, past Jasnin, to slam his glowing fist into the dragon's chest, making the great beast actually skid a foot back. Such was the strength the technique lent him, and it would only grow stronger as his mastery of it increased. Issac jumped up and sliced another limb, a leg this time, making it fall upon its face, fire roasting the forest upon one side.

Yet still, when the beast's eyes locked with Negi, it roared again, but more painfully, submissively almost....as Issac approached, his blade tinged red for the final blow, Negi held him off, approaching the beast himself, reaching deep into its mind...it was tied to him, he had made it...the boy grabbed it's mind, crushing it's defiance in a single blow. You...you belong to me. You...will obey me...no? If I heal you, you will listen only to I.

Of course it would, it had no choice...

"Stand back, I think I can make this thing submissive to me..."

"You think, Professor Springfield? I can't have you thinking when our lives are at stake."

"Rastel Mascir, Magister...Precor...lux lucis , signum vulnus , conforto vulnero Aceso... Achelois, lavo mihi in vestri lux lucis, succurro meus in meus vicis of postulo , restituo , Amplitudo Rememdium! ...Then just let me say I know and be done with it."

_Precor...lux lucis, signum vulnus, conforto vulnero Aceso... Achelois, lavo mihi in vestri lux lucis, succurro meus in meus vicis of postulo, restituo, Amplitudo Rememdium! Coutlouce, Ego ingenero vos, cavo profundus in mihi. Vigoratus, Curo, restituo mihi universus. Ego scisco vestrum is, restituo! _

Magic swirled about him, snaking outwards to encompass the undead dragon, making it snuffle slightly. Limbs repaired, cuts healed...soon, it didn't even look like this thing had ever met Negi, or was even undead...except for the eyes...the eyes showed how dead it was, and how...interested it was in what Negi would do next.

_Goddamn thing's like a giant plushie, or a friggin loose puppy. Ever curious, ever obedient...the hell am I gonna do with this now?_

"Go."

The dragon, seeming to obey the command, stomped away into the brush obediently, leaving Negi with an appalled Jasnin and a interested Issac. The girl's silver hair reflected the sun as it began it's set, eyes zeroing in upon Negi with some skepticism. Tired and in need of a bath she addressed him.

"The hell was that?"

Negi began to open his mouth, but a rustle in the bushes brought his attention to a stomping and Negi turned around to see the thing had returned...with a fricken whole tree in its mouth. The hell...? It dropped it with a boom, and quite suddenly, Negi got it...but he didn't like it.

_Oh please god, don't tell me this thing want's to play fetch... _

"Go!"

Was that a whine he heard? The dragon lowered it's head and pushed the log. Oh god...how did it expect him to grip that thing again? h right, it wasn't thinking that far, it was a flipping zombie dragon! Negi was sure if he turned around, that muffled sound he heard would be Jasnin laughing her head off.

The boy gripped the log with his magic, heaving it up into the air with an incredible effort, exhibiting an even greater effort when he bodily threw the thing. Just as predicted, the beast spread wings and gave chase with a huge gust of powerful wind.

"Now...where were we..? What? What...what the hell is so funny?"

"I think I hear that dragon coming back.."

"Oh god, not again! I don't have time for this! Arggh! Come on, I'll lead you to everybody else, let's lose this big, black, dumbo a beast."

"Oh, I think he's kind a cute.."

_**"Did you think that way when it was about to roast you alive?!"**_

"Well...no."

+--E--+

Okay, a short one here for you! I'm sorry for it being short, but this was hard to type, real, real hard. Neh? Cut me some slack, gah? Next time. Computer's about to auto shut down on me…


	42. Chapter XXXXII: Cleanse

Glad to hear from you NightmareSyndrom...Neh...It's a different dragon. Obliterate and utterly, yes...but different dragon. A more powerful one...now made into a...mindless stick chasing "dog" for Negi?! Well, this might lighten the mood for him...fu fu fu...Havelock, you hit it right on the head...although, there is even more twisted snake gates to unravel...I really think I will need a sequel for it all...

Writers are artists, and I always hate the fact that, as a left handed writer in life, my hand tends to smudge my own work as I go. I've come to accept in drawings that my hand's smudges can be made into parts of the work. Yet, how do I make my "smudges" here into part of my art? Typos here only mar, they cannot be made into part of the whole...what I'm saying is that I may be interested in soon looking for a Beta. I'm not sure yet however.

Akamatsu just had to go and reveal that everything is going exactly as I thought it would, and thus, I have to rework my own plans in order not to copy him. Bah! Oh well, I'm not deterred, the outcome will be near the same anywho, only my plan is still different. It just frustrates me that I was able to see through his original intent so easily form the point of the Chao Sagas...frustrates me to no end.

Peeps, I don't own Negima. Yes, I said peeps. Don't ask me why. You know a lot of formatting I put into these chapters get lost when I upload the chapters to Fanfiction? It's been annoying me for awhile, so I'll try to remedy it here. By the way, according to the ten people who voted, which is not much I know...10/10 rating, 60%, 8/10 rating, 30%, 6/10 rating, 10%. Well, I know what I've got to do now. I'm going to try some half fluff before try full fluff...I just made it sound like a product.

**_Warning, this will have at least one disturbing scene. Negi gets crazy again...also, expect this to have a few...awkward ones._** ~Finalage.

**_+--YN--+_**

**_Chapter Forty Two: Cleanse_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

**"Sevetibia!** **Chēn! Hori ken! Chēn! Chēn! Hori ken! Chēn! Chēn! Gah! ...Hiru!...**_**Kigen!**_**"**

_There are so many of them, where did they come from!? Never mind that...I cannot let them pass!_

"Damn, who the hell would have thought she'd have a vampire slayer on her side!?"

**"Chen! Ten Rippingubīmu!! Hori ken!, Hori ken...Chēn, Chēn, **_**Kurosu**_**!!!!"**

Kago spun his whip, his face still a mask of complete oblivion, not a single emotion played across that weather beaten canvas as he struck out with his weapon, again, and again, riling the vampires in front of him, pushing them back, a sole protector to the gates of Rakkan's home.

What a day for the man to have gone out for a drink! Beside him, Anya stood, firing off spells when she believed anyone got too close, becoming a cover for the older boy, as she could not fight and thrust as he could, Sagitta Magica of fire sheeting from her.

In the dark, cool night, her fire was the only light into the darkness, setting Kago's weapon flashing into the shadow as it beat back menacing forms, one that kept pressing forward. Still, even as the boy continued to pump out power, he knew it was pointless, as the power behind them all; the strength of the vampire in the back...would consume him. He rushed in upon a particularly slow vampire, his hand coming out to impact flat upon his chest.

**"Oiharau Akuma!"**

Where in the world, at this time, was Negi? At a time like this, the sole defense had brought out a more violent form of his peaceful work, ripping the spirit of the vampire in front of him from its immortal body, making it crumble into dust as he jumped back to avoid a round house from one vampire, and an upper cut from another. He heard the scream echo in his head as the alarm was risen.

**"He's an exorcist! He just got Mark! Rush him, before he takes anyone else!"**

Greater speed and strength, the boy could only swing his weapon so much, call up so many spells. He was tired, and as one vampire strode forth, he swung his whip out, and figure caught it easily, smiling.

He was to strong, the silver wasn't affecting him....Anya jumped into the fray now, surprising Kago. No! He wouldn't let her just recklessly risk herself! She called out for a spell, but was punched in the gut before she could even complete it by one of the mob in front, blasting her back. Kago caught her calmly, setting her down. He stood, defiant, as they approached upon him slowly. The girl was out cold, but not dead...

**"No. You will stop...Kyōdo wa, baitariti, seishin-teki na iyashi, fuan, shinu. Hīru no seishin, kurosu...I pray for your eternal souls."**

They laughed at him, darkness calling to darkness as the night became complete, but the boy stood to defy it, looking deep into himself. It had to be here, his inner peace. He focuses upon the world around him, pushing himself away, he didn't matter, his body mattered not.

**"You, then, leave me no choice..."**

The universe, the world mattered. Right now, his place was as the whole, not as an individual with needs and selfish wants, but as part of the whole. Opening his eyes, he saw them, closing in upon him, no, closing in upon this place. His hand closed upon his whip, his body springing to life with magic.

**"Within one side of the coin, Magic flows free, a brook of strength, the world's force... Within the other, the energy of life, Chi, shines bright. From the right, and to the left, I make myself nothing, as I combine them, with a soul shining bright..."**

He had been taught it, like all martial artists who reach a point in time could be taught it, but, without the right teacher, without the right power, without the right skill and discipline...it would never be accomplished...together, coaxed and wheedled, the two forces collided and merged, and he leapt forth into the fray of vampires, his body a beacon of light.

**"...Kanka!"**

Blasting forth, he smashed an elbow into the face of one vampire as his weapon swung out, shining bright in the night to dig deep into the body of another. Undead screams became a chorus as the boy beat out a flow of battle for himself, standing against the current as an island in the stream.

His body glowing all about, he was as fast and as strong as any of them, a blur of power as his hands flashed out, left, right and center, mowing them down. Yet, it was all for naught, as their numbers where too great. Gunther himself stepped forth and grabbed the glowing weapon, its power passing him by, nothing but a soft mid-summer night breeze against him.

He had no magic, but that didn't matter, his ability went into his speed, his strength, endurance...and his power. He sent forth a mist, a choking, poisonous mist of decay and death, of confusion and sorrow, to encompass the boy. Mists made to take control of the opposition. Still, even as he felt his strength falter and shadows of the night leapt at him, he beat them back with his will.

One vampire slashed at his neck, drawing blood, ripping his scarf from him. Power burned in his eyes as they sprang back to life, his mind suddenly crystal clear. He forced more energy into his aura, forcing vampires away from the abundant light, but not too far away...

_**"Kurosu!"**_

Lifting up into the air, he made the night turn day, his blast sending shockwaves through the trees. He had fought well, but when he landed back upon the ground, panting hard, Gunther was simply smiling. He had not been effected by Kurosu...its suction had not even disturbed his hair. Panting the boy watched as he approached, his more powerful associates following.

Why had he tried so hard to save a vampire? Why had he tried so hard to protect her when she had killed scores of people, just like him? Some had come after her, yes, but much was unprovoked destruction. Why had he caused even more destruction and unrest to save her?

It mattered not anymore, for he had failed, hadn't he? The boss approached, and Kago only had one health point left, no retries, certainly no potions left, and he was out of mana to boot...Slowly, he stood up, his Kanka having long dropped after the Kurosu...

_I will stand tall, calm, in the hands of my savior, if my time is come, I will go._

Yet, even as the pack approached, three vampires on the side of Gunther cried out, as, with a flash, a gigantic blade slashed them all right along the backs, felling them. On the other side, another silver flash made a vampire lose their arm, even as the two nearest beings to Gunther were pulled, screaming, backwards as hands, bloody hands, exploded from their middles, each one clutching a spine.

Kago watched, wide eyes, as the two figures flew back until something stopped them, screaming as the very supports were ripped from their bodies… They fell to reveal Negi, sitting in a tree, his feet out to brace the two he had just relieved of a spine each. He grinned, clutching the bloody prizes. Kago paled.

"Ha ha! What's the matter girls, you were just so tough, did seeing me make you lose your spine?! Ahahaha! Oooh boy...that was corny."

Dropping from the tree, he clutched his two new weapons and spun, catching two vampires and digging into them deep with the bones of their comrades, sending them flying away from him. He spun to send them all into the pits of hell with a powerful, nameless blast of fire magic, coursing fire through the bones he was holding, and grinning manically in the light.

As Issac blasted towards Gunther, Jasnin shot towards him from the other direction, yet the vampire twisted away, making the two soldiers stop dead in their tracks, inches from each other's faces. No time for moments, not as Issac braced his foot and kicked sideways, shooting off towards the elusive vampire, his sister jumping after him.

Negi cackled as he swung his bones out, ripping through others and burning them alive. His speed and strength, even without Magica Erebia, had been enough before, and it proved even more so now. He reached Kago and tossed off his dry, well roasted spines to look at the priest.

"Helluva nice day to sleep standing up, but I think fighting is more fun. What the hell were you doing, just standing here...praying for their souls?! Oh no, wait, you're all bruised and stuffs'. So you fought, but you're done...so, do me a favor and get Anya outta here, will yah? She ain't supposed to be here."

**"...Fine...however, I am not leaving you to fight alone."**

"Then come back, you idiot, no one's stopping you from doing that."

**+--1--+**

"Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonagitta Novem, Spitius Terra! ...Ex Somno Exsistat Exundans Undina Inimicum Immergat in Alveum! Vinctus Aquarius!"

_"κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση , έκλειψη!"_

**"Ten Rippingubīmu! Hori Ken! Kigen, Kigen!, Kigen!"**

It did nothing. No matter what the three of them dished out, Gunther somehow slipped away from it and agilely bent and twisted from Issac, who dodged through the hail of earth arrows and spilt water, the lightning and ice, to slash at the slippery eel that was Gunther, taking care not to step where Kago sent holy power erupting from the ground.

"Ha ha, not even the four of you together cannot touch me!"

He was simply too fast, to strong, even as Issac finally swung and landed a hit to slash the man right through, his blade actually _bounced _off his arm. Bounced I say! Negi gave up spell weaving about the same time Kago did, closing his eyes and concentrating his energy as Kago placed his hands in prayer.

_**I do not enjoy doing this, but I must. Lord, forgive me for such selfish acts, making that which you have given me into nothing in the face of wanting selfish power.**_

It wasn't planned, but as Negi's fists exploded with Magica Erebia, Kago's came to life with magic and chi, and his combined them quickly with his remaining energy, coming alive with a glow, both of them rushing forth to join Issac in the physical fray...leaving Jasnin to the spell work. Issac called to her.

"Jess, hold the fort!"  
"O…of course! ...What does it look like I'm doing?!"

Negi spun to sweep Gunther's feet from under him with a leg sweep as Kago jumped up into the air to deliver his signature aerial drop kick, and Issac swung horizontally out to catch the other in the middle, yet, Gunther decided not to move. Negi's foot slammed against his, stopping short, and the elder vampire caught Kago's foot in mid flight, tossing the boy away as, yet again, Issac's blade bounced off his skin.

_Damn. I've got to find a better way of attacking him!_

Hopelessness. Gunther spun around and his fist blasted Issac off his feet, slamming him into a tree, his body sliding down. He turned to the others, ignoring Issac as his feet hit the ground solidly, he himself using them to run into the fray as Kago sent his fist into Gunther's very face, Negi joining him with a punch to the gut.

Gunther slid back an inch, right into Issac's blade, which, with the force of all three of them, managed to make a nick, a few precious centimeters deep. The vampire spun and grabbed Issac, tossing him away, his blade flying one way...

...and him, in another, into the trees. Jasnin's earth arrows hit the elder's back head on, doing nothing. Negi and Kago both leapt up at the same moment, even as a rustle in the brush gave tale to Issac jumping back into the clearing, grabbing his blade as he ran...

_I cannot be just a useless standby here! Magic is not everything!_

One fist, coursing with light, the other, a picture of darkness, slammed into Gunther, making him stumble back as Issac slashed at his neck, once more, a token slight upon his neck appeared. Negi smiled, Kago, in the same instant, gritted his teeth.

_**His sheer endurance...his skin is like granite, his strength that of a true devil.**_

This was an opponent. The elder laughed, grabbing Kago and lifting him up. Negi bore in and sent his elbow up, into an unmentionable place, but he just smiled...Kago, however, wiped the smile from his face by almost making his head into mince meat, firing off his beam.

_I need to put more than all of my strength, I need to focus my mind, my chi, everything, all I've got. Now!_

Once more, Issac came. His blade becoming a beacon of condensed chi, he jumped up, swinging his blade with his body, using his whole being as a force into his swing. He struck, and his cut went to the bone of Gunther's arm, making him scream.

"I've ignored you long enough, boy!"

_What? ...No! _

Turning around, he grabbed Issac, ripping his blade from his hands and clasping around his throat, choking him. Kago rushed into, but before he even moved an inch, a literal roar was heard from behind him, and he felt the air leave his lungs, an extreme force just..._moving_ the air away.

**_"You..will not touch him."_**

Negi managed to turn around, recognizing the incredible force as a mental effort, and a powerful one, his eyes feasting upon Jasnin, only...holy hell, it _almost_ chilled him. Hair blowing back in an invisible wind, it lifted about her, her normally silver eyes turning stark gold, her hand outstretched to a still Gunther, almost as if one had hit the pause button on him.

Reaching deep, his mind was huge. Past the memories, over the thoughts, through the knowledge, away from the experience...she swam, touching upon something cold, her whole body bracing against it.

His very being radiated here, his soul. Thoughts, desires, rage, guilt, pleasure, being...it was all here, just as, within her, she felt a swelling…a rage, _nameless _rage. It gave her strength. It gave her power. To her, it rose all of the ancient knowledge, knowledge of Snow-walkers past, their power, their rage, filling her...their...

Desires. Striking out, she grabbed his soul, wrenching it with one powerful heave, an incredible effort of strength, herculean...sundering it's bonds form it's body with force, she grasped it's cold core as Gunther's body jerked once, and his ghostly soul snapped out, his final chain of life trailing behind.

She struck out, nameless, cold ice appearing in her hands to come down upon his life, striking it from being...his body fell, exploded into dust as it released Issac, yet...her rage was not depleted... There was a reason Jasnin Akaito could see ghosts...it was part of her heritage...seeing ghosts meant she could see spirits...spirits like the one she had just ripped from its body.

Her power snaked out, encasing his soul in a sphere of her anger, ice that had no name striking him from all angles within it. Without a voice, he screamed, soundless to no ears but his own. Contracting, the ice intensified, until nothing could be seen within the marble sized ball of ice she had created, slowly, inexorably closing her jaws upon him.

In a final fit of power, she crushed the sphere within her hands. Her power dissipating as she fell, hand sparkling the remaining dust to the untold winds. Issac tried, but he obviously could not get there before she fell. Lifting her easily, he shook his head.

Kago swallowed as he looked at her limp form. He asked Issac if she needed healing, but he shook his head again. No, they only needed a bath and some rest, and rest seemed to be the first thing, as Jasnin had just unconsciously told him.

_You didn't...no. I won't bash it. Thank you. Thank you Jess. I know what you just risked doing that...even if I don't understand all of it..._

Walking off, he left Kago and Negi, both of whom were still exuding power. Kago canceled his so he could let his knees give way, falling upon his rump in an undignified fashion, but he was too exhausted to care much.

**"...She has just, had just...ripped that soul from its body..."**

"A mental effort. Mental magic's are powerful. She once told me she is of a royal line, indirectly, so I believe that may be it..."

**"You misunderstand. Even if it is royal in nature...she just destroyed something that she should not be able to...she obliterated an immortal soul. Nothing, not even God, in the scriptures, is shown to be able to do that...his claims are that he can either grant it eternal life in heaven or cast it into hell, where it burns forever more. Even in the impending apocalypse...the lord will only seal all of Hell..."**

"...You're thinking too much, holy man."

Spinning to walk away, he left Kago sitting there, looking upon the stars. What was this, all of this? What did it all mean? Why was he here, what did he need to learn...what did he need to harden?

**"...My lord, Forgive me, but I... misunderstand what I must do. I have lost my way. Will you act as my Sheppard and lead this sheep back to his flock?"**

... ... ... ...

It had been so easy. They had been asleep. So simple, it was nigh unbelievable. In a dark, damp cave, we had stormed them, quietly, as our commander Fate-han had told us. The princess was an easy picking here...wasn't she? Alone in the dark, the woods in her cave...her only protection was that booky girl, who, like her, was fast asleep.

Shiori slipped in, easy, to bend down near Asuna. She had no problem with what her magister had told her to do, but she couldn't help but feel nervous. The girl was asleep, yes, but come on, she was about to kiss a girl. There was something greatly wrong with that you know!

Still, she would do anything for her magister, it was he who had saved them all after all, and it was he who had taken them in when none others could, or would. She leant in and administered the act that would doom them all.

**+--2--+**

"Ooooh. Right there, ah! Oh my. Ehh? That's a place I didn't even realize I had..."

"...Would you can it? I can only imagine what someone listening would think we're doing here."

Negi narrowed his eyes the sponge in his hand handling his abuse as he scrubbed hard on the back in front of him, pushing irritably out of the way, the girl's hair. He was completely focused on his task, dull.

"Ha ha, boy. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to pleasure me...ahh! Harder."  
"You're lucky as hell you're as sick as a dog. I wouldn't be doing this otherwise, so please, shut it."

He steadied his hand, for it had begun to tremor, ever so slightly, as it went under the water. His face was set however. He would not waver from any task set in front of him, even if that task was to administer a wash up for Eva.

Yet still, his body was afraid, even if his mind was oblivious. Regardless of her current weakness, it still had muscle memory, and that memory knew of her overwhelming power. Her hand flashed out, under the water, to prevent him from going any lower. His eyes flashed up to lock upon hers, she had turned to look at him.

"I can't let you have to much fun, can I?"  
"You're kidding me, right? This is the most boring thing I've ever done."  
"Ohh? Then why are you...shaking?"

Leaning in against him a bit, she received a face full of a soapy sponge for trying. Negi continued to rub the thing all over her face until she broke from him, blinking suds out of her eyes, hissing lightly at the burn.

Hands came up to rub them, but he grabbed those to continue his attack with his weapon of choice, the sponge, reaching wherever he could past her feet, which were kicking out to attempt to thwart him.

"Get off me with that thing boy! I can do it myself!"

"Ohhh, and what happened to trying to pleasure you, hmm? Stay still, I'm not done yet."

Weaving past her, he ended up between the kicking feet and she went from pale to very, very red when she saw where he was...but before she could even attempt to maul him, his face was inches from hers.

"Oooh, we've got a dirty girl here, don't we? I think I'm going to need more soap, neh?'

_Oh really, how dare he...come here you, I'll show you dirty!_

Attacking him, she grabbed his head and forced it under the water, only allowing herself a moment's relief until she realized just _how _she had forced his head under the water. Shit, what was it that was making her embarrassed? How many times had some fool ended up like this?

What had she done? Leered at them, or, worse, force them further. Her confidence was uncanny, there was no embarrassment possible for the dark Evangel...so why did he make her feel so? Negi was still under the water, and she felt him kick off the ground of the tub, blasting up and dousing her with suds, making her swallow a good deal of water.

"The hell are you doing you friggin-mph?!"

Negi had taken the liberty to grab a bar of soap and stuff it in her mouth. He wagged his finger in front of her, smiling. This was actually turning out to be an enjoyable experience...his smile cracked into a full mouthed, open laugh.

"Ha , I _said_ I would need more soap for you, didn't I? Now...stay still!"

He lunged at her, pushing her under the water this time to continued his scrubbing upon her back and legs. When he let her up for air, she grabbed his throat, or tried to. His hand met hers and he pulled her in slamming his elbow in to her back and making her cough out water. She gasped at that one, coughing out the soap still in her mouth.

"You know, relationships that revolve around pain tend to be pretty intense, but I already told you yah old hag, I ain't for sale."

Tossing her away, she landed with a splash, and Negi skittered away when she came back at him, grabbing her hair and reeling it in. Her eyes shot venom at him, but he simply rose his sponge and began dragging it along her hair, jerking her head back with the force.

"I ain't done with you yet, so stay still!"

He grabbed the bar of soap and lathered his sponge well before attacking her again, only more properly this time, employing the same skill he had originally employed with Anya. His own hair had escaped the loose braid he had put it in for the bath, allowing it to flower about him in a living sea.

Eva stared at it as he continued his attack on her own head. She grabbed it to finger the texture. Light, soft, strong. She yanked it, pulling Negi from behind her with a powerful tug. Negi reached out and punched her in the chest with a hand still clutching soap, blasting her back into the water's depths.

They both were lucky as hell the stuff wasn't deep. She kicked off the base of the pool, lifting herself out of the water to aim a drop kick right for Negi's head, but the boy twisted away.

"What you trying to do? Copy priest boy?! You don't have the style!"

She landed in the water and turned to him, hair falling to cover her. He smiled once he saw her eyes, alive, ready. He motioned to his bar of soap, holding it as if it were the handle for a bat.

"Heeerrrreee batter batter batter..."

Oh she came alright, running along on wings, but the boy shifted away to the sides, grabbing her around the waist in a bear hug. She kicked at him, but he blocked all vulnerable parts, twisting his head to avoid flailing arms.

Without warning, she coughed, and Negi saw a small dollop of red fly from her. He set her down, she was quiet now, but he had to hold her up. She was shaking again, and in the water, she weighed a ton, as if the stuff was trying to suck her in.

Grimacing, he finished the task given to him, amidst a compliant, energy less foe.

_What will happen if everyday becomes like this? How long is she going to be sick like this? It's not natural...to see her so weak. Not that I really give a damn, but... _

Who was he kidding? He gave a damn alright, he gave a big damn. Especially when he took into account that Eva seemed to be the only one who could relate to his anger, his bitterness, his power...heck, she was probably the only one he could have an intelligent discussion with, not that he had ever indulged in that whim.

There was, simply, no time. His life was so full of _action_, it had no room for normalcy, for _interaction_. Hell, he didn't even use the bathroom any more, and sleep was a fleeting, near nonexistent thing...say goodbye to the lest few links he had to being normal, huh?

As quiet as Eva was, tread through the suddenly thick and churning water, lifting Eva up upon the shore and wrapping her in a robe and watching as, eyes not closed, she only groaned once in response.

_So weak, even when she was once so strong._

He needed to find out whatever the hell was the matter with her, didn't he? Another annoyance to deal with. What was worse, he still had no idea what the heck he was, or where the hell his father was, or when the hell Asuna and Nodoka would show up, and why the hell Fate or whatever his name was wanted to destroy the gate to the old world.

Of course, like always, nothing made sense. Life was just something he shouldn't try to analyze, just ride it like a donkey until it broke down. Damn it all to hell. He walked to the bed Eva had been occupying and laid her down there, receiving an odd stare from his mother.

Negi held out his hand to her to stem any kind of weird, awkward, or stupid questions on her part, he indicated Eva, who was now deciding to shiver again. He rose an eyebrow and tossed on a blanket, but of course, that wasn't going to do anything for her...

In all honesty, Negi felt like just saying screw it and jumping in with her, but obviously, he had not body heat to give her either, so he looked at his mother and indicated the bed. Horrified, she misinterpreted him. He lifted his eyes skyward. Idiots, was he surrounded by them everywhere?

"Woman. The vampire can't produce her own fricken body heat. You can. Go. Goddamn."

**+--3--+**

**"It's called "coming of age" or "the final transition" Vampires nearing their tenth century get this disease. It's a simple thing. That fact she had no knowledge of it is another thing entirely. Another point is how drastic the change was for her. She'll need to be taken close care of from now on if you want to keep her around."**

Kago looked off into the distance from his vantage point near an arch of the coliseum Rakkan called a house. His sandy hair tossing in the wind as his hood was down, scarf, a bit more tattered than before, flapping in the breeze. Negi stepped up into the light.

"So, the old hag is even older than I thought. How old is she, and how long does this final transition stage last?"

Kago sighed, his eyes trained upon a distant hill. Here, in this place...time seemed to stand still, each day seeming to be only a continuation of the last one...perhaps it was just his lack of sleep, or maybe it was just his lack of spiritual peace, but the sky seemed closed to his eyes today...

**"It lasts **_**all **_**of their ninth century, until they reach a thousand years of age. I suspect, from what you have told me, that the vampire we fought had been going through the very last of his own weakness, and when we saw him last, he had been reborn as an "elder vampire..."**

He turned around to still Negi's protests, casting aside his protests upon her weakness lasting a hundred solid years, even his pending ones of the daunting thought, that he would be expected to care for her in all that time. His eyes fixed upon the boy.

**"You have feeling for her, do you not?"**  
"The hell? Where did that come from?!"

**"Do you or do you not?"**

"Hell no. I'm friggin how old-"

**"It matters not your age, your mind is perfectly capable, regardless the lack of hormones. Those don't stop love."**

"...I have no interest in her."

**"You paused a bit too long there."**

"I have no interest your incessant, overgrown altar boy. Thank you for your time."

Negi spun about, a bit faster than the priest would have thought appropriate, and walked quickly away, as a vampire was wont to do, but Negi paused him with his voice, floor in mid-fall to the floor.

**"People, vampire slayers, others who had a grudge, personal or monetary, will be after her now, you do realize this? If you value her as a mentor or as something else, you should be prepared to protect her...be careful...also...come to me later. I still need to talk to you about dragon's blood."**

This was coming from one who was a vampire slayer himself? Perhaps he didn't see them all as vampires, or maybe ignored it now. He hadn't been here long, but he seemed obligated, especially now, to set up shop here and stay.

Maybe he thought god had put him here or some other nonsense like that...oh well, whatever the reason he was still here, Negi was glad for it in an odd way. It gave him someone genuinely annoying to deal with, which was fun, in its own way...

Still, for him to think about Negi as having feelings for Eva...well, she was a vampire, and he was one, she owed him a lot, of course he'd be familiar with her; she was the one who turned him after all. Feelings though?

Hormones don't stop love, hmm? Well, sorry Mister White Mage, but Negi wasn't in love...or wasn't he? Nah. He had no desires that stemmed in that way...even as he felt his darkness, deep inside, laugh at that sentiment.

Mind over matter, but his body had Magica Erebia on its side, and that...that brought out all kinds of sinful, dark thoughts, lust among them....could a boy, so young in body but so old in mind, feel lust through that? Or was it the vampric illusion giving a sense of an older body that might do the trick?

He was over analyzing what a rouge bishop had just told him, idiot. Forget it. Negi paused in his travels. He had arrived at a door, with no idea how he had gotten there. Obviously, his feet had a mind of thier own, walking along on a memorized path...

Pushing open the door, he realized it was the room he had put Eva in...no one else was around, she was alone, and awake...staring out the open window. Her head turned to look at him as he closed the door behind him.

Emerald to meet the fiery brimstone encased in Negi's eyes. He walked over and stood by her bed, looking her over. At least she wasn't shaking any more, but a pillow was propped up against the rays the sun sent her way.

"You can't tell me you're that weak now...you need to hide from the sun now?"

Her eyes had lost none of their fire, but they seemed drained somehow, weaker, more near death. She would need blood again. Sooner or later, she would need blood, and he would have to get it. He came to sit on the edge of her bed, looking off to the sky she had been staring at.

"He says this will last one hundred years, this weakness of yours. It's a kind of...phase, a phase that all vmapires go through. He said that's why Gunther was so easy to punch when I first met him, but so damn hard to take down when he came last night...his phase was ending, yours is starting..."

He stopped when she drew a breath. No sarcasm flew from her, no acidic wit, only that quiet breath, almost ragged. He looked at her, a bit...disgusted in a way. She couldn't be that weak. Come on now. Gunther had been on his feet.

"Please. Just sit there. I don't care how stupid it sounds...but I just...need company right now. I told your mother that, but she just left. I had told her something...something I have to tell you, about your power, and Fate..."

Negi however, shook his head at her, getting up from the bed and walking to the window. When he spoke, his statement surprised her, for all of its truth.

"You don't need to tell me. I'm near my limit. I know that. I'm dead, so I can't hope for an increase in capacity, and I died before I had fully healed that stretched capacity...there is only so much concentration I can place in a damaged container...I could feel the rope's end splintering in my hands..."

"I was top heavy from the beginning, Eva. You don't need to break anything gently to me...but there is something you don't know about me...something that still gives me a chance against Fate, _alone_. I'm not talking about being a catalyst, or Magica Erebia, or even royal magic...I may be near my magical strength limit now, but, after a talk with the priest...never mind..."

Eva almost sat up all the way, but fell back down upon the pillows when Negi turned back to look at her, her hair flew to cover her face, and she had no will to remove it from there, viewing the boy through a wall of golden blonde.

"Just know that you don't have to worry about me fighting that gray-haired mid-boss."

Was it concern in his face? No, it was only determination and annoyance...but she couldn't be quite so very sure, as the boy came up and moved her hair from her face before lifting her covers to shield her from the sun. From underneath them, she heard the door open and then bang shut...but she felt a weight upon the bed's edge.

Pretending to leave, but still staying anyway, classic. She had said she needed company after all...peeking throguh the covers however, she felt a bit peeved to discover what he had done however....

He had put a huge plush bear on her bed instead of staying himself...

Wait, where had the bear even _come_ from?

... ... ... ...

**+--4--+**

A bit later, Negi stood atop one of the high points of the coliseum. Kago approached from below, and Negi watched him as he came, a figure cloaked in dirty white, for no amount of washing on his part this afternoon seemed to have solved that particular problem.

He stumbled upon a stray rock as Negi thought back to the afternoon, and the things he had done that day, besides go out once more for hunting and exploring...looking for Asuna and Nodoka as he traveled deeper into the depths of the forest.

He had run into that damn dragon again, only this time, it was pinning at him not with another infernal tree, but with a two whole damn deer. It seemed to have noticed Negi liked hunting after them. Thankfully, the thing didn't seem to need to drink their blood...it just ate the meat Negi tossed it.

Two had not been enough, so Negi had given it all he had, the blood was his only concern, the beast could eat the meat if it wanted, and indeed, it did, chowing down heartily as the boy watched...it wasn't all _that_ bad...

He had left it eating, and as he had come upon the coliseum later on in the day, he saw the thing had followed him here and had rested in the arena of the coliseum, with Rakkan looking to it as sport for hunting.

The boy squashed that idea however, telling him it was a zombie, and under his control. Too bad. Dragons had great meat...but not dead ones...all sinewy and crap. Oh well. Negi had left the thing with Anya, who was utterly terrified of it, but, upon his urging, had held out her hand to have the thing sniff it at least.

She hadn't been eaten so, one could guess it was okay with her...it didn't like Arika though, snorting boiling air in her face, knocking her back...for some odd reason, this immediately likened the dragon in Negi's eyes...if only for the fact that his mother had been annoying him up until that point...

He had left it up to Arika and Anya, much to their combined horror, to seek out Kago for another battle, he was bored, and the priest was the only one close in level to him, that's when he had found him washing his robe.

Negi had seen that the boy was thinner than even he had anticipated, a literal living skeleton, knitted with wired, ropy muscle, a body that had lived through the hard life...and still, he fought to be whole. Of all things, he was a priest.

They had sparred today, and both of them had brought out thier powers. Kago swinging about his weapon, Kanka crackling between his fingers, Negi swiftly dodging, striking out with his magic, Magica Erebia flowing through his veins.

Once more, they both had knocked each other out. It had been up to Rakkan to bring them back to their senses, something he did with the intention of putting them against each other again...apparently, they made a rare spectacle for the retired gladiator, but Negi needed to go out and collect blood, and Kago had other business to attend too...

Now they both stood, eye to eyes, for the younger boy had assumed his mantle. Negi clutched in his hands a bottle of dragon's blood, which he took a generous drain from as the priest reached into his robes...

and pulled out a bottle of blood, completely throwing Negi off guard. He offered it to him, and Negi stared at it. The scent it carried about it...it was Kago's own. The hell was he thinking? Yet, the message was clear. Negi would not need to go out and get blood from animals for a day or two, Kago had supplied quite a large amount in the bottle he tossed to Negi...

No wonder he looked paler than usual, or why he had ascended so slowly. He was nuts, but he cleared his throat, looking upon the bottle as if it held his strength to continue this day, which in a way, it did.

**"That is for Evangeline of course. Now, about your dragon...it's nails need cutting, but I don't suppose you care much, do you?"**

"...I thought you wanted to discuss blood, not that big black thing down there, snoring it's undead head off..."

Indeed, the beast was snoring, but as Negi claimed, that was besides the point, and off topic. Kago looked to it with a slight interest before continuing.

**"I'll take that as a no then. Now, about your power...you've reached your limit, have you not? As a vampire who rushed into things to quickly, you have little to no choice in this matter, your channels, and your capacity, have never healed from a rapid inflation in life, and so they are weak, they cannot support you increasing the amount of concentration, like a balloon already swollen, you can't put too much more air in, it will **

**ony pop."**

"Right, right. More people have tanks that have not been force like mine has, so it's tolerance to increasing magical pressure is much greater than mines, even if the initial capacity is smaller...but you said something about dragon's blood being the cure to this?"

**"Not only dragon's blood...but the process that comes with drinking it. When you drink dragon's blood, it would normally kill a vampire, but for you, it is a delicacy. In this case, it will act as any other blood, bolstering you and strengthening you, but it will, little by little, change you."**

"Change me how?"

**+--E--+**

Mean! You ended the chapter here?!? No. *Scrolls down to no avial* Gahhh! You...you.....gah!

Review for this one. Next one is of course, on the way...now, what did I want to say. Oh. I have a new poll up, and the Alomegauge productions fiction begs for your attention...Ask the character's questions there, will yah? What else....Oh. Still thinking about the beta thing...I'm kinda afraid of the prospect yah know? I like to think Young Negi was my creation, my effort alone based off Akamatsu's work, but I need to really watch my work if I want to have it stay that way.

Last word...do you know that, on average, I dish out around seven to nine chapters a month? I never realized. It's quite an odd thing to actually see.


	43. Chapter XXXIII: Memories

It strikes me that, with this story, I will have made a mark in Negima history for English stories, as this will become the longest one…even thought it already technically from chapter forty two… However, of course, this means nothing if my skill is naught...

Still, I can't help but be a tiny bit impressed to see myself reach this point...it seems, early on, that the Akaito's are taking the cake in the polls, but then Kago jumped in, adding his two cents...and then, Cora…who's your favorite?

Yes, I am cruel. I was bashing myself all day after that one, but only because I could not understand why I could not have made my chapter better in some way. Tis' what I always do, I don't call it bashing, I call it training.

**_+--YN--+_**

**_Chapter Forty Three: Memories_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

A week didn't seem like a long time, but that's how long it had been. There was still no sign of Asuna and Nodoka, no matter how much Negi circled. During the day, he took Anya, Alma, along with Kago, on flights with his new..."ride", but even atop the dragon, whom occasionally swooped down upon a suspicious area of brush, none of them could spot where the two girls could have wound up.

Although, they had found many abandoned campsites, admittedly. Once, Negi could have sworn he picked up on the perfume Asuna favored, but no go. They weren't around, not as any of them could find. Among the charred earth where a fire once burned, or the gathered rocks for weights and furniture, only memories resided.

Negi had picked up dragon hunting almost as a hobby, and his undead companion didn't seem to mind the boy dining upon the wine of life from its own species. Negi, after seeing this, allowed the beast to participate in a few..."battles" and he had to admit, having a beast like this dragon under his command, ready to spring to life at a moment's notice...the feeling was empowering, even if he himself was more effective in battle than it was alone.

However, he did like staging mock fights, and one such was taking place right now, in the midst of a clearing in the trees. Negi twisting and twirling like a...well, I would say human baton, if he wasn't a vampire...

"R-reprobo inter mihi , impendo extrarius , praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! N-nova Contego!"

_"Veniant Spiritus Terreteres Florentes! Cum Flore Somniali Sub Caelo Percurrant Una Tempestas! Veris Tempestas Florens!"_

**"Hori Yajirushi-Ten...Hori Yajirushi-Ten...Balore kobushi!" **

Negi ducked under a hail of arrows, his dragon rearing back its head to meet Jasnin's beam of magic with its own consuming fire, eating up the spells hypnotic waters with a pure brimstone. Negi spun away from Anya, calling up a Deflexio to avoid Issac's huge blade, which came down upon the shield, shattering it upon impact, but allowing Negi to kick him in the gut due to the delay.

He spun to shoot off a mental attack at his mother, who had just tried to tug at his mind, but finding that, as a vampire, it was even harder than before. He sent her literally bowling backwards with the force of his blow, and clenched his fist, calling up dark magical arrows as Kago came in, thrashing his whip and glowing a brilliant white.

Negi met the whip with lashing arrows of darkness, and began to call for Magica Erebia as a counter balance. The boy grinned as the other twisted away from a blast of energy he sent him, and Negi bent backwards to avoid a slash of Issac's blade, kicking upwards to knock it up into the path of his dragon's crackling lightning, blowing Isaac back, his legs going numb with it.

The boy dropped into a leg sweep, catching Kago, shooting his fist upwards, yet, at the same time, Kago forced his own hands down. He managed to block Negi's shot, but he was sent flying from the force.

Issac ran in, swinging his blade up high, but he had to force it down quickly to avoid being roasted by Negi's dragon. The thing had, in this past week, increased quite a bit in power and mental acuity, if only because it drank heartily of the blood of deer it slaughtered for game. Vuthiejir had become the name he had eventually given it, literally meaning "Black Blood."

Kago came up from behind it to jump upon its spines, his weapon flashing out, but the thing tossed him off, right into Negi's foot. Negi jumped up into the air, chanting.

"κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση , έκλειψη!"

"Deflexio! Deflexio! Deflexio! Deflexio! Deflexio! Sagitta Magica, Nonus Novem Spiritus Ingus! Deflexio! Deflexio! Incendia Laques!"

_"Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonus Novem Spiritus Terra! Deflexio! Deflexio!"_

"**Hori Yajirushi-Ten!"**

Anya too, had improved in her spell work, for he drilled her every day. Still, her spell work wasn't enough to stop Negi's Eclipse axe, one of the reasons Jasnin had joined in, melding fire with earth to create a molten barrier of arrows, which met Negi's sole power of lightning and ice, he smiled at the attempt, but it was Kago's arrows that punched through the axe's power finally, blasting a hole into the sky as they shot up and then raced down, Negi called up a Deflexio to handle them...

But before any of them even came close, Vir reared up and fired off a blast from his mouth, blasting them into oblivion. He came back down, shaking the earth and almost setting Anya off her feet, but she kept her balance enough to lunge in, fist glowing with magic.

Negi smiled. He dodged her easily, twisting under Jasnin, who had followed suit, and her slash down with that thin blade, he jumped over Issac's downwards sweep, only to catch Kago's emanating fist. His body was alive as he spun in the very air to kick Kago away, and, jumping off Issac's back to twist around, fired arrows at all of his grounded opponents from above.

For this whole week, Negi had been training, and whatever injuries he retained, he forced his regeneration to take care of it, speeding that natural process along and forcing himself to take in more blood as a remedy to the energy loss.

Dragon's blood. So far, a total of five dragons had fallen to him, ever since coming here, including Vir and his first one. He would soon finish off the amount from the last one and need more...he estimated after this battle in fact, that he would.

The stuff would grant him power, but it would _change_ him. That is what the holy man dodging his arrows had told him, what he had explained. Negi watched him jump up into the air, impossibly high for a human, unless they had the skills of a vampire hunter. He didn't kick off the air to aim for his head however; instead, he fired off his holy blade, sheer length almost brushing by his arm.

Jasnin shot up more arrows of earth from her vantage point, as Issac swung his blade and knocked Anya into the sky, up towards Negi. It was a thing she had practiced with him, seeing as his blade was so large, he could knock her, or Jasnin, into the air for a more direct approach in getting at Negi.

This wasn't the first time this had happened in this current exchange. Without any restraint, the boy spun, calling up his magic. The axe of lightning swung as if formed in his hands, bashing against Anya's Deflexio and knocking her literally out of the park, into the trees below.

He wasn't worried though, she could handle something like that now, and indeed, in the next few seconds, as Vir snaked in to send Jasnin sprawling with a powerful limb, a gust of hot air told tale to Anya exiting the brush, using a blast of fire to lift herself up and out, like a rocket, towards Negi.

Yet, she overshot, going past him into the sky above. She'd be back, he knew. She'd drop from above...He spun in the air to avoid Kago, who had jumped up again in midair, straight at him, shooting past, his whip slashing out for the vampire's throat, yet, it missed by centimeters...Anya came back down, missing Negi by even less, her fist hitting barbed silver as she caught Kago's weapon instead.

Dragon's blood was such a powerful entity that it would, slowly, ever so slowly, transform him into a kind of hybrid dragon. His body was dead, but this blood, with its vibrancy and power, could still alter him some, give him a kind of semblance to life.

The results would be stunning, the priest had claimed simply. With this, the boy could, if he drank enough, and with a steady beat, heal his damaged magical channels, his damaged capacity. He also could bet on his body becoming stronger, past that of which his vampric genes would give him...the sun...it would not affect him.

Even though it did not affect him now, dragons love the sun, gain power with it... and vampires wither by it. The two would cancel each other out. It was the reason Vir stood tall against the sun himself. Dragons were also excellent swimmers, and could breathe at length under water, so...with enough blood, that weakness too, would be eradicated.

However, the priest warned not to drink too much of the blood...that is, if Negi minded his appearance changing that was. A vampire over indulging in the wines of a dragon's veins normally grew taller, and their skin began to assume a more scaled texture...too much more may even result in the growth of leather-like, sinewy wings, but Kago wasn't so sure about that part...yet he did know one could grow claws from this...

There was also the option of Negi's clock speeding up, in essence, his coming of age as a vampire coming sooner. Only he wouldn't be like Eva, that much Kago was sure...his weaknesses would have already been taken care of, he would simply be reduced to the likes of something like Gunther, only, able to handle the full sun/water.

_"So, in essence, all my weaknesses go "bye bye!"."_

_**"Not exactly, it all comes with how much you drink, and how fast, in how much of an amount...and, even if you lose many weaknesses, you gain a whole slew of others as a dragon, and any weaknesses both races may share are compounded upon..."**_

_"In other words, the shit you would expect to happen, happens. No big surprise there yah evangelist."_

_**"Oh, so my rank's increased in your eyes now? I'm quite grateful. There's more to the story-"**_

_"Oooh, grateful? You pulled a funny! Anywho, I don't need to know the rest. Whatever the hell else, I can figure out."_

He had rushed away to refill his stocks of blood, Kago pounding behind him with calls of what he had to say was extremely important, but, alas, Negi was gone before he heard that very important piece of information.

With a blast that rocked the world, Negi was ripped from the sky and tossed towards the ground...

**+--1--+**

"Sim Mae Pars, Per Centum Secundās, Ministra Ayase Yue...!"   
_"Sim Mae Pars, Per Centum Secundās, Ministra Hasegawa Chisame...!"_

Used to this by now, Yue grabbed the broomstick with a firm, steady hand as it appeared in front of her, Chisame a bit less enthusiastic to grab her own artifact. Hers wasn't very heads-on, or battle oriented, and had the serious downfall of needing technology around to work. Still, within the technological range, it was an impressive thing.

Yue's was more traditional, so it had seen more use, whether it be the looking up of a topic, or the practicing of a particular piece of spell work, her artifact had uses in both areas. Her main sparring partner, of course, was her very own Magistra, Anya Cocolova.

Of whom was standing in front of her right now, wielding the star wand that was once Negi's. She clutched unto that thing like it was her life, and, in a way, it was. She needed it to perform all of her spells, like any typical mage.

Jasnin had an imprint on her right arm, given to her by the army. It was both an ID tag and a wand, the tiny, bar-coded tattoo was penciled over an implant of metal, which was pre-spelled and imprinted to work as a wand would.

All military mages had such an ID on them. Issac had one too, but of course his was more like an insult, as he could use no magic. Anya wasn't a military mage however, so she had the star wand. Negi had offered to begin employing the magical tattoo upon her, but she refused that, even as he began teaching her more advanced fighting arts...

In essence, as she charged at Yue and the girl spun her broom, its end glowing, Anya had a sentimental attachment to the thing, an obvious trinket faction, something that tied her to Negi in some way. Anya's fist exploded with fire as Yue's broom shot off arrows of water, its length glowing blue.

Steam issued from the collision of them both, but Anya blasted past the cloud, heading for Yue, her hand glowing, and extended it outwards as she called out the incantation for the sword of Haurus. Yue met her head on with her pactio item, its length still glowing a light blue.

When theses two fought, the general outcome was a sauna room. Literally, such was happening now. It wasn't that Yue was particularly fond of water, but, being who her sparring partner was, she had become a water mage to counter her. Both of them began chanting at once. Yue was faster, but she needed to speak more.

"Practe Bigi Nar Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus Aquarius!"  
"Sagitta Magica, Nonus Novem, Spiritus Ingus!"

Meeting in the middle, Anya's arrows easily overpowered Yue's, and Yue had to do some foot work of her own to dodge, which was good, for Anya had rushed in, her right fist glowing bright as she attempted to catch Yue with it…her footwork saved her.

The older girl weaved away, calling out her currently best spell combo, but in the same breath, so too was Anya chanting as she came.

"Ex Somno Exsistat Exundans Undina Inimicum Immergat in Alveum, Vinctus Aquarius! Veniant Spiritus Terreteres Florentes, Cum Flore Somniali Sub Caelo Percurrant Una Tempestas, Veris Tempestas Florens!"

"Ex Somno Exsistat Exurens Salamandra Inimicum Involvat Igne, Captus Flammeus! Omne Flammans Flamma Purgatus, Domine Extinctionis et Signum Regenerationis, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Flagrantia Rubicans!"

So focused they were on chanting that they both had almost forgotten about dodging, and so both were caught in the line of fire for the other, spells barreling forth and crashing into each other, kicking up a slew of mist… and hot, humid air.

Anya rushed in right after her spell, and Yue, knowing her magister's technique, had also rushed into the mist, and, as a result, they both ran past each other to the other side. Yue was ready for this however, muttering under her breath the incantation for the water binder and shooting it off behind her back, into the mist.

A gasp told her she had hit her mark, and she lunged back in t the mist, calling out a new spell of hers, one she had gotten from taking the time to study and put in some time with her English teacher, one Negi Springfield.

"Deus of aquilo, temerarius unto mihi vestri vox, orior oriri ortus aequora ut meus order, Malleus Aquilonis!"

In front of her, the mist gathered quickly, freezing and condensing into a solid ball of ice, which she hurled down upon the trapped Anya, or so it had seemed, for Anya smiled, she had been muttering all this time, and now, she finished her muttered spell in full.

"Nova Contego!"

Off in the distance, where Negi was taking care of his injuries from the last fight of his, he heard a boom, and shook his head. It could only be the others, pushing themselves, hard at work in trying to..."catch up" to him...but they had to learn the value of rest sometimes...

Ohh, who the hell was he kidding. Did _he_ know the value of rest? Nope. _Still_ didn't know it, in fact. Right after this, and a last swig of his remaining stores of dragon's blood, and he was going to go out for more. It had become a part of his routine, training and hunting melding together.

He would then hitch up Vir again, letting him have a chance to feed of course...it had stopped eating meat now, so its feed was of the animals it could find around here, their blood. Deer were becoming sparse, not because of the draining and eating, but because they had gotten wind of the activity, so they had scattered.

Still, it wasn't odd to find a few leopards or tigers, animals that had preyed upon the deer becoming prime prey for Negi and company. Hell, once he had caught a lion, and he had enjoyed chasing down that so called king of the jungle, and showing him just _who_ was boss around here.

Yet, this was no time to continue playing around. A week had passed, and soon, two would. Then three...he only had five weeks here. Five weeks. That was it. Yet he had done basically nothing except train.

Among a few good things to mention however, was the fact they had found Asuna and Nodoka, or more like Nodoka had found them with her artifact, finally coming within range of them after so long...

This of course meant that, at Negi's side was his gun and HeartBreaker, the weapon once made to destroy him, and now made to destroy for him...still, he got the feeling it did not "like" his mother. Or that is would "like" his father. That was fine for him however...he didn't particularly "like" the pair of them either...but that was a different story.

Negi sheathed his short sword close to his body again, under his shirt. He also picked up his pactio card, staring at it. Still the same it had always been, it burned to his touch, giving him the sensation of pain, great, piercing pain, both emotionally and physically.

This was Eva, calling out for...something. She was barely a hallway away, so he got the feeling of her calling out, through the years, for a Bartholomew...and Golda...he got the feeling these people were once important to her in some way...

Shaking his head, he exited his room and made his way towards Eva, almost fearing what he might find when he got there...this past week had been hell for Eva, and, by extension, him. He could only imagine what the heck was wrong now...but he had a feeling it was worse this time.

**+--2--+**

She sat upon the railing of the balcony, the sun full on her face, ripping into her eyes and playing across a beet red face, not from any emotion, save pain. Wearing nothing but a soft white night gown, the vampire was being roasted alive as Negi walked into the room, and he dashed out towards her, yanking her from the railing, just as it seemed she might fall.

How the hell did she get there?! Why?! She came to him easy, light, incredibly light, a little girl. Soft and supple, but sunburned red and blistering. He felt like cursing, and in fact, he did, only, in his mind, where none could hear him, but himself of course.

His mind was open, and through it, he heard the screams. The calls. Names, memories, they washed over him, tides upon tides of encompassing thoughts, places, times, buildings erecting themselves as he watched, torn down, built again, different, changing landscapes, the sun eternally crossing by in its grand scope of the sky, again, and again… and again...waters, clear and a crisp blue, fading into dark and murky, choked with debris, only to clear up again, little by little.

Ships. Wooden ships sailing across an open sea, even they change, growing in size, sinking even as he watched, are rebuilt, bigger, stronger, tin, iron, steel, now even plexi-glass, fabricated materials, sprayed by nozzles, machines.

With effort, he shut it all away as he laid her upon the bed, feeling her burnt forehead; the sun was encompassed within her skull. Her eyes were open, yet she was in a cold sweat, those eyes empty and searching, they locked upon him, seeing someone different. Hoarse, she was hoarse as she addressed him.

"Bartholomew? Golda?"

Delusional. Her mind was a swirl of memories and thoughts, there was no order, men with wooden blades fought upon a grass filled field as a city in the distance was destroyed by a bomb, a mushroom plume soaring towards the sky. Upon the moon, a Chinese vendor sold calligraphy goods as an astronaut walked on by, inattentive, as he stuck a flag in the ground.

"Screw this..."

Abandoning all hope for keeping his sanity, he reached out with his mind, so small in experience compared to hers, as he affirmed for her. Yes, it was Bartholomew...but Golda wasn't here. Upon his touch, her mind righted, and he was given a vision, a dark room, the bedposts soaring high, and a man, strong of jaw, looking down upon Eva as she sat upon a bed. A woman was next to him, a picture of stout and robust, some short cropped, brown hair left loose.

"Golda's...always with you....where is mother?"

Was this how delusional she was? What, did the sun give her a _stroke_ or something? Entirely possible, but still, those eyes were clearly on him, yet seeing nothing, they were. He was seeing a time frozen vampire, a little girl who had never grown up, finally set free from her chains, and she was afraid.

"Mother isn't here right now. It's only me."

Her mind showed him sitting down upon the edge of the bed, so that's what he did, playing into the act, reaching out to brush a lock of hair from her eyes, she moved with the touch. A blink, but still, no life, her memories were in control of her life, her body.

"Father must be out hunting then, if everyone else is gone, and Golda's gone to watch by the gates...Mother never knows she fancies father. You always stay behind, but you know your foot's been healed....father needs you out there."

She might have pouted in the memories, but here, her face was still, looking up into the air, her own current four poster bed mirroring the one in her past, the cycle completed. Negi moved closer, as Bartholomew would have, and propped up his foot upon the foot of the bed, staring at it.

"The bison got away. You know I can never forgive myself for that, Eva."

He got the feeling the man had been a great hunter, but had failed right when the family needed his strength to succeed. Bartholomew had never forgiven himself for that wrong, and had vowed never to fail them so again, lest he never hunt again...

His next hunting trip, he had broken his leg, and ever since, he was stayed home. A man of his word, yet in the tough country, James Anthanasia McDowell needed help, help that Bartholomew refused to give, so he often took along Mary Katherine McDowell, his wife, along… leaving his daughter at home in the care of Golda.

While all of this was interesting, it didn't give Negi much merit for sitting here pretending to be some dude centuries dead...huh? Crap. Eva had just, out of nowhere, lunged at him, drawing him into a hug. He was surprised at how weak her arms were. Her voice however, was the worried one.

"You're getting thin Bartholomew. You worry much, you'll become sick. Play with me! Show me that trick you always do."

Negi swallowed. Normally, "play with me", when coming from Evangeline, meant one of two things, either something seductive and suggestive, or very painful and dangerous to one's health. However, she was referring to something else here...how odd that the meaning of those words could once hold such a different meaning...

"Now Eva...I've showed you that trick a hundred times...how about a story?"  
"Of course, a story! What kind? Is it the one about the York Duke?"  
"...No. Not this one, although I know you enjoy that silly fool duke's play."

Negi found himself reciting a story told years ago by the man long dead, whom Eva had known as Bartholomew. He was saved halfway through by Eva trying to jump up, his hand coming out against his own will, obeying the memories to hold her in place. Her parents had returned from the hunt...but there was something wrong, the boy could feel that even through the memories...

It was that day that the party had returned from an ambush, another family taking them and killing the McDowell's, leaving Eva the sole keeper to the estate...this had been the beginning of the end for her...and as she fell back down in the bed, eyes now closed, memories dissolving away back into her head...

She left Negi with the image of bloody, hopeless hands, the helpless fear in a man's heart as he told him how the McDowell's had died, and making him promise to protect Eva, over all, protect the girl from this truth...he had failed of course...

Negi shook his head, clearing it of the vibrant, incredible memories. Just like he had taken from his father, and his mother, even himself...he filed away this bit of information in his mind, using the knowledge gained to add to his own store of experience, his own mental gravity.

Yawning, he realized he had been talking for hours, non-stop. That was some story, and now it was in his head, the whole thing, not just the part he had recited. He looked to Eva with interest. It was odd. While it was a pain, her current weakness, he had a feeling she'd be able to get on her feet soon.

Meanwhile, he was learning, bit by bit, about how she was when she had been a little girl, innocent, energetic, normal… caring even...just like any other in her time...to see her now, powerful and bitter, it made him think.

Plaguing dreams always had him replaying that day in the snowy field, or seeing himself, a toddler walking along, growing as the scene became darker, walking through all the darkness his life held until he faded from view into the darkness that clutched him, even, recently, that one brilliantly clear vision of himself fighting off a form of his own light, and losing.

Had dreams like these plagued her? Or had her change been too slow? If the world really was trying to turn him back, away from his lone, dark path…was this what it was trying to show him? Or was it simply saying it was too late to revert back, and his only hope now was to...try? To care?

He couldn't do that. He simply could not...care. Not like that. Not to such an innocence Eva had held. He, for some reason, felt something leave him, as if he had just lost a vital core, something vastly important. He felt like crying and screaming all at once.

Deep, dark, light, shallow, crystal water flowing past, Negi saw, in that moment, a pathway to salvation, and one to destruction, and he was on the one in between, leaning, leaning, oh he was falling...

Screams, his fragile strength, gone. Pulled in. Down under, gone, on knees serrated raw, bleeding, rice, stone, kneeling, down, praying, nothing will work, no salvation, you place is down below...

_"Who are you to judge me, Sister? Are you the great lord, upon the throne? Or simply the messenger? Are you the one, clothed in white, whom I see as Nekane because my eyes are not worthy of the sight?"_

_"...You are not made for here Negi, and as much as I wish you could come with me...I can't offer you passage...your place...."_

His place...his place...where was he, what was he? Eva had lost herself, and with her groping, searching hands, crawling in the dark to find herself...she had shattered the image he had built upon a pillar of broken glass, leaving him to lead her back, groping along as she did, two figures, lost, pulled by gravity, searching for the lost, their souls.

He looked to her one last time, his eyes, for once, not full of wit, or hate, even anger or power...they were full of sorrow. Of a shaky resolve, he had been brought down, by a simple girl, crying for her father, lost in the night.

He had never wanted anything so much...than to restore him for her. In that moment, his empathy reached out and touched upon the ice encrusted soul, melted in the waves of the sun. Behind him, the door closed, quietly, slowly, leaving him in the hallway, staring outwards into the setting sun, an auburn sky casting the stones in front of him in a blood red, the wind carrying a salty taste...details…details he normally let loose to fly away into the winds.

He walked away, a sole pair of feet down the lonely road, his sound the only to be heard all around.

**+--3--+**

"In other news, authorities are still searching for the elusive Negi Springfield and his party of convicts, suspects in the bombing and destruction of the gates to the old world. Business, already sparse in that area, has ground to a complete standstill..."

_Smiling, Fate reached out to grab the remote from a table in front of him, turning up the volume amidst the antics of his "harem" of Ministra, silencing them with his command of the object that they all had been fighting for. Apparently, they all had wanted to watch something different…_

"...The ongoing investigation has led many bounty hunters to pick up their activity, as the government had, originally, issued a fifty thousand drachma reward for any who can bring in Negi Springfield himself, alive, into custody. All of his cohorts have similar bounties on their heads, totals of three thousand each..."

_Surprise. Springfield's bounty was quite high, compared to his party members that is. Not really odd however… that was the wrong word…but for it to be so much higher…it was literally over ten times as much even. Fate tossed the remote up, making it flip in the air before it came back down in his hand. Asuna watched the arch of it from where she stood, magically chained to a pillar. How nice._

"...However, it is advised that only the most skilled attempt to bring down Springfield, as he is labeled extremely dangerous, and, is apparently traveling with one of his father's greatest foes, the Dark Evangel..."

_I'm glad they managed to retrieve that little piece of information; they will all be too scared to even lay a finger on him now, for fear of stirring the Puppet Master's wrath…_

_...Which, of course, was fine with him...he wanted the boy all to himself. The silver haired magister rubbed his side, where Negi had caught him in a punch. Not that the area __**hurt**__, the movement just an instinct, muscle memory, he was remembering how it felt, that slam in the side…_

"...Just yesterday the governor announced that the bounty upon _her_ head has hiked from five to seven million drachma, a prize most would be able to live five lifetimes on, as claimed by a bounty hunter after the proclamation...he also announced today a hike in the bounty upon Negi Springfield, as he had escaped capture just earlier today, completely destroying an entire patrol squad in the process..."

_An entire patrol squad, hmm? It seems he is not shy about causing casualties, or eluding capture, good, it means he won't hold back anything if I meet him again…it's also a certainty that he survived my attack…_

_Ignored, the girl held captive to the pillar strained to try and get a better look at the holographic set. Indeed, there was Negi, looking mildly surprised, even bored, as the authorities ordered him to stop. When he continued to walk, toting bags full of lord knows what, one stupid one fired off a shot, and he dropped his bags, proceeding to kick his ass. He also took care of any other guard who tried to get in his way, but the ones who stayed away, he left alone._

_All guards had a camera in their helmets, monitoring their movements during duty. Everyone knew that...Smiling to one of the guards, he claimed simply:_

"_Oh look, I'm on candid camera! Smile! If you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone. Easy, right? Now, I've got to get this food back home so I can, you know, cook it Tell your boss I said hi. Buh bye now." _

"...His current bounty is one hundred thousand, however, the governor stressed that citizens and the unskilled should not seek out the boy, as he is incredibly powerful, despite his appearance. There are rumors that his "price tag" is bound to go up again, as authorities continue to canvass the area he was last seen for further clues..."

_They flashed a clip of Negi's foot connecting quite solidly with one of the guard's armor, crushing it upon impact and blasting him back. His elbow came out and smashed his helmet in too, knocking the bent mess off finally with a slap. _

_He spun to blast another with an unincanted spell before they paused the clip._

"...Many seem to put the blame for this child's rampage upon his mother, whose identity remains unknown. Some see the boy as a mar upon his father's reputation, and other still are claiming that he, if he even committed this act at all, is being framed. Some of these "die hard" Nagi fans don't think that his son could do any wrong..."

_A frozen still of his smiling face, looking ever so wrong to Asuna, who knew that this boy only smiled like that when he was about to punch your nose in, or crack a sarcastic joke. Yet, to one who didn't know him, it could look innocent…after all, on that young face, anything seemed possible._

"...Others, claiming to be witnesses, say that Springfield was attacked in an unprovoked manner, and that he responded, only to be wounded and cast away by a powerful, unidentified opponent. This opponent proceeded to bomb the area, and place the blame upon Springfield somehow..."

_Fate played with the idea, inwardly, of going after the boy to collect the bounty himself… that would be fun, wouldn't it? He could kill three birds with one stone. Get rid of the boy from the picture, gain standings and positive attention, which could cover up his activities, and, on top of it all, he would get to beat up the kid again, who had obviously improved…_

"While the claims are solid and consistent, authorities are convinced their footage is enough evidence to condemn Springfield, and are asking him to calmly turn himself in..._however_, as the law continue their searching, it becomes less and less likely that Negi Springfield will commit such an act."

_Of course not, the boy is like a bad Chihuahua. He will bark and growl and bite as long as he can, no matter how insignificant he is... and yet, this is what interests me about him so. He knows he can do nothing, so why throw yourself against a force you cannot defeat so, one only does this unless they are either unaware, or simply, plainly, stupid. _

_He is certainly highly intelligent and obviously aware… yet he acts as a moth to a flame, only a mesh saves him from being burned every, single, time...next time however, I will not hold that mesh in place for you, Negi Springfield. You shall face my fire, and be consumed by it....perhaps __**then**__ you shall be happy._

… … … … …

"Ha! ...Oh… _shit_!"  
"Pick up the pace Kagurazaka-san, or you'll be mauled by him!"  
"I can see that! Arial Disc! Crap, he _caught_ it!"  
"Asuna-san, don't tell me this is all you've managed to accomplish in a week! Pick up your damn feet before I _cut_ them from under you!"

Negi was enjoying himself. He ducked under a slash by Issac and lifted his feet to go over Jasnin's low swipe. He twisted to avoid Kago's whip and caught Asuna's blade neatly in his free hand, and tossing it away into the trees, he shot out, grabbing the girls arm, literally throwing her in the same direction. He quickly ducked under a lash by Kago right after this, and held out his HeartBreaker to parry Jasnin neatly.

Then, he brought out his short sword in his right so he could hold off Jasnin with it, all the while he slashed HeartBreaker up to stop Issac.... A battle using just physical prowess, no magic, no chi, just fists and weapons such as these, and the vampire was contending with four humans. He laughed as he jumped up, releasing his hold upon both sibling's weapons as he flipped in the air to kick Kago's cross ended whip away.

Landing on his feet he shot forth as his two solider friends ran to him, both his blades flashing out to catch them in their sides as he ran in between them, and, as expected, they both jumped away to opposite sides, swinging around to slash at his back almost at the same time.

He dropped into a roll to avoid them _and_ Kago, who had lashed out his whip to cover the middle. At this time, Asuna exited the brush and made a beeline for the rolling Negi. He came up just in time to have his blade slice up, crashing against hers. He smiled. He had tossed his short sword in his belt.

Yes, this was fun. It was good to have his weapons back. He wouldn't have to worry about his fists being substandard at drawing blood. No more reliance on pure magic. The boy was a multi-plain fighter, and that meant he fought with just about anything he could get his hands upon...

He spun away from them all, jumping up into the air after kicking off a tree, and pulling out his gun. He began firing off rounds, rubber bullets, yet Asuna and Kago both began spinning their weapons, creating shields as Issac ran up, his wide blade providing cover for his sister as Negi landed, still firing.

They came just as he tossed his gun into his pocket and grabbed his blade. Both blades met one of his, where they fought for supremacy, full human strength against half each of this vampires...

Negi broke off as Kago came crashing in, his whip lancing out to nearly slice at the boy's throat. Both militants took advantage, stabbing forward, yet Negi twisted in-between both of their thrusts, and, regardless of the burn, he caught Kago's barbed whip head on, the silver digging deep into his skin...

**+--E--+**

This is it, this chapter is a test. I have treated it like any other chapter, but...it's my test. It's simple. If there are more than three to five odd words or typos here (banking on three)...words that do not belong...the usual mars...well I won't be able to accept that, not in my heart I won't. I'll begin looking for a beta, neh?

I need to improve this flaw. As quickly as posible. It's holding me back. I can't have anything holding me back, neh? Next chapter...will this collection of misfits whip themselves into a proper fighting unit? Will Eva get back on her darn feet already? Or will Negi be treated to more lessons of her past? Is HeartBreaker going to react violently towards Arika, or will it lie complacent in Negi's hands for another day?

Is this boy going to find his father and get out of here, or is he going to realize that the Asuna with him is false? Well, you and I both know there are more quesitons than that, and the only way to answer them...is to continue reading.


	44. Chapter XXXXIV: Petals, Near and Far

**_O+------X_**

Sometimes, inspiration is a fleeting thing. Others, it grasps you with intelligent, cunning hands and holds on for dear life, strangles you with its power. I notice I inspired another to use the "snarky" side of our little boy. Hats off to you. You seem better than me, but I'm not too far behind, you hear me?

I always like a challenge. I came up fast, and I plan to continue moving forwards.

Havelock, I feel that, if I don't show a little "filler" every now and again, no one will understand how the heck Negi or any of the other characters got to the point they did. If, from the last time a character fought to the next, they improve greatly, I have to show why...besides...life is full of filler. I do try to cut most of it out though.

At least I don't describe every time the character goes to the bathroom...that would be _**too**_ much....heh. So, that was the purpose of those practice fight scenes…they also whet the appetite a bit. I don't mind late reviews, I'm happy I get them anyway.

**_+--YN--+_**

**_Chapter Forty Four: Petals near and far._**

**_+-AAA-+_**

She smiled, eyes glowering in the candle light encompassed in her hands. In the night, the air flew free, yet, not a breeze dared to destroy the tiny flame's defiance, held captive there. The dark night held worth to two emeralds as they cast themselves up, away from the flame and into the darkness.

Brilliant, bright, intelligent eyes, yet still faded. Nowhere near their former shine. A boy came up when she took a step nearer the balcony's edge. She held out her hand however, giving him pause... her other holding on, fragile, to the ever weaker candle light. A pause, then words, flowing from a place deep inside, and true.

Not that any of this over the top detail meant a frogs leg anyway. She had a flipping candle in her hand, looking out in the night, and then starts talking, big deal.

"Now, boy- ....No...Negi. Listen... I...appreciate your help for these past two weeks...but. You need to go look for your father, don't you?"

A face, darkened not by night, but by emotion. His father, always, his father. This was the reason he was here, wasn't it? For his father, for his mother, ultimately, his sundered roots. Roots rotten, to the very core, with time.

"I don't care about that right now-"  
"Boy-...You have to. You training here will mean nothing if you don't chase after what you came here to do. Don't you want to see your father pay for what he's done?"

Did he? Of course... he wanted to _kill _the b$tard...right? The thing was...his hate had hung. Long ago, he had forgiven his father, and now, even his will to make the man pay for what he had done...it had been lost. His mission now was to do what he had said he'd come here to do...

"My excuse for coming here was my mother. I told her that I was coming here to look for him, to reunite them. Now...that excuse… it's becoming the real reason, Eva. These past two weeks...I've seen, whether or not you wanted me to, _your_ hate. I've seen the little joys, and your long agony. Don't get me wrong, I'll still beat the crap out of my father when I lay my eyes on him...but..."

That was the word. The word "but". His father had become a sideshow. Now, his mission had altered, become what he had always thought had been an annoyance, now revealing itself to be, perhaps, his purpose. The janitor's duty, to pick up the broken pieces of what that man had smashed.

_I just can't feel hate towards him any more than I already have, it would be ridiculous, meaningless. Even I know the limit, when your emotions just don't make sense anymore, when all you feel is emptiness, exhaustion._

In essence, Negi's heart had finally had a burnout. Feeling so much hate, seeing so much hate, all the time, without any respite. Revenge, want...he had been practicing with Magica Erebia nearly every day, and, while being a vampire meant that his body could handle it, still, it was a drain.

"I simply just can't feel anger towards him anymore. Not a single bit more. I suppose, in your words, I have learned to control Magica Erebia now, beyond the plane you yourself, the creator, could have accomplished…I've mastered its devastating powers of absorption...and now, it looks like I'll be able to control the emotion part of it."

If he were a human, he'd already be dead. As he was, his heart and soul had constantly been exposed to negative emotion, the brain's poison affecting the rest of the body. Used until it made no sense anymore. What was he angry at, and why?

"...No, you are just tired, uncaring for the moment. Knowing you, once you get a little rest, you'll be back at hating your father again. Or at least, feeling hate in general if not just hating _him_."

It seemed that he was angry at the world by now, and it all came down to the original unforgiving spite against his father. Exposed, again and again, it all seemed stupid, like a person still being afraid of a tiny spider, after holding it every single day in their hands as a pet.

"...How nice."  
"I see the technique hasn't doused your spirit."  
"That's good to know, isn't it?"

Flicking her hair back, she deftly blew out the candle in her hand, plunging them both into darkness upon the balcony. A bit thinner than usual, perhaps a tad more frail, but no less intelligent, Eva was back in business, if without all but the most basic of magic...for her that is.

She could still kick your arse though, so don't tempt her. As long as you ain't a vampire that is...or in direct sunlight...chech. Okay then, but if you put Anya up against her, regardless of the girl's improvement, her behind would still be owned.

"Magica Erebia...it is similar to many fictional techniques of its type. Like in those bits of Japanese Manga or Anime...it's like a "beast form" for you. It grants you incredible power, but it comes with the price of draining you utterly upon conclusion..."

Wait...since when did Eva watch Anime...or read Manga? His face held a smidgen of surprise, which Eva noticed, smiling ever so slightly. Well, what would you do if you were stuck in an eternal school hell for years on end in Japan? Besides...she had always had a weakness for cartoon violence.

Forget the rainbow ponies. Give her some crazy thing to watch like that idiot Keitaro getting beaten up by "Kendo" or Protoman stabbing Megaman through which his blade, "data" flying everywhere...she relayed this simply to Negi, something that completely threw him off guard, for a few seconds.

_She_ watched Megaman? The hell?

"Well...sure. What else is there to do? Speaking of which, I suppose I have something to look forward too when I get back from here, don't I? I told Chachamaru to tape things I would miss..."

Getting over the fact that Eva might be, in some small way, _normal_ and have things she would want to watch on T.V, Negi rose an eyebrow. It was still A bit odd, I mean come on. It was a kid's show. Unless he was missing something, maybe he should watch it too, see exactly what was so interesting.

Eva smiled at him, a slight smirk that bordered just above the normal feral look. Something just a smidgen more sincere. As she brushed past him, her hair flew to paste against him, brushing past, scent indiscernible. His head followed her. In a ways, the boy had become a radar for her and her moods.

Anya and Yue had grown closer, Nodoka and Asuna as well. He? He had melded to her mold more than she had to him. Yet, he was finding that she was chipping… bit by bit, breaking back, and becoming moldable clay under the surface of stone.

_"Friends...don't exist." A friend is just an enemy waiting to happen. Keep them close, the enemy...yet, what is this girl to me then? Not simply my master, or my student..there is something else there...I'm just not sure...what._

**+--1--+**

"Incendia Laques! Igneus Ambitus!"

In front of her, a set of flying targets were ensnared in her netting of fire and she ran up, as fast as possible, to slam her fist into them. The first exploded and started a chain reaction, but more of them were soaring in the air, a pair of hands juggling them agilely, chucking them at her from different directions. She spun, wand flashing out. They were bearing in upon her, surrounding her...

"Reprobo inter mihi , impendo extrarius , praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! Nova Contego!"

Beating the magic about in a circle, she condensed it until it shine bright around her, a literal shield to be sent exploding outwards with the force of a bomb. More targets fell, cindered, broken, burned. Still more flew from those hands, urging, coaxing, cajoling, unforgiving. She could not let a single one fall. No, such a luxury wasn't allowed.

"Sagitta Magica, Nonus Novem Spiritus Ingus!"

Exploding from her hand, she sent her arrows raking outwards, in all directions, to catch the elusive spheres, the targets she was meant to destroy. More arrows followed, and then more, yet, even so, she could not keep up the onslaught forever. The targets seemed innumerable...He wanted her to try it, to use that which he kept showing her, that ultimate spell, but she knew she wasn't ready for it. She couldn't be.

" Of obscurum quod flamma..."

She didn't have enough magic for an effort like that one, not even at full power. No. She kept telling him this, and he would nod his head, saying that this exercise had more than one way to pass in it...but she kept feeling he was pushing her towards it, thinking her able to master it. The spell was frightening, almost as frightening as his power had become.

"...Adveho quod vultus mihi a telum et..."

Before it had simply been a protective shield for her, her place to run under in the rain, the force made to weather all storms...but now...now it was, simply...scary. There was no other word for it. It frightened her to no end, the amount of power that could exude form a single being, she was unable to tell the difference between he and Eva.

"Haurus...Abyssus mucro!"

Of course, that could just be her power. Her insignificant ability, a fly in the midst of a lion, a mouse to a blind elephant. There was no comparison...she had thought, perhaps a bit foolishly, that if she came along in this trip, she could show Negi her worth, show him her power, maybe even be able to protect him too, as he does her, always.

Yet, as she swung her blade around in an arc to slash at the falling spheres, she knew that this dream had been nothing but just that, a dream. A fabricated whim upon which she floated a miniscule hope. Her power had increased yes, greatly, for certain, and she grasped her magic no longer with fear, but with her own form of pride...

Still, the dream of protecting Negi had died, or at least been put into prospective. For, as much as she had gained skill and power, Negi's growth had been ten times that, or even more, it seemed. In the time it would take most to break a habit…he had flown all the faster upwards upon a ladder Anya was just beginning to climb.

The girl smacked away a blunt sphere from her face with her blade, and allowed it to whisper away into nothing as her hands exploded into a blaze. She swung out her fists now, seeking to pulverize the offending objects falling from the sky with brute force rather than fancy power, yet her reach was not enough for the farthest, which were nearing the ground. Pooling her power again, she shot arrows at them, her current maximum amount in fact...

"Sagitta Magica, Trignita, Fulgurans Ingus!"

Lightning and fire working together, combining their strengths to douse the skies in their heat, she shot them out to gain the reach she needed for those afar, as her feet and fists both handled the ones up close. She had progressed enough that any of her hands or either of her feet, even all four, could be set ablaze, although she still ran the risk of setting her clothes on fire, one reason she had abandoned the usual dress in favor of more movement friendly pants.

Eyes narrowed, she spun to realize some of her targets had already hit the ground, untouched. Oh come on! That's not fair! Again, she had failed to capture them all in a blaze. Smiling he came up, congratulatory, but she knew better. She knew better than he told her as he claimed she had done well, torching ninety out of one hundred and twenty targets...she knew better.

Miss one, and someone dies. That was his policy for himself, and, applying it to herself, she had just let thirty souls pass on...yet, he who would darken at the fact he had missed one out of a thousand, would congratulate another upon missing thirty out of one twenty, a clear forth.

Even she knew that. The time spent with him...it had given her more than just power. The boy was like an infernal sun, radiating out his shadows, tainting all he touched. He had tainted her with his knowledge, and that bane made sure her vain efforts went noticed, if by none other eyes than her own.

"Don't...don't...pa...pleh. Forget it… Don't _patronize_ me."  
"Oooh, would yah look at that, Anya used a **big** word now! Be proud girl, you got most of them."  
"You're unhappy if you miss one out of a thousand."  
"That's _me_. You're _not_ me. You try to be me, and sorrow, anger, spite…they will eat you up whole."  
"...What's that supposed to mean?"  
"Exactly what it sounds like. I'm self destructive. Don't follow my path."

"Bloody-…I'm serious Anya. I'm a killer by nature. A gladiator's blade thrust into the heart of a volcano. My fires forged me far too fast. I'm here to make you strong, but I'm also here to instill the right kind of attitude in you. I'm a depressed and cold guy. You should learn to _**not **_be me."  
"...but...I thought..."  
"You thought what? That by getting stronger you could fight like me, alongside me maybe? Or did you just want me to notice you?"

His words hit hard, and they hit the bull's eye, time and time again. Those eyes moved and locked with hers, armed and ready to fire their lasers and pierce her soul, see into those childish desires she still held. He saw through her and around her, his mind calculated her every move, knew her down to the very pace her heart beat in the quiet nights, asleep.

"Well, you've got my attention, but you don't need to be like me. Follow your own path, your own style of fighting. I've taught you as much as I can on close combat fighting, but you ain't cut out for it, and you won't let go of that damn wand. As for your magic...you're still not old enough to gain your own power, and you've come as far as you can from drawing around you. You can't get any stronger right now, Anya...not without more magic."

What was he trying to say? Even as he spoke, his eyes closed, his fists clenching, body tensing as he focuses upon his energy, the power locked in his veins. She took a step back when his aura exploded outwards, darkness crawling up his arms, until it disappeared behind his sleeves. Brilliant symbols came to life as he opened his eyes.

Pure, brilliant white stared at her, consuming her mind whole. She had never been...this close to him… during Magica Erebia. It was frightening. The sheer power that exuded from him washed over her, and yet, he, who vibrated so fiercely she feared her heart would shatter, stood completely still, in control of the massive waves exuding from him. Those symbols seemed to move, even while stock still, shifting hues as they shone.

A body of darkness, the muscle on his arms was invisible; it was all nothing but a black shaft. He was but a shadow, a wraith. He looked up at her, brilliant eyes nearly blinding her. From the cavernous hole that was his mouth, he spoke, and it was as if that same cavern produced its own echo.

"In order for you to cast more powerful magic, you need a greater magical source to feed your output. Greater input equals greater output. Now...while I hold Magica Erebia steady...cast it. You know the words. I've drilled them into your head time and again by now."

Two weeks' worth of time had been used to drill those ancient, sinister words of Greek into her head. Words that shivered with power, words that would consume any lesser being, these words that could consume her soul in an instant...

Yet, because she had no magic of her own to channel, her power was directly proportionate to the power in the air, and, currently, Negi was pumping out a concerto of power to lay bare at her feet, she need only tap into it, to dance the very melody he played. That wasn't difficult...

Still, it was frightening. Having access to such power was unprecedented. It was not called an end of the world spell for nothing, was it not? These spells were sealed away, forgotten, and unlocked by the same boy who stood in front of her, a boy turned man before his time.

Her arm shook as it rose, her star wand shining brilliant white. This power, even the wand was overloaded with its might as she drew it in, beating it out, breathing it to life, spheres spinning in her hands...beat...throw...beat...throw....beat...

It was huge, grandiose. Focusing inward, she turned away from its burning might, her body moving of its own volition as she called out the words, long practiced, and polished because of. Still, for all the practice of words, sorcery, magic, took more than words. It took conviction, and it, of course, took control.

Τὸ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs!

The power was still not enough, and yet, Anya felt the tell tale slip, the strength was immense, far more than her, she was losing the grip upon an ever so slippery egg of the eel, and it was beginning to run amok. Barrel from her, a slow motion train wreck. Yet, in the same instant, arms, shadowy, dark arms, came about her, tracing along her own, grasping her hands with their own.

From them, a will broke forth, will and resolve, grasping upon that which she herself could not grasp, and holding it there. Urging her forwards. Together, they made a brilliant display to the heavens, a powerful blast of all-consuming fire, which left Anya breathless, knees collapsing from under her, the strain, even under the guidance of Negi, far too great.

She would never be able to do that alone…yet, a tiny part of her laughed at that. They boy had come so close, it was as if, in that moment of contact, she could feel all of the emotion he radiated, the source of his power, Magica Erebia, flowing through her own veins…just for a moment.

Such power she had never felt, and it left her head spinning, aching. The rush was worse than a thousand shots of speed, and she had never even had one before. Drunk on magic, an overload of space, together, they had no walls that could withstand that might…at least, that's what it all told _her_.

"That, Anya, that. That is Magic."

**+--2--+**

_**"**__Fate. A four letter word which may refer to one's "destiny" the concept in which time is a string of inevitable events, in essence, there is no such thing as free will, as everything happens in an infinite universe, each reality follows one specific strong of possible events, in which there is no deviation._

_Thus, any choice you make already has a predetermined outcome, hence referred to as the phenomenon called "Fate", which comes complete with its own consequences and another choice which leads unto another infinite path of possibilities, thus, one may argue that Fate does not exist, as one is free to make their own decisions, but the ideal of "Fate" is not that one's story is already decided for them, but that there are an infinite number of stories already written for the person in question, and it is up to them to decide which one will inevitably be "theirs"' _

_As such-__**"**_

Silver haired and brisk, Fate closed the infernal text with a snap, throwing it bodily from the sofa he was situated on, watching as it sailed out the arch in front of him, into the open air. Yet, before he had the joy of seeing it disappear from his sight, a slash of a blade rent it cleanly in two, pages flying free in the sudden breeze.

_Foolish thing. I am NOT a puppet. I am a human being, that which has feeling, and life, such that I have desire, purpose...you, for your words shall pay. All of you. My one freedom, my saving grace, shall be to sunder your souls and cast you all into the pit you call Hell._

Yet another book, innocent, yet the bearer of Fate's occasional outward show of emotion. Flinging a dictionary had become an almost second nature to him, and this book was no different. Not that it was the text book's fault of course...it was just the way Fate dealt with life.

A long, drawn out squeal from an electrocardiography monitor was the tone he set his life to...until he went into battle, or threw a random book out off a cliff that was...but hey, that's why he still called himself human. He allowed himself to get angry.

_I need my coffee, again. I keep this up and I'm going to get a headache. Six is my limit...it looks like today I might break that. Oh well. ...oh wait...we're out of coffee. Damn. Shirabe normally buys it, but the girl had to be sick today, and that damn pick obsessed swords-woman just had to have forgotten to pick some up...didn't she?_

That was Fate for yah. Stiffly rising from his seat, he walked out of the room, into the main area, which was fast gaining the title of the "living room" in which Asuna was situated on her pillar. They still had not gathered enough materials to break the seal on her memories, and, as he waited, he had felt the tell tale beating of a heart afar.

That heart was growing stronger forged in the fires as its powers increased ever more. The boy was training, and he was growing in power as quickly as Fate grew in anticipation. Still, it was impossible, as this distance, to tell how far the boy had come...which was an annoyance, but also a blessing...

It would only make the taste of his approach all the riper. Meanwhile, he would continue his plans...and high on his list was beating the answer out of Asuna Kagurazaka, the answer to which everything seemed the rest...

_Even without my drink, I can still get excited about the one thing that still can bring me joy. Battle. The only way I can meld my weapon to smite this planet and all its sin against me it through the fires of war...and that boy is the only available whet stone I have...imagine his surprise however, when he finds that I have all the answers to the questions he has only, __**only,**__ but been searching for._

What? You thought Nagi and his band of merry friends were simply being kind? Sealing away the girl's memories, under the _pretense _of bringing her peace from their plaguing bite? No. There was a reason why her memories were sealed, a big reason. She knew things...she was the greatest ensconce the world had ever known, and in her, all of Ala Rubra's secrets lay hidden.

_That man...is no hero. He is but a mascot, a greedy, foolish and inconsolable mascot, to whom morals mean little, if anything at all. In that, his son is correct to hate him. This man only thought of keeping his secrets hidden, and trusted not the tight lipped girl he knew._

Secrets that only God, Father Time and Nagi, knew. Them and her. Them and her, together, kept this world, provided it with what little sanity it still held. Without those secrets, it would descend into chaos, and Fate would rise above it all, ripe for the picking, his targets would be, the world shaken to its foundations.

_We all have our faults, and the higher you are, the greater you grow, the grander too, is your rot. Proportionate growth is an ass, isn't it, Nagi? Golden egg of your mother's faith, only to hatch to bring a sea, locust's reek. _

His sitting duck.

**+--3--+**

Running a country was hell, especially when you only had the title of governor...which was why Kurt had jumped upon the chance of securing Negi Springfield under his wing. His appearance could not have had better timing...and the fact that he had left quite an impression upon the public only made it better.

Of course, Godel knew that the boy had never laid a finger upon the portal, his security and surveillance was better than anyone anticipated, Averunncus held the fort upon media distribution, yes this was true, but no one ever said he held _**all**_ the control in that area either. What man, in their right mind, would give all that power to one individual? What good diplomat?

None. Godel knew what had truly transpired on that gateway, and he delighted in that knowledge. It gave him a bargaining chip against Fate, leverage above his partner in crime.

Oh yes, they were all part of one group, and their goals were aligned...for the most part, of course. A politician played a dangerous game on a daily basis, the game of walking along both paths at once, never committing to any one side, not completely.

As much as Fate thought himself an individual, he was naught, truly naught, but Kurt's puppet. He was the dark crusader, bent upon revenge against the whole world, whom the governor poked here and there, accomplishing small feats against a city or a town, pennies made to look like diamonds.

All the while, Kurt planned on capturing Negi and turning him to his cause, dispatching Fate in the process. He would then reveal Negi's lineage, through a catalyst, throwing all of Ostia into calculated turmoil...and who would be there to give peace? Himself of course. He would soothe the tempers, placate the worry, and calm the jittery.

Placing the boy on the throne, he would rule in the sidelines, pulling the strings, his new play toy dancing to his tune without even realizing his firm grasp. For the governor was seasoned. He knew how to make things appear, so as to give the boy the impression there was no other way to act _but_ the way Kurt wanted him too...even if the mouth professed a completely different course of action.

Yet, Negi was proving difficult to capture, and with every passing day, more and more hired hands returned, quivering, unable to carry out their task, for, once setting eyes upon the boy's burning visage, they could only scamper away like the rats they were.

It wasn't his face they claimed. Not even those brilliant devil eyes. His body was well built for his age, of course, but that was nothing. No. It was his overwhelming aura, the sense of foreboding power... and of crushing skill, which surrounded him.

He had seen a small portion of that skill, if only physical, through the eyes of a patrol guard, bare fists crushing armor made to survive the impact of, at least, a twenty ton citizen airship. He had seen untamed violence, speed, grace and power wrapped into one small package, which leapt and bound about, sewing chaos wherever he went.

Godel had issued several entrapments…oh sorry, _entreaties_ towards Negi, including his latest one, a tasty little bauble, enticing the boy to come to a grand ball, with the promise of information on his mother's whereabouts, but the boy had sent his letter back, the hologram laughing his face as he proclaimed he already knew where his mother was, and that his only concern was kicking his father's ass.

Perhaps he should have done some more extensive research on the old world. His last report from there had been a year ago, and the broken gate meant no communication, not even with his clearance.

Sighing, he sunk further down into his seat hands coming to encompass his face, groaning. He was so close, and yet, so flipping far away. So damn far. It wasn't fair, not at all. Nothing was. Why couldn't he just get what he wanted already? It wasn't so hard, he didn't want much.

He wanted to rule a false world, destroying all the false people in it and rallying the ones that were real, he wanted to lead them into the old world and set up shop, under his rule, he would succeed where even the Mongols failed. That wasn't a lot, was it? I mean come on; he was willing to share...kind of.

It wasn't like he'd be an absolute monarch or something, after all…in current democracy; he'd be laughed out of office for the thought. No, he'd guide, rule from the sidelines, he'd have all of the power, while others just held empty chairs to make it look like he was just another face in the crowd. Just living his life, a good life, like any man in their right mind would want to. It was common sense to want peace...

Still, good men were scarce now, and common sense even more so. Hell, the word peace had come to mean so many things, it could be used to make people rip out each other's throats or to create a convent of screeching banshees on top of the empire state building, or something else far from peace, unless you thought such things were peaceful...

Hands sliding down from his face, they fell to his lap as a measured, polite knock came from his door. He had become testy these past days, mainly due to the fact that Springfield was still on the loose, the only fugitive who could be in plain sight and still elude his fingers, even when Godel was trying. His frayed temper had been felt by all, and as such, whoever was on the other end was hoping to hell and heaven both that the occupant would shoo him away..

"Come in."

_Damn. Now I'll get my head bitten off, because the guard spotted him again...and got owned, again, in broad daylight, where everyone could see. Why the hell did I apply for this job? I could have been a mailman or a dock master, hell; I could have been a security guard even. No, I had to get this one...didn't I?_

Poor boy. Oh well, as he walked in to meet his fate, we switch tacks. Big time. Let's check up on our favorite hero, shall we? While he opened the door to Godel's office to give the bad news, the focus shifted to a certain red headed demon…

**+--4--+**

**"Κενότητος ****ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ**** τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος!"  
**_**Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus Fulgurans!**_

A lone figure on a sparse hill, up he leaps, taking wings into the air as he twists, a giant axe of lightning entwined in his hands, one force to strike down the enemy. A simple boulder, obliterated into nothing, a melted slag. He himself lands upon his feet, hand brushing light desert sand. Silence.

After such wanton destruction, his brilliant eyes surveyed the area. Nothing. Sand, mounds of it, piled all about, and nothing else. No one would come looking for him here. No. None of them would bother him, or even suspect.

After all, why would Nagi Springfield by in the middle of a desert when he had a perfectly good summer home in New Ostia? Not to mention the fact two in the old world. Nope, no one had ever bothered him here in his lonely respite, it was just him and...

A whisper on the wind made the man whip about, eyes searching the dunes. Mercenary activity had been elevated recently. He had to be careful. He was the one who should have dropped off the face of the earth.

If he suddenly revealed himself to some crack-pot, what kind of reaction would he get? Not what one would expect, at least, not what he had expected. Popping up out of nowhere to say hi, like he randomly did to one lucky soul about once a year...only to have the man turn around and try to "capture" him. He wasn't some kind of damn leprechaun, sheesh...

No, it had been revealed to him, after beating the dude up, that he had been mistaken for another person. Lame excuse. Who the hell could look like him? Who would mistake Nagi for some other dude? Nah, it needed more juice, so Nagi squeezed, and he got it.

Negi Springfield. _**Negi**_ Springfield. A renegade child mage, responsible (allegedly) for destroying the gate port to the old world, a kid who was totting around a six digit bounty on his head, and an affinity to beat up patrol guards using the body of an adolescent.

Damn, what a time to be watching cartoons on T.V huh? Shit, he really should have listened to Arika all those years ago, and watch the news every once and awhile. Forget about Tom chasing Jerry all over the house, his son was on the loose, rampaging through city patrols all Godzilla like, minus the size.

Hot damn. This he had to see. At least the mercenary got to get away scotch free. He scampered while Nagi got himself to the nearest bar. Not that he needed a drink, he needed the T.V. The damn thing would probably be on the news right now, and, indeed, it was...showing the latest derby results. Hey, his favorite horse won! ...Too bad he didn't bet.

_Oh... crap, who's that now? Never seen her around before...oh wait, I was supposed to be doing something...wasn't I? Snap, it's a drunk Gladiator, and he looks ready to fight...that might be fun. Plus, I get to play hero for those two girls over there. Nice! Oh shit, the changed the channel on the T.V, and I'm on! _

_...No. It's not me. My hair ain't never been that damn long. Holy hell, he looks like a girl..._

"Just today, the bounty upon Negi Springfield has been risen to 250,000 drachma, and again, the plea issued from the government is firm. Only the skilled should apply for the job. Those who have failed in collecting the bounty claim that, in person, the boy's eyes glow like a devil's from the deepest of pits, and his aura crushes any who might come to close with its intense gravity..."

_The hell? He can't be all that bad. Must be some weak merc's after him, amateurs. I'd show them how it's done, but that's my son up there...man, that seems so weird to think about. I'm a flipping daddy, of that...oooh. Nice elbow...and a follow up with a roundhouse, complete with an aerial assault of lightning arrows, he's got my element! He's strong for his size…holy hell, did he just smash that dude's helmet in?_

_...It's like looking in a mirror...damn. I can't stop staring at that girl over there, she's distracting me...stay friggin focused Nagi._

"The governor himself came today to announce that he would be content if a mercenary managed to bring the boy in dead, however, the compensation would be: "less, of course." His interest in the boy stems many questions and rumors, some of which suggest the mayor having a soft spot for the son of a former comrade in arms, however, the man stays firm in his claim.

_Bull. Godel wouldn't bend that far… even for me. He wants the kid for something. Shit, I wish I knew where Arika was...I wonder if she's watching this...crap. I'm thinking about Arika, but I'm still staring at the girls in here. Ain't I, technically, yah know, married? Still...I am a man!_

"...Springfield has said to have taken up a temporary residence in the slums of Megalo-Mesembria, however, while his appearances seem to frequent around that area, there is still no proof that he has chosen that area as a base."

_That's not far from here, and there's only one place of interest there anyway, the old coliseum. Rakkan was supposed to have taken up residence there, last I heard...never got the tie to visit him, didn't I? _

_Nah, that's not it. If anyone saw us together again, there would be hell raised on Mundus. That's why. Still, if the kid is there, Rakkan would know where, and no doubt would have tried to fight him… and beat the crap out of him for good measure. He was always an idiot like that._

_Then again, so am I...oh shit, that girl's coming over here, time to scram...but what if she just wants a drink..? No Nagi. Scram, now. ...Regardless of how much fun it might be._

Nagi Springfield, ninjitsu and mage extraordinaire, high tailed his butt outta there. Now, if nothing else distracted him, like a local thug trying to steal a sac of drachma, or a good bar, his next stop would be the coliseum...hopefully.

**+--E--+**

Again with these short chapters? you're getting too used to this Finalage. Anywho, here we are. Some development, shocking, expected and all in between, and I finally bring out Nagi, in all of his untamed glory.

Poor man still can't calm his eyes, can he? ...and now Anya has reached her limit? Oh my. Together, they can cast Primal Prominence, but alone, she would die. Is Negi's mum about to get her love back? When the heck will Shirabe get Fate's coffee, or does he need to chuck one of those books at her head?

Enough. I'm here for one reason, and one only, and I'm wasting your time with this.


	45. Chapter XXXXV: Reasons

**_O+------+X_**

_I'm slowly putting the pieces together here. Soon, we will shape this story between ourselves into the shaft that is our lance of justice. The lance which shall go forth and strike down our foes. The lance that shall break apart all of the questions and shatter all doubt. I know I am unconventional, but that's just my style. I can't think outside the box, I never had one to begin with. _

_Galerians, I already know common sense isn't a strong point of mine...except when it comes to others. Myself, I'm a train wreck. I commend you for making the effort to review early. Let's look at this chapter as a thanks, a bit early itself perhaps. (Although, it should have been done yesterday.)_

_Anywho. Fanficiton seems to have stopped supporting the "at" symbol, I put it a few times in another document, and it simply erased them. Plain ellipses in quotes also get wiped now. Grr. These are a part of my work people, why did you just get rid of them now? I know people abuse them, but there are plenty who don't._

_Oh, a general warning, there is a whole lot of cussing goin' down here, slang to for that matter. Negi's pissed enough to return to his roots again...you don't know what I mean? Look in some earlier chapters....and I mean...A. Lot. Of. Cursing. His acid bite is...baaaack! ~Finalage._

**_+--YN--+_**

**_Chapter Forty Five: Reasons_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

Soft as a bed of feathers, the deep, living feathers of a bird's down. Shining with a luster he himself had never been able to achieve. As long as the body it sheeted from, almost. Yet, when those eyes turned upwards to look his way, they burned. Burning bright, with such intensity, the man off in the distance could tell, before the battles even began, they would be won.

_The demon eyes. That's what they call him._

From him, came power, incredible, radiating power. Incredible. He could not be any older than six as he stood, yet, his power, awakened to a rage, was unspeakable. If this were a video game...or Rakkan's stupid ranking system for that matter, he's be a solid thirty seven hundred point five.

**"Let's go mullet head, I ain't got all day!"**  
"Ha ha...watch your mouth before I knock it off your face."  
**"Oh, so I've gone and offended the god c&#+...have I?"**  
"Boy, watch it, you're just gonna get me excited, and I can't take it easy that way."  
**"Dirty man, excited, over what? Or am I still so young you can fantasize me a different gender?"**

Which wasn't much compared to him, admittedly, but still, his speed, his control, his versatility as he dodged and weaved through practice, Nagi could tell, he was the tiny, insignificant main character, who went up against huge beasts, gods even, and sundered their power with his blade.

**"Ahh, too slow yah meathead!"  
**"Why don't I beat you into my pace then?"  
**"Wot? Do I 'ear you right? To 'ell wit you, you've got me to slip meh tongue."**  
"...Don't make me laugh boy. Your jokes aren't worth it."  
**"Choo calling a joke? ...Take this then yah blasted pedo!"**  
"Ha, who's slow now?'  
**"Who said I was aiming at you?"**  
"The hell? Gah, shit...still, it's got no effect."  
**"That's what she said!"**  
"Get your glasses fixed, I ain't no she. I'm a man goddamnit!"

Seeing the boy made him itch all over for a fight, but he held his ground upon the stands, his cloak billowing in the winds. He was sparring with Rakkan, his speed lending him a firm standing against the mountain of a man.

**"I can see that you **_**baka**_**. That's a saying; it flew over yah damn head 'cause you're dense as a ****boulder."**

A huge fist appeared where the boy's head should have been, but he ducked low, striking out, his blow making the other cough, a knee barreled out to blast him away. Flying. He landed on his feet, one hand gracing the ground, the other upon his back, charging, magic flowing...where was his wand?

**"Have at you!"**

Nagi grasped his staff tight, unconsciously, a bodily affirmation. Negi twisted away from Rakkan as he came, his foot striking up to hit him in his chin, but the man was unfazed as his arm, a pure freight train of power, shot out and punctured the air with the Negi's body, again, flight.

Yet, the air was real this time, as he took to it, invisible wings lifting him up, and hands afire. His voice brought attention to himself as he handed yards away, chanting.

**"Rastel Mascir Magister, κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! Ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός, τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση, έκλειψη!"**

Raising his hands, the powerful axe formed in his hands, stilling Nagi's heart. That...wasn't the axe of lightning...but it looked so similar…no. It was made of ice...but it was coursing lightning along its whole length.

Rakkan stood his ground as the axe hit, kicking up dust everywhere, pent up momentum useless, as the man had caught the axe neatly in his hands. Caught it for Christ's sake. Negi let it loose as the man tried to wrench it from his hands, and shot out his hand at him, jumping up.

**"Veniant Spiritus Glaciales! Extentantur Aeri! Tundram et Glaciem, Loci Noctis Albae! Crystallizatio Tellustris!" **

_**Sagitta Magica, Centum meit Trias Spiritus Fulgurans!**_

Wasn't that a spell Eva used a lot? Not only that but as he fired off the frozen earth incantation, arrows of lightning formed around him, shooting out at Rakkan below as the boy flipped in the air, landing on the ground at a run.

_Ice and lightning together, a dangerous combo. Yet, he must have control over wind magic, it would be the only way he could move so fast...and now, he's gathering fire in his hands...it is possible he has a multitude of specialties, or is it just that he has no specialty?_

_**Can't contain this. This power...it courses through me. I needed it, need it. Yet, with this flowing through me, faster than before, burning more than ever before...this is the core of my addiction...the heart of all obsession...common sense tells me I should let it go now, walk away while I still have free will, but I cannot, I cannot let go, not when so much rides on the need for it. **_

_**The governor wants me, General "Grayfield" pissed me off for a reason, and I'm sure he wants something as well, or I'm an oatmeal cookie. My father, wherever the hell he is, needs finding, this world needs their ruler, they can't survive on just one Imperial princess, representing one side of the coin.**_

_**There must be a way to get out of all of this shit. All of this needs only one solution, and right now, as a renegade, I am the most dangerous piece in the political puzzle. In my hands, I hold all of their dreams, and yet, as a free agent, I can do whatever the hell I want with it.**_

Ducking under Rakkan, the boy twisted away from one of his kicks, fists glowing, growing darker by the second. Nagi, watching unseen from afar, allowed his eyes to widen. He had seen that before...one precious time. Only once.

_It...can't be._

Strength exuded from him, his aura seemed to double in intensity, in strength, as if it were not unbelievable enough, his power before...with this strength...at this age...the boy could very well step unto the scale with his father on an equal ground, for what he lacked in power, he could make up with technique, and raw knowledge.

_Magica...Erebia...Eva._

It suddenly hit the excitable, attention-deficit man that he had yet to break that vampire's curse. Oh shit. She would be pissed if she saw his face again...yep. She'd be pissed. Oh well, it wasn't like the chibi vampire couldn't be quelled with a pet or some other placating gesture, she was like a little kid berating a favorite uncle.

Exploding about him, the boy punched outwards at the same time Rakkan did, and they met in the middle, resulting shockwaves blasting the arena about them, threatening to destroy the very foundations of the building about them.

**"Damn fool...you have all of a fool's famed strength."**  
"Likewise, you have all of the power of the monster you are famed to be."  
**"We acquire the strength we have overcome. Take a lesson from old Ralph Emerson, and a number."**

In strength, Rakkan still had an edge, all a bit a much smaller one than before. In speed, Rakkan could prove damn well near equal, but Negi still held a small edge there. Both had edges, Power coursing along both their forms.

**"Besides...a monster? Who's the real monster here? Me, or the man who cannot die, the thousand blades idiot who won't die no matter how many times you stab him? You're the monster; I'm just a friggin demon."**

Adrenaline. Disengaging, they tried again, meeting once more in the middle with fists. All of this wind...it reminded Nagi of when he fought Rakkan, and, judging by the smile on the man's face, he was thinking the same.

_He speaks like a nasty mouthed middle aged brain surgeon. Holy crap._

Blow for blow, they stood as equals, it seemed. The boy was quick, his opponent strong. He was cunning, the other, enduring. Lightning crackled between his fingers as he smiled, leaping away from a powerful hammer from Rakkan, his hands crushing the ground underfoot as the boy chanted.

**"Τ****ὸ**** συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά, πρώτος φωτιά! Έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! Τέλοs του κόσμοs!"**

_**Τ**__**ὸ**__** συμβόλαιον διακον**__**ῆ**__**τω μοί, **__**ἡ**__** κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! **__**Ἐ**__**πιγενηθήτω, τα**__**ἰ**__**ώνιον **__**ἔ**__**ρεβος, α**__**ἱ**__**ώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωα**__**ῖ**__**ς τ**__**ὸ**__**ν **__**ἴ**__**σον θάνατον, **__**ὃ**__**ς **__**ἀ**__**ταραξία! Κοσμικ**__**ὴ**__** Καταστροφή!**_

The power, incredible, condensed as he held it captive, both hands glowing, one brilliantly with ice, the other, ablaze. He had seen his older counterpart do this to him during the festival, condensing the powerful spells until they could be held captive in one's fist, like a magic arrow. He smiled as he dodged Rakkan's fist, basketball missing its hoop as he landed his own fists, both of them, into the man's gut.

The resulting explosion even unsettled Nagi from his standing, and, stupidly forgetting to fly, he fell with a crash into the arena area, where Rakkan landed on top of him, ironically. Negi rushed in, the dust covering his vision, giving his opponent no time to wonder why his landing had been so forgiving...

_**Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!**_

**"Sagitta Magica, Centum meit Novem, Spiritus Fulgurans!"**

Going all out, that's what he called it, as the lightning swirled about his fists, and then traveled up his arms. He didn't need to condense it into just his fists after all. He found that, by having it swirl about a limb, instead of having the thing act like a bomb when he punched, it gave his limb more strength and well as speed, plus a numbing effect, paralyzing the opponent if they weren't too great against his power.

A more long term effect, less destructive initially, but hell, was it useful against Rakkan. Punching straight down, he let loose all of his pent up arrows, right into Rakkan...and Nagi.

_Holy heck, it burns like fire! Damn, what a way to say hi to your son Nagi, getting in the way of his fight and letting him electrocute you...shit. Ow, ow, ow owowowow...how many more arrows is he gonna pump into Rakkan? The big lummox is using me as his ground!_

Of course, when the dust cleared, Rakkan received a boot in his behind from Nagi, who kicked him off his being with something almost like contempt as the guy was getting up, knocking him to the ground. He felt something like a bite at the back of his neck, and slapped his hand there.

_Damn flies...wait...it's still burning...wait...it can't possibly be…Arika?_

Of course not you idiot. Turning around, the man paled a trifle. Negi was looking at him dead in the face; it was his eyes that burned so. Not only that, but his face was slowly turning up into a smile he could swear would fit right at home on Evangeline's face...at least Magica Erebia had been canceled, or this famed hero might have been fearing for his life at this moment.

**"Ohhhh...damn, not you again...what am I...flypaper for freaks? Hello...father...if I hadn't been just looking for you, I would tell you to go to hell, but you know..."**

_Out of the frying pan...and into the fire. Damn._

**+--1--+**

**"I found him, momma, can I throw him down the toilet please?"**

His face was utterly straight as he pointed behind him into the open doorway; his mother looked at him oddly before glancing past him. Found who? What kind of joke was this? Since when did Negi call her momma anyway? The boy's face fell as his shoulders slumped, and he came back to himself.

**"Woman. Your man is outside. Goddamn, sometimes I swear, you people have your wheels spinning, but the damn hamster is dead as a doornail."**

No need to move, the man himself entered the room, removing all the air as he came, a bit sheepishly, into the room, he looked down at Negi a bit peeved, the boy said he was taking him to the kitchen goddamnit.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't the kitchen."  
Spinning about, the boy delivered his trademark bite, brought back in all its glory by the man's appearance as his mother struggled to get her brain working again. Out of nowhere, Nagi, Nagi...here, just...there...just walked through the door, she wasn't ready for this, just...this isn't right...gah!

**"Aye, it is, can't you see your girl's just come out of the oven? Damn...if brains were taxed...you'd get a friggin **_**rebate**_**. Thanks for falling out of the family tree, and just like the stupid one...you broke every damn branch on your way down."**  
"...You know...I almost thought that was funny, now if only I could get it."  
**"Don't try. You'll get a brain hemorrhage."**  
"...Ouch. Now that was rough."  
**"Oh no, it wasn't rough per say...you're just being a sissy."**

Walking out before Nagi could even formulate the will to think up a response, he closed the door behind him, leaving him with Arika, who was growing increasingly red for some reason he couldn't even begin to fathom. He was still on the oven joke.

"Uhh...hi."

Wow Nagi. That's the best you've got? Hi? Hi? For god sakes, I should punch your lights out right now, if only my brain would just start giving signals for my body to move that is. It took a while, but she finally managed to move her head a bit, to see that Nagi had come to sit down next to her on the couch she had situated herself on. She found her eyes on the floor.

"He's bitter as hell, and almost as mean, but he's just as strong."

So they had come to Negi. A topic she could grasp with both hands and use as cover. It gave her the will to look up at Nagi at least. It really was him...right? This wasn't a dream, he was there, solid...touchable.

Her hand came out, and with all her might, she slapped Nagi right across the face, sending him toppling off the couch. The hell was that for?

Well, if he didn't know, he was even more stupid than even she had anticipated. He came back up, his eyes just resurfacing over the couch's horizon. Shifty, searching, she could see they were watering slightly. That. Hurt. Badly.

"Well, I can't say I didn't deserve that...you gonna twist me into a pretzel with your royal magic now?"  
"No, I'll let Negi do that for me. He's better at it than me anyway."  
"...Shit. He can use that too? I'm doomed."

Was that a smile he managed to wrench from her lips? Yes, yes it was. Nagi had always failed to get a grasp upon overcoming Arika's royal powers, leading her to have an edge over him at least in that point...it gave a balance in their relationship.

Hand on her hip; she accessed him as he stood up fully. He kept his distance, for her feet were as dangerous as her hands when it came to punishment, and he was very proud of his jewels, thank you very much.

She had hardly changed, and so had he, but what change had occurred was noted dutifully, although, it wasn't much. A few freckles due to the sun, a new scar along the neck, something or someone must have caught him there...his hair seemed darker, as if it had lost some more of its already lack-luster, perhaps the very beginnings of a crinkle to the eyes...

Yet he was, still, essentially, Nagi. More or less unchanged and very much in front of her eyes. She felt like slapping him again...if only to feel that his face was actually still there, but he was too far away...so she stood up.

"Where in the hell have you been all these years, hmm?"

This question. He knew it had been coming, and, in her current state, scorned princess mode he called it; it was dangerous to avoid the question. He swallowed, his throat was suddenly dry. What if he let slip what he had really been doing...hmm? Come on Nagi, you had a good excuse, now use it.

"...I had a mission to do...you know, mercenary stuff and the like..."  
"...and you're going to tell me that took over six years to do?"

Without much conviction, the man swallowed again. He was in deep shit if she found out what the heck he had been doing, even if the why could explain it all away, it wouldn't matter.

"Well, the village burned down...I had rushed there, but I got there too late...it was abandoned...I thought that you had gone too...it was only later, about a whole damn two _years_ later, that I learned you were still alive...but I got not information on Negi, and I didn't dare come to you to ask, I'd be noticed no matter how much I tried to hide."

"You thought I was dead, and then didn't bother to rush back to check up afterwards in other words...not the man I used to know, hmm?"  
"No! No, I couldn't. My hands were tied, you know how hard it is for me to go anywhere without being noticed. I ain't got many spells for hiding you know...that was your specialty..."  
"Nagi...may I ask what you were doing in those years you thought I had died along with our son?"

Shit, he didn't like where this was going...not at all...two years is a long time you know...a long time. Anything could happen. He opened his mouth, and croaked, drawing alarm from Arika. Her face darkened to a tell tale hue, making him frantic.

"Nagi..."  
"Ahh shit! No, nonononono...I didn't do anything like what's on my mind!"  
"_My_ mind? You just said _my_ mind Nagi..."  
"Ohh...shit. I didn't mean that...seriously...Arika? Arika...why are you looking at me that way...Arika...where did all that magic come from? Oh crap, she's possessed! RUN!...Wait...who am I telling to run...there's only me...oh...that means I should go...doesn't it?"

While he talked to himself, a vase next to him exploded into dust, prompting Negi to bolt out of the room like a jackrabbit on heroin.

"Oh hell oh hell oh hell!"

A bit later, Nagi was introduced to the gang, which included a fully fledged beat down courtesy of Eva. The sight of Nagi, running around as if his behind were on fire to avoid Eva's spell work, was a sight worth seeing, but it was of no consequence to Negi.

He'd gotten what he had essentially came for. Now, he had to finish the job his father had failed to complete, beating up Fate. Honestly, could that man do anything right? He defeats the whole of their organization, but fails to kill the one dude he was fighting. Hell.

Acting in a completely un-fatherly way, the man flew by, still being pursued by Eva. Admittedly, she was tiring quickly however, and her magic was nowhere near what it used to be...she was playing out a farce, just to scare Nagi really.

In her current state, she could do no harm to him...now if only his mother would stop running after the two of them, he could get down to some actual peaceful reflection, but of course, this was an impossibility all on its own.

It has been said multiple times, but Negi could never, ever have a peaceful life...as his father flew by, yet again, Negi casually stuck out his foot, which the man jumped over dutifully, casting Negi a glance, a bit hurt. To damn bad.

**"Don't look at me, I ain't got no sympathy. You'll have to get a nice rest tonight, I'm gonna deal with you tomorrow..."**

He said this as the man flew by, and, in his hurry, almost crashed into Anya, who had chosen that very moment to enter the room, swirling around in alarm as Nagi exited. Negi pointed out of the door, matter of factly introducing her to him as his figure disappeared down the hallway, just as an ice arrow shot into the room, blasting against Negi's barrier harmlessly.

"Come back you insolent dolt!"  
**"Eva please...calling that man stupid is an insult to all the stupid people out there."**

Giving the vampire pause was enough to almost make Arika slam into her. It wasn't that she wanted to hurt Nagi too...she just wanted to stop him from running away so much. In essence, for once, the two women were in agreement...he deserved this.

In fact, the man was so foolish, he barreled back into the same room he had been in for about the three hundredth time, crashing into Arika and Eva both, sending them tumbling on top of each other...in a suggestive position that only served to make both of them pissed at him.

**"CONFUTO!"**

Nagi had been just about to run the _other_ way now when Negi's voice rang out, and he felt his feet cement to the ground. Crap. The boy got up from his seat as Eva and Arika both got up from the floor. He had been reading a newspaper, and, folding the article so his own face was present, he walked past Nagi, who had just enough freedom to yell after him.

"Hey...HEY! Come on...this is cold man...real cold...don't...leave me here. I'll be killed!"  
**"Oh my, we can't have that, you see, that's MY job...Save your breath...you'll need it to blow your ego back up. Honestly, it'll hurt less if you stay still."**

Leaving the room, he closed the door behind him...if Nagi could control his arms; he would have reached out, but no go. Damn. His book was in his pocket...and he sure as hell was too tired to try to fight the kid's magical strength, which was close enough to his when in full bore to worry him now.

If he could turn back, he would see the feral grin on Eva's face, but all he needed to do was feel her hand on his shoulder. How nice of her to put on her illusion for this chase...red nails digging into his skin, he could only curse his luck...and his son's cold, cold heart.

"Craaaaaap...!"

Well, look at the bright side Nagi, at least they're not planning on raping you, although one can't say the thought didn't cross either of their minds...and he was pretty helpless here, wasn't he...? Evil! Okay, maybe this might hurt a _little_ bit~...

**+--2--+**

**"Asuna, what the hell is the matter with you? Move your feet, **_**now**_**!"**

Negi slammed his shoulder into her gut, sending her sprawling unto the floor, where she looked up just in time to see the kid's blade zing, giving pause but a feather's breadth form her neck. Dead. Just like a dozen other times, only this, time, Negi was pissed at her, her performance wasn't up to "par" today.

She moved faster, swung harder, battled all the fiercer on average, today, she was a deadweight, and he made her life miserable with that fact. She wasn't sick, there was nothing wrong with her, so get the hell up and ready your blade.

Again, they stood opposite each other, and, within the next second, the girl was disabled and on the floor again. Negi gritted his teeth, biting back any remarks he might have spat out in her face in disgust. He let his blade fall, and walked back to his original position.

**"Again. I don't care how many times I have to do this. You will make progress; I ain't seeing you stay steady for however long just to have you give up on me. Ready that blade!"**

Again, he came at her, and again, she was disarmed within a heartbeat's worth of time. Again, Negi walked away, but before he could even get back to his position, Asuna, pissed, rushed him. She almost got skewered on his blade for that trick, and he grabbed her collar, for he was in his illusion form, lifting her bodily from the floor.

**"Try that again, and I might not be able to stop my blade. I know you're stupid, but not that stupid, or are you just making a special effort today?"**

Tossing her off, he stuffs his blade into his belt, reaching for his magic. Giving her only one word of warning before taking to the air, he zeros in on her form the skies, as down below, the convent fights for sport.

**"Dodge."  
**_**Sagitta Magica, Centum meit Trignita, Spiritus Obscurans!**_

Arrows from the sky, three hundred form on high...of shut up already with the poetry. The shafts of dark energy shot down at Asuna, who dodged between them swiftly, but not swiftly enough. Once, twice, thrice, dozens of them assaulted her, and once Negi noticed this, he quickly recalled his arrows, turning them around to cancel each other out.

He came back to earth slowly, methodically, to stare at her. She was a magic canceller but...she wasn't cancelling his magic. While he stared, she was pissed, berating him at face value, until he got in her face that was, grasping her by the neck and lifting her up high.

"J-just wh-what the hell are you doin'-gagh..."

Higher, higher, away they went, his hand vibrating as it held her, still, for fear of causing her own doom. He kicked her into the wall of Rakkan's home, the vibrations knocking things off kilter inside.

He grabbed her before she could slide and held her against the wall, coming down slowly, as to rub her back against the abrasive stone. Hands on her ribs, under the arms, he powered them both down.

Damn, she never thought stone could hurt so damn much like that, that endless scraping; she could only stop herself from screaming. They touched down upon the ground finally, but her grabbed her throat again.

**"Just who the hell are you? How much pain do I have to cause before you drop that damn illusion?"**

Just what the heck was he talking about? Illusion? Wasn't he wearing one? Was he nuts? He mind ran in circles until she was aware of rasping, powerful fingers, incredible digits of strength, digging into her mind, she could feel the over powering presence simply _there_. He wasn't taking it easy as he ripped into her mind, searching for purpose, for ground, like the lightning he so often conjured.

Nothing, he just saw Asuna. Yet, magic cancel did not just turn off. It did not. This girl did not simply just loose all of her strength and speed and her abilities to boot, just like that...and he knew, regardless of how much strength he had gained, he had not gained that much as to her becoming helpless against him, not like this.

_**Let's see the real deal then. If you're so skilled, let's see how you handle...my true power.**_

His hand reached deep, deep into his pockets, and out came his pactio, glowing with anticipation, with his pent up magic ad darkness coated his hands. He called out to the skies; lightning seemed to course through him, hailed from above to strike him down...only to make him stronger.

**"Adeat!"**

Around him the power came, and he felt, in that moment, very, very connected to Eva. Her power was weak, feeble, and his own throbbed with its strength. Together, it was he who ended up sharing strength through the bond...in control, the Key formed in his hands, the wind billowing out to take in his cape.

His illusion was gone as he grasped the key which revealed all untruths, even his own. Through it, holding it, he could see much of his own faults, and once again, knew he would have to, sooner or later, let go of his hate...

Without the burning power a fully fledged Eva could lend him, he could see the truth of this item, its enlightenment. The key glowed, winking brightly. Above his head it rose, twirling before he pointed it, his finger of justice, as Asuna....

...and, even as she knew there was nothing to fear from it, in the moment, the key shining in his hands, she feared him...more than ever before, she feared his strength. It would blast her, and nothing would happen, and he would be the fool, but still, he terrified her.

He wasn't even that sarcastic boy whose monster strength she had grown to accept. He was a completely new monster now, one whose power was too much to think about, too much to take. An unbelievable comic book character, nothing but a story, unreal, impossible.

There was no telling what his writer in this story would do next, what he would make her do, such was the boy in front of her...she had almost said man. A bead grew upon its blade, growing outwards, consuming her vision, as he brought it closer, closer...ever nearer until it was almost touching her cheek.

She found that her face had turned to the side instinctively, trying to sink into the wall, make herself as thin as possible, away, inching from that sphere of light, of truth. Negi's eyes, reflecting the light, passed his their judgment on her as her stabbed out, the light catching upon her.

It spread along her body like wildfire, until she was nothing but a glowing shape, shining all the brighter until the magic could intensify no more, shattering into pixie dust to fall down upon the floor, and reveal the truth to Negi's eyes.

It was what he had expected, but not what he had hoped.

A girl stood there, shivering, in fear if not from the cold, which had suddenly filled Negi. Short cropped hair, held by loose, sparse ribbons, a delicate form she was, but she was not Asuna. Crap, call the Navy, call the Army, call the friggin NII, The British are invading again, and this time, it's with spaceships, not warships.

Damn, life sucked sometimes...really, really, sucked. Here was another "small potatoes" problem to deal with, which ain't so damn small after all.

**+--3--+**

***(Skip this if you like. This is just Negi ranting like there is no tomorrow in a letter to both Fate and Godel...**_**obsessive**_** cussing apparent.)***

_**Okay you b*st*rds. I don't care how poorly you think of my ass after reading this, but both of you have gotten the same damn letter, so don't whine your asses at me. I want whichever one of you had the bright idea to steal away my student from me to speak up now or I promise you all, I'll make both your lives a living hell. You don't need to know who else I'm talking to if your shit filled brains can't comprehend my drift, or if you insist upon acting retarded, that's fine too.**_

_Oh, what was this sitting on his mail pile? Ahh, a polite entreaty from Negi Springfield. Ahh, but I have no idea what he's talking about. Yet, I do know whom the other is, obviously, Fate has stirred the pot, and I mean more than one Fate when I say this. Ha ha...my my, this boy can burn even when he's using a pen! Okay you parentless orphans is a brilliant way to start a letter, don't you think? It's a wonder more speeches aren't started that way..._

_**I don't care if I can curse you all in a dozen or more languages, I don't care if I can confuse you with big words, I ain't writing this to be fancy, or diplomatic. This thing will blow apart, and it's on a limited fuse, so read it fast, or chuck it in the fireplace for all I care. It's your choice not to listen to me. Do I have your attention? Okay then. Now, I don't care which one of you bloody f#&ots did it. You wanted my attention? You got it, and you've got a flaming arrow pointed dead at your heart for it too. I only wanted peace, but I can't ever have even that one f&$king pleasure, can I?**_

_Fate idly checked his mail as he sipped his coffee. The average junk mail, a circular and...He spat out his coffee all over the offending document. In bold letters, letters that seemed to be practically screaming, dipping bloody murder, the name Negi Springfield was boldly proclaimed ...the audacity...hadn't the mail carriers even bothered to intercept this? Magical mail...it burned in his hands. Almost guiltily, he opened the letter and feasted upon text in all capital letters, the force of the pen punctuating the paper several times._

_**Now, I don't know about you, but one of you self-serving pricks need to get your heads out of your damn asses and man up, or I'll stick my foot up so far up both ya'll asses you'll have my f#c%ing **_**_TOES_**_** for new dentures! Screw diplomacy, screw decency, screw common sense for that don't seem to exist no more anyway. I'm going to come for either one of you if I don't hear from you by next week, and I don't care how many faces I have to smash in to do it. I've got your brother-loving girlfriend here, not that you would care.**_

_The paper was practically burning the governor's hands. By the gods, could this boy hit a low blow. Self-serving prick? That was just wrong...so wrong. Dentures? That was an insult! Well, no, he shouldn't say that, this whole letter was an insult, and the boy had orchestrated it to be just that. As he had claimed, he wasn't writing this to be diplomatic, or fancy, he was writing it to get a point across..._

_**Damn, you've got me repeating myself, that's how f$c*ing pissed I am right now. You mother$%#!ers better give me back my damn student, or risk looking like cowards and getting your bollocks **_**_STABBED_**_** off with my HeartBreaker. Now I **_**_ASSURE_**_** you, that will burn like hell for years to come. You wanks. Hell, if you thought this was going to make me tame, you're stupider than as some American's act, and believe me, one of their main tactics is to act like they are as dumb as shit.**_

_Fate dropped the letter as if it were a hot iron he had just put his hand upon. It turned over before landing on the table, showing him the other side, which was full or more text, burning his eyes, even larger than before. Who could have thought, the boy's very eyes seemed to be staring at him through that paper, his voice echoing in his head. Such was his strength when it came to education, to tools of the trade._

_Asuna, who had a great pair of eyes on her, managed to sneak a glance at the paper as Fate had been reading...looks like it wouldn't be long now before monster boy came bursting through the doors to tear whitey limb from limb...thank god. He kept creeping her out, talking about needing just a few more materials before he could "work" on her._

_**Okay you s!ds. I've calmed down a little. That doesn't mean I'll go easy on your w#*re-loving arses if I catcher your shags anywhere. You have a week to answer me, c&$ks...and know that every second longer, I'll just be training more, beating walls and punching bags into unrecognizable messes, imagining them to be your very d!#k-totting heads.**_

_Kurt couldn't take it anymore, the indignity of it all. Standing up, he paced about the room, attempting to tear the paper to bits, and failing miserably. The boy must have put some kind of protection on it. Cursing, he threw it into his fireplace, where it sat complacently for a few seconds before an explosion racked his whole office, blasting the fire into his desk, his personal library, and several important documents. _

_The man cowered to the fire as his whole office was set ablaze, and the fire was blocking the doorway. Yet, bliss, blissful protection, sprinklers rained down their judgment from the sky, beating at the flames that were rapidly consuming his office in their rage. Stupid. The blast had even overturned his desk and knocked some book cases down, such was the force._

_**You shall feel my wrath. Know that I've found my idiot of a father, and I can tell you, once he gets out of the coma I'm going to pound him into...he won't be very happy to find out you stole away an innocent girl, ehh? Oh, and don't think you'll be safe. I give you a week to go crawl up in some hell hole if you want, but I'll break apart this very world to find you and wrench your heart out to crush it between my fingers, you'll see the slimy ooze you call blood running through them. **_

_**Don't think my father will stand by either. If he hasn't recovered from his coma by a week, I'll beat him out of it just the same way I beat him into it, and if he doesn't want to come, I'll tie him to my will and come after your arses. **_

_**Wishing both of you b%$chs a happy, healthy week, I hope you succeed in all your f#!king endeavors. ~The guy who's gonna kick you to China, the year 3008, if you don't heed this. Negi Springfield.**_

_In Fate's hands, the letter exploded, making his cup of coffee explode, drenching him as his face and clothes turned black with soot, the circulars were fried. Blinking, the boy looked up at a squeal, seeing Koyomi with her hands over her mouth. He sighed,_

"Springfield apparently has discovered Shirori's cover. Unfortunate. I was hoping for more time."

_He was still holding the broken handle of the decimated cup. He would need more coffee again...a perfectly good cup had just been wasted. Damn you, Negi Springfield. To punch his face was one thing, but to wreck his coffee? That was another entirely._

**+--4--+**

Mountains. Mountains and fresh, free spring air. Flowers blossoming along the sides of the road, the world was at peace. Along a dirt path, a girl scrunched down, picking up a tiny butterfly, it's beautiful, metallic blue-black wings shimmering in the midday sun's light.

Her blue eyes alighted upon the creature, yet it was still in her hands. She held it carefully, still, as another child, a boy, walked up to her. He watched her as she held the thing, still in her hands. He was hesitant near the girl, only watching the sun turn light brown hair into a shining blonde.

It was a dare, that was all, all he had to do was reach out and push her down, escaping before she noticed. It was done all the time...but not to her. She was scary. Odd, weird. In her hands, the butterfly sprang up, and as he watched, it flitted away, his eyes following it in fear as she watched it with delight.

"She did it again! The demon's done it again!"

His voice made her swirl around, wary. His finger was pointed directly at her; the sound of feet pounding upon the road announced the arrival of adults, strangers, wary of the girl, as much as the child was. She stepped back, a nervous smile on her lips, making the boy scream.

"It was dead! Dead! She made it fly! The evil witch made it fly!"

No. No, it...it wasn't dead. It had been sleeping...just sleeping...why did they always look at her, accuse her? Witch, sorceress, servant of Hel, no. It had been sleeping. Along the road, her cousin approached, and as he came, she felt a push as the boy lunged at her, tossing her into the flowers.

Her knee scarped against a rock, ripping a cry from her throat. A heavy hand swung out, and she heard the sound of bone upon flesh, and a cry out, childish. She felt someone pull her up, her cousin crying out the injustice from his mouth.

"It was just asleep...asleep Yoii...I didn't do anything..."

**+--E--+**

_Phew. I'm glad I don't curse when I speak. Although, if I did, I'm pretty sure, with a performance like that, not many would mess with a vocabulary like that one...my my, if you received a letter like that from Negi, what would you do? _

_Nagi is here, and he's not happy, is he? What a way to make an entrance, having Rakkan fall on top of you and then getting nearly killed, electric chair style. Negi is evil that way, hmm? Just what is Nagi trying so hard to hide anyway? Did he...? _

_What's up with the last part hmm? Well, you'll just have to wait for that one..._


	46. Chapter XXXXVI: Damnation

**_O+------+X_**

_I'm glad I've nearly caught up with the manga...I plan to shoot past it too, if it keeps up its current pace. Hmmm...I lost another favorite, and gained an alert, oddness. Yes Galerians, as odd as it is, I meant to mutilate the dialogue like that…and yes, Yoii is a name. It disappoints me however…oh, never mind, you'll see. At least Negi doesn't use his" full vocabulary" very often. He had the power to back it up however. I might add that even that is not all he is capable of, not by a long shot. ~Finalage. _

**_+--YN--+_**

**_Chapter Forty Six: Damnation_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

"It was just asleep...just asleep."

She sung this to herself, as she bent down to look into the very alive eyes of a squirrel. It had been lying, cold, on the side of the dirt road before she had come. Always, tiny animals, she had been kind to them.

Anything vulnerable came under her care. She had picked it up, hands, tanned to a near mocha due to long hours in the sun, held it close to her, the cold, small body giving her a small comfort, its fur soft, still carrying the scent of new grown grass.

In her hands, it had grown warm, and sprung to life, as if coming from a deep, dark sleep. Its beady black eyes stared into her own blue ones now. Fear was in her eyes, and she looked off to one side, and then another before bending in to the squirrel.

"You were just asleep...just asleep. Not dead...I'm not bad. I'm not a demon...right?"

Her nose was so close; it reached out to "nibble" at it. A sign of affection, of play. An innocent animal, it scampered away at a sudden noise. She almost called it back, but held her grace, her hand, half outstretched, came back to her, fingers closed.

"Not...a...demon...."

Eyes large, they swept the area, the darkness closing in as night fell. She should go home soon, but she didn't want to be yelled at again. The witch girl, pulling her magic again...she wasn't...wasn't evil. Why did mother hide from her so? What was the pain in her father's eyes?

"..In...In the deep bright river..."

Only Yoii seemed to understand, only he cared anymore. Yoii stood up when others failed to help her, he fought for her, drew blood with his fists...just for her. They used to play together along the fields...one day; he had fallen asleep under the stars with her, after playing for so long...

"...The creek... does bubble. Tad's leap..."

He wouldn't wake up until she had shaken him, the night was chill, and he shouldn't be out alone, it would soon be cold, and snow was already beginning to fall...he was so cold already, but he warmed up when she came near him, pulled him up and awake...

"O'er...the river...a tree thee does pass..."

They had stopped playing after that...and not soon after, the chants, a sleeping butterfly in the sun, waking up upon her touch, dry rice, after her touch, in rain showed itself to be healthy...she wasn't bad. She didn't do anything...they weren't dead.

"...I...I..."

She couldn't remember the rest of the verse. Yoii was the bard, she was just the singer...she gathered herself up, and began the long walk home...

The next day broke bright. Brilliant, Beautiful, and, as the farmers do come out early, so too did she. Her father sent her off to play...it was all he ever did. It burned her heart, deep inside; he didn't trust her with mother. She was supposed to be old enough to learn how to sew...but no.

Witches didn't sew. Witches had no rights. No one stood up for witches...except Yoii. Perhaps she could go see him. Should go see him. Yes. Setting off at a run, she would have run all the way to his home...had not two adults stepped in her path.

As small as she was, she crashed into them, sent flying back, sprawling. She looked up into the serious faces, feeling her heart fall. Fall all the way down to shatter upon the ground. Yet, they smiled, and one helped her up...she feared the hand that hoisted her.

_The demon smiles at you..._

No one helped the witch...but they brushed her off, kindly, gently. Smiling at her, they pushed her forth, like any would a child to send them on their way. Smiling faces, kind...genuine when always so cruel. Nervously, she smiled back, bowed in apology, but they waved her off...

_...right before striking you upon the head, and strangling your children...._

Bowing again, she apologized once more. Their smiles...it unnerved her. For a great reason, she felt danger from their kind faces. A powerful danger to her. Turning around, she set back off for Yoii, at a much slower pace...

_...such is the way, the devil's bane, flows._

Yoii was too sick to play...that's what his mother said...but her face...her face full of veiled disgust. Yoii...wasn't coming out today. Not sick, she knew that. She did not want her to play. The long way back, she walked. Passing children, playing in the square...she dared not to join in, yet they smiled at her.

Smiles...smiles that felt the same, held the same, that the elders had held, the ones that made her shrink away. Perhaps she wasn't used to joy, or that today was a good day...but those smiles seemed evil. Witch Demon...never got smiles.

Into the forest, where animals leapt, playful, alive. She chased a fish in its steam; feet splashing along with its flashing tail. Racing squirrels across the trees, seeing the lightning bugs awaken to the night...she made her sad way home again.

Her very own father smiled at her. So too, did her mother. Smiles, again, smiles. She gave one back, a beautiful one gracing her face, yet one full of care, nerves. They had set the area without her, she normally did it alone.

Why? Sitting down to a meal, uncommonly prepared, beautifully done. Simple soups fare, but made so much more than she was used. Nerves, they ate at her as they continued their meal. A knock on the door rattled her world, almost making her spill, but her hand was quick.

The soup had meat in it.

Visitors, it meant she should leave. None want to see the witch about when they converse...but her mother stilled her rise. She could stay, stay for this meeting. It would be good for her to stay here. She was old enough to be within their talks....and yet, this only brought more fear. More rising fear as the two adults came in, laughing, and smiling when they saw her. Smiles...

She wasn't used to smiles. They continued to talk, light things. Meaningless things to her, about the crop, the harvest, the traders, the market, the town's keeping, the new children...she bent to pick up the wares, but it was her mother again, who stilled her hands. Leave them be, she would do it, leave them.

"Child...you've been a good child, take your rest. Tomorrow, I shall teach you how to sew."

Never...never did her mother call her by name. Never. In her mind, the use of the world child had replaced her name, for she could not comprehend her mother showing such love...and she was right. The world became black as a man, the guest, who had bent to receive her ware, instead swung a heavy rock to bash her head....all was black, and cold, into nothingness she sank...off in the distance, time seemed to drag, endless as years seemed to pass, a chant, of blood, of war, of sacrifice.

The gods wanted their sacrifice.

It was dark. So dark that when the grass door was pushed back, revealing the raining late day, she closed her eyes. Beaten, stoned near to death, she had been tied, dragged to this place, where she was to await the ceremony, the sacrifice. How long had she been kept here?

She had paled it seemed, and the dirt and grime, blood even from her own wounds, had stained her hair black. In their eyes, she truly seemed to have become a ghost, a witch finally revealing themselves before all eyes. Only a demon could become so pale when the sun lay outside for the honest, hard working.

Dragged, tied, she would be stoned again before taken away, tossed into a pit after being ritually slain. In the bright, brilliant light of a new day, the first stone was handed to Yoii. Only he could throw it, he, who had loved her and protected her, the witch, so he could only redeem himself by throwing the first stone...their eyes locked. Brown unto blue.

Children screamed, they needed their food, their life, the harvest would not come without its sacrifice...he was pushed forward, even as she weakly called to him. The stone flew true, filling her vision as it bashed against her chest, right where the heart should be, and that, ultimately killed it.

That day, her heart shattered with a final rite. The stones fell, but she felt none of it, only the first, the one that had sundered her whole. He wouldn't protect her...she had to protect herself...only herself...as all faded to black once more, only now, now she knew it would be the last time she would see.

She...wanted to live! She was not bad, not evil, she was no witch! In the darkness, laughter mocked her, she felt a stone 'lass slice through her bones, and laughter once more. She would not go. The laughter offered her a price. You don't have to die...but you will never truly live...

Yoii had abandoned her, she could only reach out to the one voice that offered protection, and took its offer into her bane. Her hand flashed out as the holy man rose his blade, and from her bruised visage hell fire blazed, consumed him whole. Her eyes fluttered open, seeing red.

Just as those around her saw red. Her eyes burned with the fierce color of blood as her skin, pale from lack of sun, drained further of color, into a near pure white to their eyes. Fear, anger drenching her white. Hair, stained with blood to black, flew free. Reaching out, she grabbed one of the crowd, with no hands but those of a witch's bane. Yoii was held still, and her heart skipped twice as he called her name.

"Alma!"

No remorse was left in her for him. None. The power, let free, had consumed what little kindness she had managed to keep in her soul, for him, throughout the years. In that moment, she knew he had died that winter in the snow, and she had been there to revive him. She was indeed a witch, his life was hers. She would take it back...now if you so please.

His body was consumed by fire, writhing, burning, a sin for a sin, a life purged for a life lost. Her fingers lanced out, fire dancing from their very tips to set ablaze all in front of her...a town, rich in culture, laid low to the ground with her vengeance, power wrought by sin once sought.

It mattered not, their screams, anger was the key, and anger was the floodgate that had changed the pure girl into an engine of destruction, anger and betrayal. Through the years, her anger would exhaust, until it drained her completely into nothing but a doll, but now, she tilted her head to the side, a small, disconcerting smile upon the face drained of blood. Fingers danced out, touching walls, people, anything, setting them to burn…

_Goodnight Father, Goodnight Mother and Goodnight to you… Yoii. Would you like to see what death is like?_

_1511, Japan._

**_+--1--+_**

Negi smiled as he stood ready, in his classic stance, a combination of the different arts he knew. He had foregone his illusion for this fight, this one fight he had been building up to, for years. If not for his open robe, he would have been wearing all black, HeartBreaker thrust into Jasnin's hands, in the "stands" with his mother next to her, hands folded in her lap.

Watching the two face off. Father and son. HeartBreaker, in Jasnin's hands, winked away in a soft glow amidst the bright sun. Nagi, for his credit, held unto his staff tightly, and searched his stance for something he could use against the boy.

For this battle, Nagi had done something he had never honestly tried to do before. He had studied. Honest to god studied. It sounded so corny, but it was the truth, he had gone through his life without bothering to really memorize anything but the Axe of lightning and the magical arrows incantation, along with Deflexio and the Thousand Thunderbolts. That was it...okay, maybe he half knew White Lightning.

According to Eva though, she had seen him recite at least forty big ones from just his memory. Forty flipping spells for Pete's sake, and there were probably more hiding in that head of his. Nagi knew that this battle wouldn't come down to his ever prevalent saving grace, his power; it would have to come down, ultimately, to skill.

Skill that he couldn't access. Eva had laughed at him last night, telling him she was only giving him this information on Negi because she was certain the kid would beat his ass black and blue otherwise. The kid had Magica Erebia on his side, and he was uncommonly fast, to the point of inhumanity, without the usage of spell work.

He was also greatly skilled in hand to hand or weapon combat. He also had a pactio, but she refused to say with whom, only that his partner was the magus for it, and that, for her, it was a permanent one. The boy rose an eyebrow to Nagi's drawn face.

"What's the matter? Having second thoughts?"

No, he wasn't having second thoughts...the upcoming battle would be fire and rain upon the energized land they stood. Both of Negi's blades he had surrendered, and HeartBreaker, winking away all the faster, was one Nagi was glad wasn't in the boy's hand. He had heard of its three incredible abilities, whose power was directly proportionate to the hand that wielded it...

Nagi spoke first, and the boy followed quickly, magic pooling about them both.

"Rastel Mascir Magister, Sagitta Magica Centum et Nonus Novem, Spiritus Obscurans!"  
**"Man Man Terro Terro, Sagitta Magica Centum et Nonus Novem, Spiritus Fulgurans!"**

Neither of them moved as both their spells barreled at each other, meeting in the middle. Nagi's were more powerful, canceled out more bang for the buck, yet Negi didn't simply shoot his out, he maneuvered them, taking his weaker but just as numerous army like some kind of war game, directing them so all arrows canceled out each other in the end.

Again, on even ground they stood. Nagi swung out his staff, his left hand coming out.

**"Unus Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans!"**

The boy was ready however, he shot forth, a Deflexio slamming up, unincanted, as he easily avoided the high speed spell, coming up to his father, chanting a magical arrow spell, his opponent sidestepped the boy and swung out an elbow for his back.

_κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα,_

The boy disappeared from view though, appearing above Nagi in the air, shooting his arrows down at him as he came. Nagi called up his own Deflexio and swung his staff out, and Negi grabbed it, lightning coursing through his body. He tried to wrench it from his father's body, and succeeded.

_O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs!_

Negi jumped away, calling for his staff, it came, obediently, as he landed upon the ground only for a second, just long enough to jump away again to avoid a powerful spin kick from Negi, his foot shining bright red.

_εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση, έκλειψη! _

That was another thing. The boy could use magic without a staff to slow him down. Eva told him; quite simply, the boy could use magic without any restrictions, no rings, wands, or even, as he had been doing until recently, tattoos.

**"Κενότητος ****ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ**** τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος! Sagitta Magica, Undecim Spiritus Fulgurans!"  
**"Sagitta Magica, Centum Fulgurans Ingus! ...and take an Eclipse Axe for good measure, you _baka_!"

Nagi's axe, coursing with lightning, swung outwards to meet Negi's own, huge one of ice, swirling with lightning and added fire. Needless to say, this collision did not end well, as Negi's axe cleaved right through the other's, canceling it and forcing Nagi to jump away before it slammed against the ground. Burning, freezing and electrocuting whatever was in the poor ground to hell.

_"Holy hell. What the heck is that thing, Eva?"_

_"A powerful axe combining the power of Ice and Lightning, Negi created this spell specifically for __**you**__ Nagi."_

_Looking up from his tea, Nagi, a flustered and ruffled Nagi, looked to one of his earlier tormentors in slight confusion, and growing respect... not for her, but for his son, who worked as hard as hell to clean up the messes Nagi swore he would have eventually gotten around to cleaning, and gaining such strength from it...the only thing was if he would get over the want to honing himself just so that he could beat up Nagi...then they might be able to get a solid relationship going, yah know?_

_"For me?"_

_"Yes, for you. Alberio fought him during the tournament as you, and you spammed the axe of lightning, as you always do. The boy found that annoying. So he created his own. He noticed how you like to combine it with magical arrows. This axe doesn't need such a supplement. It is more powerful than the Axe of Lightning, Nagi. __**Don't **__try and counter it with your axe. You'll only get creamed. Try to overpower it with your famed idiotic strength."_

_"That...that makes me feel so much better Eva."_

_Smirking the vampire shrugged her shoulders thinly. Oh well, too bad. She owed the boy quite a lot, so she might as well help him get a good battle out of Nagi. Especially the curse. The curse removal. The inflictor was right here, but she had already exacted some "punishment" on him today for that one...he'd get more later of course._

Ducking under a few magical arrows, Nagi stabbed out with his staff, but his target disappeared from view again, and Nagi almost didn't shundo away in time to avoid getting axe kicked on his face. Damn teleportation. He'd never been able to get it down, but this kid pulled it off with ease, again and again and again.

He still hadn't used Magica Erebia yet. Not as he shot in, his fist glowing red, swirling orbs circulating it. He caught the fist, only to skid back with the pure force it held. The orbs shot off his wrist, heading for him, so Nagi had to break off from his son, queue a shundo to Negi's back.

The boy spun easily, his fist coming out to lock with Nagi's one coursing with lightning and the other bear, and yet still, they both stood pretty even in strength, yet Nagi had an advantage, his magic giving him it.

He pressed forth against Negi, but the boy was too fast. Sidestepping, he slammed a fist into Nagi's middle, sending him airborne. A kick sent him further upwards, and Nagi spun his staff to block Negi from punching him again as the boy jumped up into the air.

Nagi lifted himself up into the air via his levitation technique, forget about flying with his staff for now, he needed it too much. The boy joined him in the air quite rudely though, appearing behind him and barely missing to behead him with a kick.

Even from this distance, the boy's weapon could tell whom he was fighting, the blood flowing through him bountifully clear. Its purpose was to destroy that blood...yet it had not destroyed Negi...this was confusing...even next to it, Arika sat...Jasnin did the worst thing she posibly could have to a vibrating weapon such as this...she touched the hilt, almost as if trying to placate it.

That is the blood it should be held by...judgement was nigh! It was made to destroy the line that now surrounded it...such would not be tolerated...not at all. It pounded away, vibrating fiercely, as Jasnin kept a tighter and tighter hold upon it, unconsciously, her attention was upon the fight.

**"Unus Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans!"  
**"Trias Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans!"  
_Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει_

Nagi sent one, Negi sent three, and once more, as the boy rushed in, they met in the middle, canceling each other out, still, Nagi sidestepped his son's charge, beginning an unincanted chant for his axe of lightning, but the boy was faster, with a far more devastating spell one might add.

"Igneus Ambitus!"  
_Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!  
__**Κενότητος **__**ἀ**__**στράπσατω δ**__**ὲ**__** τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος! Sagitta Magica Trignita Spiritus Fulgurans!**_

His arm condensed with lightning magic as the hand upon it burst into flame, at such a close distance, it was near impossible to dodge, so Nagi sent up a Deflexio, meeting Negi's spell work head on. He struggled with his father for a precious few seconds before the end of the world spell broke through, impacting upon his gut, blasting him back.

_Reprobo inter mihi, impendo extrarius,_

Negi shot through the broken barrier's former place, punching wherever he could reach, forcing his father back to the ground, where he shoundoed away from the boy almost desperately, but Negi was still in his face!

_Praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! Nova Contego!  
_**"Deflexio!"  
**"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια!"

Nagi didn't know what was up with the air, but he shot up his barrier just in time to avoid Negi's powerful bomb-like blast, and yet still, the boy was chanting aloud. It must be that he could keep his mind on two spells at once, but what kind of broken ability was that?

"Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία! Κοσμικὴ Καταστροφή!"  
_Τ__ὸ__ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs! _

**"Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!"**

Again, Nagi had expected ice, but was surprised as hell when he felt the heat about him rise until it was unbearable in a split second. He pulled up another Deflexio as his thunderbolts rained down from the very sky, combating with both the boy's powerful ice and his internal fires.

Ice completely cocooned the two combatants as the heat raged inside, lightning sent ice flying everywhere, and unconsciously, Jasnin grabbed the hand of the person nearest when one shard flew her way. A large shaft of steel, snapping into her vision to avert the threat, told her whose hand it was.

In her hold, HeartBreaker still vibrated like hell, tell whoever cared what it wanted to do, echoing, unheard, and in Jasnin's own head its will. The fire faded, and Nagi cast away his defense, only to get booted in the small of the back by Negi, whose feet were still alive with pent up magic.

**"Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach! In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Triginta! Iaculatio Fulgoris!"**

"Elementa Aeriales, Venti Spriantes Cito Adieuntes Ab Inimicus Meis Me Defendant. Limes Aeriales!"

Down to slam against the ground when the man, yet, when Negi bore into the dust, his barrier having taken care of the other's spears, He felt something grab him from behind, lightning coursing along his entire body.

The bear hug, the damn bear hug. It was how he had defeated him last time...Negi's own hands tainted black, they didn't even bother to progressively darken, only exploded into darkness, symbols swirling as he condensed his own magic, beating his father's back.

With his strength, he threw the man off him bodily, sending him flying, and he shot after him, his elbow colliding with his middle, as his hand shot off darkness arrows point blank. Congratulations on beating Level one, Nagi, Level two now activated.

Kicking in the side, he punched him once in the gut again in air before his fist came down to scramble Nagi's brains with a blow to the head, and the Executioner's sword formed quickly, slashing out, yet the man, lightning coursing through his staff, still managed to block it, even as they both fell. Nagi landed on his feet, Negi upon his back, springing back up to bend low, tripping Nagi up.

Stabbing up, he met his father's Deflexio, and the boy shot off a powerful mental strike, shaking Nagi's fortitude to the very bone. He landed shakily and almost fell when Negi struck him again with such an attack, a red aura of power forming about him, shaping into a hand into which he could send barreling forth at Nagi...but he never got to do that.

For, in the next moment, Nagi was in his space, his staff straight out, conking him on the head with its length aglow, knocking the boy to his behind; still, he rolled with the blow, sweeping his feet to make Nagi jump up and then letting loose magical arrows at his airborne visage.

They were absorbed uselessly by his barrier, and they both began chanting again at once.

**"Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε, Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!"**

"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ἡ κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, ταἰώνιον ἔρεβος, αἱώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωαῖς τὸν ἴσον θάνατον, ὃς ἀταραξία! Κοσμικὴ Καταστροφή! Τὸ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά, πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs!"  
_Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε, Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!_

Four against two, and yet, in the aftermath, Negi only managed to gain a few token bolts of lightning, which Nagi dodged. His magical power was paramount, and Negi knew his own wouldn't last forever. He still had juice; don't get him wrong but...

Κενότητος ἀστράπσατω δὲ τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος! Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonus Novem, Spiritus Fulgurans! Unus Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans!"

Why not just take his father's power and use it against him? Like a bullet, he shot forth and held out his hands, taking the spell full on, and then barreling past it, calling out his own spell, his power only enhanced by his father's verse.

"Take your own damn spell back, yah red headed popinjay! Κενότητος ἀστράπσατω δὲ τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος!"

His own power and his father's both formed the axe that smashed through Nagi's Deflexio and sent pain ablaze through his body. Damn! This hurts like hell! So this is what it feels like! Down he went, but he still landed on his feet, twirling his staff around to block Negi's punch as he came down, the kid didn't miss a friggin beat!

His fist sent dust flying everywhere, punishing the ground. Nagi shot out his foot and got Negi in the behind, pitching the boy forward, yet he turned his fall into a cartwheel back to his feet. Pissed, the boy addressed his father as more power crackled from his hands.

"Oh you did _not_ just kick my ass. It's on now."

You mean to tell me it wasn't on this whole time? Negi's feet caught on fire, literally, and he ran at the man, leaving a blazing trail as his fists charged up with power, amidst the dust, the fire caught, burning the air, and Nagi recognized the boy was trying to use the very _dust_ to his advantage. The whole damn cloud would catch fire like this...damn!

_Reprobo inter mihi , impendo extrarius , praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! Nova Contego!  
_"Τὸ συμβόλαιον διακονῆτω μοί, ο τύραννε φλογός! Ἐπιγενηθήτω, φλόξ καθάρσεως, ῥομφαία φλογίνη! Ῥευσάντων πῦρ καί θεῖον, ἇ ἐπέφλεγον Σόδομα, ἁμαρτωλούς, εἰς χοῦν θανάτου! Οὐρανία Φλόγωσις!"

**Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach! In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Triginta! Iaculatio Fulgoris! Unus Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans! Deflexio, Deflexio!**

Without water, the only way to put out the fire was to fight it with an equal fire, and Nagi had his tool, lightning to work with. Thirty one shots flew forth as he covered himself with his Deflexio, and as the fire beat at it, he felt something powerful slam into and then through his Deflexio, Negi had charged forth and tackled him, glowing with fire, making them both tumble.

Yet even as they disengaged, Jasnin stood up, the weapon in her hand no longer vibrating, but beating, with a heart so powerful she need only obey. Weapons. When given their own mind, through powerful magic, they can take over the emotions of their user, especially when feeding off them for power to give back. Through this, it held its holder quite firm...and she turned to her first victim, Arika...

Only to discover that she wasn't there. The hell? Oh, right, she'd gone to the bathroom. Issac looked at his sister oddly. Why...was she standing? Why was her hand on the seat like that...oh hell, did she just jump into the arena?

Is she insane? Oh well, it was up to him to stop her, wasn't it? As she barreled towards Negi and Nagi, He barreled towards her. She rose her blade and jumped up when she came close enough to slash as Nagi's unprotected back, the man was too busy with Negi to notice, but Negi did.

He didn't get a chance to protect his father however, even as he did kick the man in the side to send him flying away. Issac got there first, his blade crashing against hers, making sparks fly. Still, her weapon glowed yellow, telling tale it its current ability, and he felt her force him, slowly, ever so slowly, away.

"Jess...what...the...heck...are you...doing?"

It didn't seem like she heard him, just forced his blade away. Her hand came out, quickly, too quickly for him to even anticipate it grabbing his neck...and passing through it. She was grabbing at something else, not his body, and in front of her, as the body collapsed, she held the throat of a ghostly figure, wide eyed.

To her testament, she didn't get to crush the soul in front of her, as Negi grabbed the blade in her hand, attempting to wrench it from her. Yellow, burning bright, her fist closed upon the throat of the soul, casting it back, disdainfully, into its body before focusing on Negi.

His emotion versus hers again, his power radiating, even now, darkness consuming the blade in front of him even as it held a core of bright yellow still. Its fire red came slowly, faded, and came again...until the darkness made it impossible to see...

He was infusing the blade with his power, seeking out with his mind to wrench and sunder the spell it currently held, remake it, destroying ages old sorcery to replace it with his own...all the while Jasnin's own power overrode the blade, both beings emotions struggling for control...it was too much.

In both of their hands, the blade shattered into silver dust, and Jasnin, released of its hold, exhausted from grabbing a soul form it's home, collapsed, while a swirl of darkness wrapped around what once was a blade, shaping it into god knows what. Negi couldn't let go.

When he did, his power was spent, and he too fell to the bliss of unconsciousness.

**+--2--+**

"Ahh, Asuna Vespirina Theotanasia Entheofushia, how nice of you to join us again..."  
"Release me...you have no need to chain me."

Darkness. It was all there ever seemed to be these days. Darkness ever since she had discovered the secrets of the world, held captive in her mind before being blissfully wiped from the other guilty parties...by none other than Nagi.

"Ahh, of course, but I must ask, will you help me? Are you still sympathetic to my cause?"

That same Nagi had sealed her memories, keeping her locked up within herself, erasing all of her personality and replacing it with a girl who had no need to be morose. A girl whom could live a life in happiness...happiness that was a lie.

"Of course. Unhand me, and I will give you what I know you must want. The weapon he gave me, the weapon he told me to withhold within me, one of the seven keepers, no?"

She knew that now, after seeing Fate come up to her, with all of his "materials" finally gathered. His power increasing every moment due to where he was, at the very gates of the final portal to which the old world was linked, that magical concentration here growing greater everyday...

"Unchain her. She can't lie within that circle...and indeed, the master key is what I am after, and your knowledge...of how to summon, to take control of, the code of the life maker....of course, if you know where the grand master is..."

Soon, it would be enough to travel the distance between the worlds, enough to start a war like the one years before, enough to destroy this very magical world and sunder all the careful, fragile peace the old world held....and, as crude as it sounds...

"Don't bother asking me useless questions, Averruncus. No, I don't know where the accursed thing lies. Thank you, my arms are already stiff enough."

That would be perfectly fine with her. She didn't mind at all. Let it all burn for what she cared. In this moment, she knew all there was that needed to be known, and this world meant nothing to her. This farce, this false wraith, one man's dream that had lived on for far too long.

"Ahh, but I had to keep you detained while you were not right of mind, didn't I? Do you still care so for the son of that man?"

She herself was part of this farce, and it burned her to the core...what? Too dim to understand my drift? There are two main races in Mundus, but there are, by blood, three imperial princesses. do the math, and leave your judgments at home.

"The son of Nagi hates his father with a passion that is admirable. He is perhaps the only thing that man has succeeding in doing right, but even here, he has turned his ugly head. The boy had true skill, but he is a catalyst, and not truly, in the end, Nagi's son, of course."

Vomit it all to him, why don't I? Of course, there are things he wanted to know, but there were things she wanted too, and he wouldn't get much more out of her without those demands met, that was for certain. She had a status to uphold after all.

"Now...you have demands coming out of your ears...but I too, have desires that need to be met. I believe you have a proverbial "round table" we could settle this over?"

Of course he did, walk this way please...

**+--E--+**

Ohh my, did I drop a few odd things your way, did I not? Well, believe it or not, I did make mention of all of this earlier, I'm just, as always revealing just how deep the rot in the tree can truely go. Remember children, if you see a block of cheese go hard, cut an extra two inches off from the hard part at least, and if you can't, it's best not edible. Why?

That my friends, is a question I don't think I'll be answering in this fiction. Something a bit shorter than usual for you all to chew on. Sorry about that. Yet I, surprisingly, covered all I had planned to in this one, leaving me with nothing to do but end it. Next one up, What will happen with HeartBreaker now that it has been shattered whole? What will Negi's magic do to it?

We all know now, how Alma began her travels down the path or sin, and while I was a bit disapointed no one guessed before hand that it was Alma, she is obviously quite different now. What changes in her long span of travel caused her to morph so far? Is Nagi happy he got cheated out of being beaten raw? Or would he have been beaten raw?

Finally, now that Fate had Asuna on his side...what kind of chaos will be wrought? What will Jasnin think of herself, almost crushing Issac like that? What will he think? That's all for next time, as this lance is still flying in the air, watch out!


	47. Chapter XXXXVII: Remorse

**_O+-+X_**

_What's up with Fanfiction? It tells me that I have no hits at all, even though I have five reviews to show for the obvious hits I received. Oddness on a stick. Must be a problem they are having, this isn't the first time this had affected me. I got back the favorites I was missing...I still have my poll up, so chose your favorite OC! Have been under the weather recently, and finals are killing me too. So this is late...not only that, but I deleted the whole darn thing about a fourth of the way through. Didn't feel right._

_Ever hear the expression; it takes two hands to clap, so both are at fault? Yoii really didn't have much of a choice either. It was their belief that a soul needed to be sacrificed for their harvest to grow, an appeasement to the gods if you like. True, he could have denounced the claim, but for what, so he could get stoned to death too? The boy's no hero, we are a species that, primally, is based upon self survival instincts, whether or not that is the right way, I don't know, but it has kept us alive, that's why it's bred in. Perhaps one can look at that as an internal darkness too. ~Finalage_

**_+-AAA-+_**

**_Chapter Forty Seven: Remorse_**

**_+-YN-+_**

In the darkness, Yue sat, a map spread in front of her, the light from a candle casting flickering, playful light upon her face and eyes, which were moving steadily upon the text of an open book in front of her.

Of course, this wasn't any ordinary book she held, unnecessarily, in her hands. It emitted a faint glow, just enough to be read in the deepest of the night, and its contents were constantly changing, updating, rearranging. It was a whole library upon any topic one wished it to be about, concerning nearly anything she wanted it to be...as long as it had to do with magic that is.

The Orbis Sensualium Pictus, her magical artifact, courtesy of her currently sleeping partner...although she didn't really like to think about how she had obtained her item. Kind of embarrassing after all, to have your first robbed by a child and a girl no less. Lucky for Yue, no one seemed to care at all. Chisame dealt with her pactio...in her own haphazard way. Nodoka dealt with hers incredibly well.

Soo...why should she be thinking about this? She should be continuing her studies...right? Right. The book in her hands shivered slightly, showing a map of the magical world to mirror the one on the table. She was certain she had seen this map before, but that was impossible. She had never been to the magical world...unless...

_"...My purpose? To teach you all English. No other reason. Just because a mage is here doesn't mean something special is going to happen. You probably walk by five mages every day, and don't notice a thing. We are people to after all; we have lives to live..."_

_"...I didn't mean to imply that-"_

_"...Of course."_

Unless she had visited the magical world before, a hundred times, perhaps more than once in a single day. Mages are people too. You probably walk by five of them every day and don't notice a single thing. Negi-sensei was here to teach them all English, so Had Takahata-sensei. Konoemon-dean-sensei was a Principal...what was stopping mages from being mailmen, doctors, nurses, soldiers, lawyers, musicians..._authors_?

Authors that wrote fantasy books about a magical place, where fairies and dragons roamed free?  
Authors that wrote about other, strange races, with horns growing from their heads? People,  
Authors, who created fantasy lands where their characters could run free, upon grassy plains?

In that moment, her life seemed to turn upside down again, just when she thought it couldn't be shaken anymore. Sensei said one had to accept that mages were a part of life too, that they were just people, and had jobs like any other; families, likes and dislikes...but she hadn't really realized that until now. They could be authors too after all. ...Had J.R.R Tolkien been a mage?

No, he _couldn't_ have been, but then she realized that, no, he _could_ have been. That was the whole idea. Being a mage was like being a Christian, or being Japanese. It was just a fact of life. Magic was here, and it was in _everything_. It played a part everywhere, and wasn't limited to fire balls or bolts of lightning.

She suddenly remembered where she had seen that map before, and no, it wasn't from a fantasy book either. Well, it was in a few, but those were sci-fi fantasies. It was a map of _Mars_. Only filled in with cities and people, the like. Scientists had mapped out Mars incredibly well. (Uncannily well some had claimed.) Bringing up many conspiracy theorists to bear, but it was put down as a great effort and show of science. (Perhaps the great efforts of a mage scientist?)

Yet, if the magical world's map and the map of the desolate lands of mars were one and the same, what could that mean? It could not be that they were on mars, but once again, her teacher's voice intervened, bringing up a conversation, private, in the depths of her teaching, which she had thought long forgotten.

_"Illusion magic? So this pill can make you seem older or younger then?"_

_"Even male or female, depending upon the effort and skill, the power, you place into the illusion. It's quite easier just to go with the pills basic age transforming however, it's a lot easier to create an illusion similar to what you are trying to hide after all, you have a stronger base, and it if drops, the change won't be so drastic, of course in my case it will, but say I was twenty-five, and I made myself into a eighteen year old. The illusion dropping wouldn't change all that much. If anything, I could claim I was having a __**really**__ bad day."_

_"I suppose that makes sense, I also would assume it would be easier to control, no?"_

_"Immensely. One reason large and elaborate illusions are made as close to the originals as possible and still fit the needs. For instance, if I wanted to cast an illusion upon all of Mahora Campus, turning it into a large forest, I might make the pathways in that forest that same places the streets actually were, and the trees where the buildings are situated. I might have a puddle where a manhole might dip down a bit, a bridge would be a small hill, hey, a high complex might suit for a waterfall coming off another high building next to it._

_"You could do that?"_

_"Hell no! I don't have that kind of power Ayase-san, or that kind of deliberation. The need to create something so large and make it real enough for a person to fall for...Evangeline-san might have the power for that, but not me. It might be easier to make a dump look like a hilly, grass filled field, because you already have the shape worked out..."_

_"...because you already have the shape worked out..."_

_"...the shape worked out..."_

That was what it was then, wasn't it? An insanely powerful mage, or a group of them, coming together, years past, to create this magical world, taking the very shape of Mars and melding their magic to it, they didn't change anything, just made the land look different and introduced Oxygen to the equation, which wasn't hard, according to Professor Negi, Alma, the girl who follows him around like a lost puppy, can easily create multi-layered illusions that can fool you into believing you are being suffocated by a snake or a friend, when in actuality, you are drowning in a pool of water.

How much harder would it be, for a few powerful mages, to make a world with some semblance of real components, real enough so that when you take a spaceship here, you see nothing, but use the portal and you are in a world full of life and oxygen?

A brilliant flash of light from the window makes Yue slam her pactio shut with a definitive slam, almost, but not quite, waking her sleeping roommate, one Nodoka Miyazaki. Creeping to the window, she peers out, to see none other than Negi Springfield...

Balling his fists, he practically glowed with the power condensed about him, lifting himself into the air so he hovered there, in his teenage form. Red energy flowed along his fingers. Yellow crackled with his palms, blue encompassed his body.

A scream ripped from his throat, unearthly, as he rose both his hands, once again, firing off beams from both of them to barrel into the skies above. Around him, the energy condensed, until it too, shot forth a third beam. Lightning and Wind, Ice and Darkness, Fire and Lightning...between his two hands, power leaked, forming a forth beam spell to rip forth, and yet, once that once joined the mix, the boy gritted his teeth.

Casting two spells at once was one thing, but focusing on four already cast spells at once, monitoring and keeping their levels perfect all at once, while still trying to raise his voice above the din of his own magic to cast two more...this was concentration...and he couldn't do it.

Not yet anyway. At most, he could control his four beam spells at once, or cast two spells at once. But control more than four spells at once, or cast three? He didn't have a second mouth, thank you, and his mind could focus on two things at once, not like that.

Still, as the boy let his beams falter, the energy around him turned dark, consuming his visage into the night. He reached behind his back to unsheathe his blade, power coursing along it. Yue focused on it, as it glowed a faint red amidst the sickly, green-purple aura that it emanated.

It was long, about four feet, and as wide as the average sword blade, until it hit the tip, in which it fanned out in a diamond shape... A jewel was set there, sapphire blue and brilliant. From this distance, she couldn't tell much else, save that the guard was pitch black, and that it was wrought in the shape of a fallen angel's wings... a large, rough cut rhombus gem creating the pommel...she turned around sharply, almost falling when she felt something come to rest upon her shoulder, but it was only Nodoka. She smiled lightly, turning back around to look at their professor in his practice.

Perhaps he had been right about that too, Yue probably did have plenty of bruises, for she still spun around like the way she had at the festival, almost falling, when someone touched her on the shoulder. Lucky for her, she managed to catch herself, most of the time...

Negi gripped the hilt of his blade, its dark silver blade reflecting the power around him mutely. A slight blue tinge was held in the dark blade, and its golden edge winked at him. The whole thing seemed to give off the air of; "Get the hell away from my edge, b!+ch."

This was what it had become, a blade, and simply a blade, with a plain black sheath. HeartBreaker turned a nameless artifact he called AtraCrolacri, whatever that meant, none of them were sure, but Negi assured them, it was its actual name, as it had inscriptions written on its blade, inscriptions that Negi refused to translate from their ancient Norse texts.

As for what it did, no one knew, as none seemed eager to feel its bane, whatever is was. It looked bad enough sticking out from Negi's hand... no one wanted it sticking _out of them_. Who in their right mind would, after all?

Expertly, the boy flashed out his blade to arc in the air. It was lighter, if that was even humanly possible, than HeartBreaker, despite looking the contrary…yet, when swung, it gained incredible momentum, which could be stopped in an instant it seemed, if he tried to twist his blade in a different direction.

It went against all of his known laws of physics… that was a certainty. The boy felt as if he had held the weapon his whole life, anything he wanted to do with a blade, it seemed capable of executing just the way he wanted. He had learned he liked to swing his weapons just…_so_ regardless of the friction they caused him, but this one had no drag when swinging it with such a flick of the wrist as he found comfortable to use. He was certain that, in any other hands, this blade might have been awkward. It was too long in proportion to its hilt, the balance was just odd in weird ways, and it just wasn't your _conventional_ blade. It was a tailored one, tailored to Negi.

Alone in his little world as he rose it to allow his magic to bead from it in arrows pending flight, he smiled.

**+-1-+**

It was soft. Soft and warm. A bit _too_ warm in fact. She fought with herself. She wanted to open her eyes, get up, but she was too tired, and her body ached. Her spirit ached. The mental effort she had exerted...wait. What mental effort had she exerted? When was the last time she had fought? Wasn't it with Gunther? Was that yesterday? No, her mind nagged her, that wasn't yesterday; she had used her ability again, on someone else.

She bolted straight up in bed just as the door opened. She had used her ability to grasp a soul from its body, almost crushing it and tossing it broken to the winds. She had damaged it, she was sure...not the way she had destroyed Gunther, no she had grasped this one to damage it to such an extent that...that...hands came up to her mouth as the hangings on her bed were pulled back revealing her brother standing there, carrying, of all things a plate.

_You almost destroyed Issac's soul. _

"Ash, so you're up madam. Such a sleep you've had, through the whole day yesterday and all the night too, and, just like that, it's afternoon again! Are you finally ready to show that proper face of yours to the public?"

He was joking with her. Still. Even after she had almost killed him...no, not killed him, what she had been about to do was worse than even ending his life...she'd leave him soul-less, an empty shell, still physically alive, existent biologically, but he would only eat if forced to, and you would have to make him chew, only drink when it was poured down his throat, he would have no spark like the one that danced in those eyes now...he rose an eyebrow.

"Or is Mistress still tired?"

Of course, Issac was a real live and let live kind of guy, and he forgot all wrongs done to him really easily...no, she shouldn't say he forgot, he had a bad memory yes, but if you pressured him, gave him hints, he could pull it from memory, the obscure details. Most of the time he sat with a blank however, but drastic things, he did remember. He just _forgave _easily. Perhaps too easily. She looked at him, her head tilted to the side a bit warily.

"Are you alright?"  
"Why ever not would I be alright, you're awake, aren't you? So now I can serve something that's conscious!"

Oh, so he was going to _serve_ her, huh? Honestly, what kind of farce was he putting up now to get her to laugh, or feel better, huh? It wouldn't work you know. Having your soul ripped out and nearly obliterated definitely classified as one of those "drastic things" Issac was bound to remember. She doubted very much if he was, even while joking like this, one hundred percent comfortable around her anymore. She hated thinking that, but it was extremely likely, and, to put the icing on the cake, no one would blame him, yet, he seemed to read her thoughts...but he worded it a bit weird, his answer, continuing his little game.

"No, that face won't do...why wouldn't I be comfortable around the mistress, huh? Must I feed you as you lie there, or are you ready to serve yourself?"

She would not let him play maid like this...no matter how drily amusing it seemed. It reminded her too much, in the dark corners of her mind, of his time actually "serving" her, degraded in the eyes of his family as to be nothing better but her slave. He spoke out again, once more accurately seeing into her mind, as eyes, a bit too bright with apparent enjoyment, assessed her.

"Ahh, mistress wants to completely dismiss me from her employ, but that won't do, I won't have anywhere to go, I'm tied to no other, aren't I?"

Okay, now it was official, this was annoying. She scrambled off the bed to reach the plate he dutifully placed upon the bed, and she looked him over oddly as she inspected what he had brought, some fruit, something, (probably a local wild bird) that looked like chicken, but a bit to red in color, a few vegetables...the typical lunch around here. Rice, most likely either grown in New Ostia and shipped or transported from the old world, was also there. She aimed a play swinging kick at her brother when he hung around as if waiting to cut a piece of her meal for her...

Surprisingly, the hit landed, and he hardly budged or tried to roll with the blow either, meaning it went right at his face and hit hard, making him blink, but electing no other reaction but another smile, now seeming a bit out of place, but still playful...or was that expression playful...? It almost seemed dull to her now that she was closer, dull and almost desperate.

"...Has the mistress administered the proper punishment?"

_"Has the mistress administered the proper punishment?"  
"No Jasnin, you have not. Strike him again."_

_She looked up, into her mother's eyes. Her tone was light, and practically dripping with a sweet, sweet love...love so sweet, it was rotten raw. Jasnin had broken a vase by accident, a loose cannon with her magic, so the proper punishment had to be exuded. No, not upon her, the punishment was upon her maid, the one who should have been watching her; after all, this was his fault. He had tried to stop her, admittedly, but not much could be done when bound with magic, understandably...still, it was his fault. The hand rose again, by bidding of her mother and came down, hard, across the boy's face. He did not move, but held his ground, taking it full force so as not to spare himself any._

_"Has mistress administered the proper punishment?"  
"Oh no, no, not quite yet Jasnin. He needs a bit more, but please, you know a slap is not enough."  
"Yes mother. Boy, on your feet."_

_Upon bidding, of course, always upon bidding, he stood. He knew what was coming, but of course, he deserved it, it was the only way, correct? He would receive his punishment, lest more harsh deals come his way. A foot came up, hard, into the groin, but once more, he did not move. That was his mother's foot, not his mistress's. Hers came the second time...and then the third. He still had yet to fall. A whip from behind, lashing his back, sent him down. Hoarsely, he called out, crisp, clear, the pain lanced along him, but that did not creep into his voice._

_"Has mistress administered the proper punishment?_

"Oh...hell...no...Issac. D-don't _screw_ with me _like_ _that_!"

He did in fact reach out to slap him now, as hard as she could, the memory burning. She had never told him not to say it anymore, but she had thought it was a mutual understanding between the two. She had heard him say that line so many times, enjoyed it even...oh god, it made her feel even more disgusting than previously, now remembering what she had done to him before that point, and after it too, to add on to what had happened yesterday...but, to her horror, the boy said it again, completely and utterly serious.

"Has mistress administered the proper punishment?

There wasn't a trace of laughter to be seen in those eyes, not a trace. It made her question once more if what she had seen previously had even been laughter. He stood there, waiting, like he always had before, almost as if she had gone back in time...the image was so powerful, she almost looked back to see if the ever present figure of their mother would be there.

Something was up. Forgetting breakfast, she hopped out of bed, waking to walk out the door. Her hand on the knob, the door slapped Issac in the face, prompting her to look at him...he had tried to open it for her, but she had gotten there before him.

The hell was going on? Did he loose his memory or something? Oh, that would be just perfect. Just perfect...but she had a sinister feeling it was something deeper than that, she walked out the door as the boy fell in line behind her, trying mutely to get into the proper submissive side, but failing, Jasnin was blocking him from getting there.

**+-2-+**

"It's how you look at the blasted situation, that's all. You can look at this whole damn world we are living in as nothing but a farce, sure, but then, what's giving you oxygen right now? Shouldn't you have suffocated long ago? What about that guy I know you were looking at yesterday in the square while I was running errands...ahh, I see a blush, get that damn blood off your face..."

Indeed, Yue had gained a flush to her cheeks at the mention that she had been looking around and observing the people in town yesterday while she had been with Negi collecting supplies, and, in a perfectly innocent manner, she had been watching some people who qualified as attractive in her eyes. It was only _natural_...however; leave it up to the professor to make even the natural embarrassing, and a platform to launch a point off of.

"My point is Ayase, real is a very subjective word here, and to answer your question, yes, I care whether or not Fate and his albino ass blows up this "imaginary" world, very much. One reason being the simple fact that we are currently in it. Besides, where the hell am I gonna put this big lummox if he does?"

Negi's hand came out to slap the shoulder blade he was using as a steering wheel, piloting Vir through the skies, more for his exercise than anything else, although he was looking for some signs of the governor canceling his ball this week, Negi wanted to catch him in the act of running away with his tail between his legs...just so he could pull him, whimpering all the way, back.

He'd swoop in so fast with fire roaring from a dragon's maw, he'd roast the bug alive before he even knew what the hell hit him upside the head. Of course, Negi was growing increasingly impatient as his promised week of time slowly, ever so _slowly,_ withered away. Why was it when the kid wanted to hurry up and get something done that time loved to drag its dirty arse along the carpet?

Talk about rubbing it in. He had left Yue in a rant about her findings on the magical world's composition, most of which he had already guessed or hazarded at reading somewhere, to focus on what, this? How far away the end of the week seemed? Yue was blithering to Nodoka without a care in the world, sitting quite firmly between two of Vir's spines, while Nodoka held on for dear life unto her own assigned spines.

Maybe it was because the girl was in rant mode, or perhaps because she had been practicing with that broom a helluva lot. Alma was next to him, looking out from her assigned shoulder blade. Maybe it was just him, but lately she seemed more distant than usual. Almost as if she were reflecting on something.

Hair flying back in the wind, indeed, she was reflecting on things, year's worth of memories flashing by in instants, her hands could scarcely grasp them before they were ripped away. Questions, numbering in the millions, contrasted them...they lumbered about with such a sluggish pace that, for all she cared, they were stock still...

_"Master."  
"Ahh. You confuse me, you do."_

"You are my property, rightfully so, as I purchased you fairly from your previous owner ten years ago."  
"...Yes Master."

_In a dark room, a man beckons, atop his chair, what he considers his "throne" he calls her to him. His eyes scrutinize her, in every detail, before he gives a verdict. His mouth quirks. His property is a mystery he has yet to solve, indeed._

_"In these ten years, you do not appear to have aged. You are the same bud, having yet to blossom into a woman. This intrigues me to no end...yet, I can experiment with you no longer. You are to be sold to Karest. You should do well to fetch a good price...yet, while you are still mine...get a mat out."_

_"...Yes Master."_

Years, they come and go, and yet, their grasp fails to hold fast upon her. Slippery, more than even the purest of eels, she slithers away. Immortal, it seems. Fire springing from her hands for the fires she has denied, illusion woven out of the fabrics her mother refused to school her in making. Negi interrupted her thoughts with a harsh laugh, his whole entire being, small as it was, moving along with it.

"You really believe that? Do you? Then you, my good student, are stupider than even I gave you credit for! What if we all were just some damn characters in a story book, huh? Would you want us to die and have no one care? Honestly, I wouldn't mind, but I'm pretty sure as hell you would. I have a feeling you would hate to discover you were nothing but a figment of someone else's dream."

Conversation moved on, relentlessly. Negi seemed to root himself in the point of them all being nothing but characters following the whim of a particularly cold hearted author, who was probably going to kill them all off before their time even came. His point was further solidified with the belief of many millions of people and articles on such a subject, the belief that we all are nothing but pieces of a board game or a story, moving along the canvas of an author's mind. Each person playing a part, but to the author themselves, only a few are important...

In essence, claiming that a true author creates a world in which all characters are alive, even if the creator does not even focus upon them. That, in every story, where the main characters are Bill and Tracey, with Phil stuck in for drama, there is a Tony and Margret next door, never mentioned, and a Holly who loves to shop on Tuesdays at Midnight, or a Robert in a lonely waiter's position at the local fancy restaurant.

Life, moving on with or without the creator's permission or knowledge, for the author has only created their world for one purpose, but it is used in every way possible. Negi knew that, somewhere in this world, someone was cursing, someone was kissing, another was sleeping, still someone else was taking a shower...but he wasn't aware, and if authors are to be thought down to earth and not Omni-potent, they probably wouldn't know either, unless they focused their scope upon that particular character.

"...but Magi-sensei...we can't be imaginary..."  
Negi managed to give a half hearted smile, halfway between placation and pity for Anya. She had her arms around him, for she couldn't grip the spines Vir sported properly. He shook his head. Leave it to her to pick this time to try and analyze what he was saying, getting herself hopelessly confusing in the onslaught of words she wasn't meant to have heard for years to come.

"Why ever not, Anya? Are we special in some way? If you think this world is imaginary, and thus not worth your time, you have to think all those people in here are imaginary too, and not worth your time. Then, you have to think; "Well, what defines real then?" Is it the ability to think for one's self? Is it the ability to desire, to eat, breathe, live? Is being real simply existing? For I'll tell you, all these people out there...they do those things, just as you or I would. So if they aren't real, what's stopping someone from saying we're not real, and not caring what happens to _us_? Who can argue with them? Who knows the secrets to all of life, who can be one hundred percent sure, hmm?"

He made a grand gesture with his hand at the mention of the people out there, sweeping his hand past the scope of vision trained upon him and into the open skies. His face was completely calm, once more a teacher in his flying classroom, although normally those stay rooted firmly to the ground...at least Yue had fallen silent. Not that he had beaten her in debate, just that he had chosen a better view to defend.

"...Hell, if you were to step into a story book, do you think you'd be shipped from one task to the next like you are in the story? Hopefully not. Your presence might even change the story, and how do you handle that? The world and by extension, life, is nothing but an ever changing story, in which all the possible outcomes have already been determined, it's your job to pick which one becomes yours. An infinite amount of endings, and all of them with your name on it, the scope of it is too large for human minds to perfectly comprehend...and don't any of you start about me being able too."

It was Anya who first spoke, again bringing her insight into the conversation. She wasn't stupid; she would have everyone know that. Maybe a bit dumb compared to them all, especially when she had first come into Negi's care, but she had been working just as hard, if not harder, then they have to catch up...except for Negi. No one seemed to work as hard as he could.

"...So if we're all fake, who are you in the story Magi-sensei?"

At first, he didn't want to answer the question, yet...that only lasted for a split second of his existence. Quite after that, he was eager to formulate a response, weaving a story about himself, his fanciful interpretation of himself perhaps, but one that just might have been spot on.

"Me? I am...the character that...well, I suppose I'm the guy who stands behind the main one. You know the one, the one who either joins the party first or was the main character's friend from the beginning, the guy who is either a mage or a brawler. He's always got really cra- bad luck, but really wants to good too. He turns evil near the end and tries to kill the main character, gets killed, causes the main a whole bunch of anguish, meets him in his dreams as some kinda angel spouting advice and apologies and that's the end of that. In other words, I'm the idiot who, for all his power and strength, for all the good they wanted to do, chose the dark path and got his stupid ass killed."

Negi said no more as he pushed upon Vir's shoulder, prompting everyone aboard to grab onto something as the dragon took a steep dive, the wind sailing through hair and whistling in all ears. Indeed, if this place was fake, what _was_ real? Who cared?

**+-3-+ **

_"Once you grasp the Grand Master Key, you shall rule over this world, it will be yours to create or destroy, the power to control all that magic in your palm. However, even with just that master key at your disposal...you control, essentially, almost, but not quite, one seventh. You don't have enough to destroy it, as you seek to do, but you have enough, of course, to continue your activities. The amount of power you have acquired in this one area is already impressive, and enough to breech the connection between here and the old world, enough to, essentially, wage war equal to the one before...Tertium..."_

_It wasn't fair. That's what they all said. Why did the princess get to give Fate-han a "pet name" and no one else? Not only that, but, while it was obvious that Fate did not like the name, he bore it. Where was the justice in that? Still, his partners, ditzy as they were, wouldn't get the hint that there was a reason he...bore...her calling him that. It was his actual name, after all. Of course, it was just annoying that she insisted upon calling him it._

_"Fate, a stupid attempt to bring yourself to life, to conquer what you essentially are. Boy, your power and grace are impeccable, but that puppet's guise does not fool me for a single second. You run from your problems, and what you can't run from, the truth, you seek to destroy. Of course, it's not like I would care what you want to do with this god-forsaken world, yet, I feel compelled to inform you that destroying Mundus will not bring you rest, just to set the record straight."_

_In actuality, in destroying Mundus, you are only further chaining yourself down. You are digging your own grave, laying a bed of nails to sleep upon. Yet, I can only speak, my mouth flaps, but will you listen? Nay, so why even bother wasting breath?_

_**"I am aware of what will happen in destroying Mundus Magicus, and what devastation all that power will wreak upon the Old World, but you must trust that I can acquire the Grand Master key before the magic here becomes more than we can control."**_

_She scoffed, shaking her head. Fate wasn't sure what was on the half-breeds head most of the time anymore. When she had been without her memories, without the prim and proper training associated with a royal line, having none of the teachings, she had grown into a brash and air headed young woman. _

_Yet, she had no idea how old she had truly been. She had been alive for the war, a war that her Half sister Arika had been "executed" for fifteen years prior, after all. Only a toddler perhaps, but still. She had been alive for many of Nagi's travels. Her body aged slowly...a testament to her lopsided genes perhaps. _

_Once the bond upon her memories was removed, her knowledge came crashing down upon her head, nearly driving her mad. All the air headedness was gone, it had been solely a defense set up by Nagi anyway. If she was too stupid to understand or keep in her head, the facts of magic, how could she relearn all that was lost? and how, pray tell, could she be anything but properly happy? Ignorance is bliss._

_Even Nagi knew that. He wasn't stupid, he simply acted like it, to give the semblance of a bliss he hoped that, upon continuous playwright, would become real. Asuna interrupted his thoughts upon her with a terse comment._

_"You may gain power as the concentration of magic here increases, but do you really think your strength can grow proportionately to what is needed?"_

_Her tone told him plainly that she thought him far more foolish than she had first gave him credit for, but he wasn't here for her respect, or her opinions, he just needed her knowledge, and he had been getting it. Piece by piece, she gave him tidbits of information into the very weaknesses all of Ala Ruba held, and a few warnings as the techniques his son might employ. _

_Along with surmises as to where the other master keys might be held, it was invaluable power she was handing him, almost as useful as the code of the life-maker he was grasping with ease under the right teacher. The mage of the beginning had employed it, and now, through Asuna, he would employ it. It made his nearly laugh...to think that she was once Negi's ally, so useful now, as his own..._

Sighing, she looked up into the night sky. Stars, so strange to her but a precious week before, now arranged themselves into constellations, points upon an astronomical map, pinned upon the very skies. Names flew, legends whispered, etiquette, teachings of posture, party, useless, trivial things of manners and royal behavior. It really meant nothing in the end, truthfully.

Knowledge was the great destroyer of life. The greatest one the world has ever known. It was knowledge that built the first fire, knowledge that poisoned thousands of people, knowledge that massacred millions of innocents.

Why had not knowledge been punished for these crimes? Simply because one needs it to know there must be a punishment for crimes. Simply because we all are guilty of indulging in it. Knowledge was power, sinister, deadly power, quiet, bubbling poison , seeping weakness in one's veins, sowing chaos where ever it went...ultimately, the rot upon the roots of the universal tree.

Eyes locked upon a particular star, she recited to the darkness what she refused to tell Fate. Just how deep Nagi's rot went, and, by extension, how had his son would fight to clean it up, only to eventually find that the rot spills not from his father's mess, but from behind himself. That he himself is his father's greatest evil.

"Negi Springfield. Aquarius. Birthday...damn. When was he born again? What kind of Aunt am I to forget that? Oh, right...it's near Valentine's Day isn't it? That's what she wanted anyway...Prodigy six year old mage, vampire. Trained in several martial arts, from what I've seen, I can guess he might have at _least_ Judo and Sun Chi training..."

"Is familiar with many kinds of weapons, and has a flexible style, adaptable to the Shinmeiryuu at least up to the mid level Ougis, which is impressive, considering he uses none of them himself, although he has recently introduced techniques into the play, most likely perfected after long editing and practice. Elemental affinity...Most likely, any element suits him fine, however, Holy, or healing magic, is difficult for him. Sarcastic, Sadistic, Twisted, Harsh and Abrasive. However, he is also an incredible teacher, and a die hard, drop dead useful individual to have on your side..."

"Yet, this boy, holding both darkness and light in opposite hands, can only chose the dark path, not matter how much he wishes the other. His fate is predetermined as such, through a deal with the devil. A true deal with the devil, and through no fault of his own. Two devils, in the deep of the night, one the customer and the other the peddler..."

"...They danced, a fiery dance of passion and need, of price and prize, the fate of a man's pride, upon that is what they ride. Struggling, the great game, the elegant dance of tongue and sword, or fire and bane..."

The man could not father a son. It was a joke for a little while. Oh, just give it time, Oh, Nagi, don't kill yourself over it...it's not that you aren't man enough, no, Arika is just too much of a woman for you! No, no, I kid you, just be patient man. You are a hero; Hero's are bound to get a power boost in the department you're looking at, ehh?

No. Nagi could try, but he was not getting any discounts here. Yet, he said nothing, not even as his eyes darkened behind bangs. Nothing would make him break his guise. No. Yet, still, behind the backs of all, he planned. It was a simple plan, but one that required a lot of help. Asuna knew.

Alberio's artifact lasts for fifteen minutes...so why, pray tell, did his transformaiton only last _exactly_ fourteen and _thirty seconds_? Why is it that misfortune haunt this son, who was so hard to obtain, everywhere he choses to roam? She knew. She knew all. Not all, no, that was the wrong word, but she knew enough.

Nagi had never been an impressive mage. Ehh you say? Yes. At the age of ten, he had just hardly scraped enough power to perform an incredible task. Lifting a feather from a table. Impressive, no? Not to mention he blew it up to "help". Ever wonder what he meant by mastering the levitation technique at the age of ten? Yeeeeah... Exaggeration much?

Still, how did he gain all the power he no commanded...so _quickly_? Magical concentration would be helluva hard to increase to such an amount, so quickly. His "tank" couldn't increase in size so quickly either...could it?

Darkness surrounded Nagi; it did, as the two demons began their dance. Darkness that gripped his son tight. A deal to be done, a soul to be shunned. Life goes on. As does burning power flow through veins.

If the boy knew, he would hate his father all the more...he would hate Alberio, Takahata..._her_. Something in Asuna's body made her shudder at that. He would hate her too. She was...reluctant to allow that to happen...of course, once he found out she had been helping Fate...would he hate her then? Or would her think her a puppet in his schemes?

**+-E-+**

This one took forever it seems, to put together! I had, and still do in fact, finals to get through, presentations to show, things to do, food to eat, that I keep neglecting to I might add...dang. This was too long in coming. I still have my poll up! I don't know what else I want to say, probably was important, but I don't care! See you next time!

What's going on with Issac now? Did he lose his memories...or is it something more sinister than that at work here? Will Alma's reminiscence distract her from her duty, and why the heck is she like this anyway, what really happened to her in those some odd centuries? What was it that Nagi, Alberio, and Asuna know that no one else does? Didn't Alberio say Negi wasn't Nagi's either? The heck is going on?

The ball! What's Godel gonna do with no Negi as a guest...What about Fate? Continuing his plans again, or is something else going on deeper than that this time? HeartBreaker has transformed into something else, but what does it do? How will it change how Negi looks at himself even?

Most likely, this chapter needs work, but I've got no time to continue stalling, meh?

Finalage, out.


	48. Chapter XXXXVIII: Consquences

**_O+-+X_**

_Soon, I'll e able to put this story to a good rest, but for now, it drums on in my head, beating out a tune worse than any techno dance beat I've ever heard, and believe me, I've heard plenty. I only have so much time left, and yet, there is so much left to do, In my head, I see it fall falling together into a perfect fit, just before it explodes cataclysmically into a fire ball to consume the heavens I can see. Explosion after explosion shall wrack me._

_Is that how much faith I put into myself? I must be getting cocky. _

_Of course Havelock, why do you think we can create such an individual as Negi? Yet, Yoii was no hero. That trait was not in him; his decency only went as far as it did. Not only that, but he is, himself, nothing but a child to our current standards. He could save her from kids picking on her, but not to the point would his determination stretch in disobeying ingrained beliefs. Not when he himself secretly believed her to be a witch too._

_I haven't said it in a while have I? So I will say it again just to refresh your memories...I do not own Negima in any way, shape, or form. I do not own any of its affiliates either. I make no money from doing what I do here... All of what I do here falls under a creative license, nothing more. Is there anything else I need to gush in the realm of legal endeavors? No? Good. _

_By the way, I finally launched my second edition of the spell list, which is almost up-to-date. It lists all the spells currently known, in other words, the ones used at some point in the story, including a few new ones I introduce here. Once the list is one hundred percent complete, I will launch it to the public...I think it will serve as a better reference than the current ones around. ~Finalage._

_**+-AAA-+**_

**_Chapter Forty Eight: Consequences_**

**_+-YN-+_**

"A soul is a precious thing. It is also a delicate thing. Yet, for all the delicacy, it is, or at least, I was brought up to believe it was...ultimately indestructible, unbreakable...undying. Yet you have proved me wrong on that point. I don't know what to think of you, or your power. Understand where I am coming from before you raise that hand to me, Akaito Jasnin."

She hadn't even realized her hand had risen, but indeed, it was, and, to add further insult to her already injured pride, she realized she had already amassed a large quantity of her power into an attack at the boy's cool yet sad comment, curtly put as; "I can't help you."

Kago did, however, tilt his head to look at the young man in front of him, blinking upon setting his sights to the other's eyes. The eyes...windows to the soul. How odd that Issac's eyes seemed to hold a kind of half-spark, almost as if he were laughing, but, when looking closer, only revealed itself to be mere dullness.

It was upon that very "closer inspection" however, that Kago saw something, something that made him take a step back. Those eyes...they struck an un-named fear in his heart, one so deep, powerful and unknown... he was surprised. Quite suddenly, inexplicably, his hands began to tremor, his breath quickening. He...knew...that look.

That look of vacancy. That look of ignorance, of slight bliss, as if the world were laughing with you. That look that showed one didn't have any worries...or much of a past that they could remember. It was the look in millions of eyes as he had seen them. The fearful eyes of their parents as the beseeched him to heal them of this..._illness_. It was his job to convince them the lord did everything for a reason, even when the reason...

Even when the reason made their child insane, or less than "average" in intelligence. The slang word echoed in his head. _Retarded, retarded…retarded..._ No. Issac was not insane...nor was he...challenged. For some reason unknown to Kago, those kinds of eyes scared him; they shook him to his core. Perhaps this was his evil, being unable to accept, but something about him repulsed that look with every fiber he had.

Even if his job was to accept and love. Yet, based on the current events, he could hazard a guess at what had happened to Issac…but he needed to confirm. Smiling weakly at the boy, he looked up at Jasnin, placing his two hands together. He needed to be calm for this one.

"I...can… attempt to discover what is the matter with him. However, it would require some time, and a bit of space. I need you to leave us be. This will be difficult otherwise. Spirits are strong, but delicate things, all at once. I need to peek into his soul. He'll need to be asleep, and I need to prepare...please. If you need to order him too attempt sleep, do so. I'll be back after gathering the needed equipment..."

With that, he left her and Issac alone while he went off to clear his head. No, he had not been lying, he did need to prepare, but a small part of that preparation was clearing his conscience, and a larger part was the organizing of his mind. What planned to do was similar to an exorcism, only he wasn't taking anything out of the boy unless he found something that shouldn't be there...the similarity lay in the entering. He had to use his spirit to enter the boy's own body, still keeping himself anchored in his own all the while.

You could not do that with a torn heart, or with a shaken resolve. You could end up lost in the other's soul, and that wouldn't help either party, only make the situation worse, it would. Kago rushed into the sunlight, the day was clear, sparklingly so. The air was growing colder as Megalo-Mesembria entered a cooler season in its very limited range of temperature.

Here, it was either hot, okay, or a little cool. The lowest it might get here would be around thirteen degrees Celsius, which wasn't very cold at all, but, without the sun and a slight breeze, it could be felt through the thin robe Kago sported. Not that it was originally thin either, but for all the years he had put it through it had worn down to a near paper consistency.

Kneeling upon one knee, he reached for the cross about his neck, taking it off to gaze at it in his hands. That "trinket" as some might call it, consumed his vision. It seemed that he had truly lost his way, for before he had met these people, he could swear he felt an aura of power about it, calm, radiating peace. Now, it sat, dejected, dead. Had he cast the spirit from his life?

Or was his test one that required him to stand upon his own, without the counsel of his faith? A test of his blind devotion? His hand closed upon the cross, the other coming to incase it in both, automatically assuming the form of prayer. It was...instinct. Comfort, habit. Arching his back he spoke a silent prayer to a god he sincerely hoped was still waiting, one that had not left his side.

He, who convinced others of that fact, that he never left your side, that he was always there, waiting for you to open your heart, and that once you have opened it, he will not leave, but bring joy to your life...he who brought other peace with his words was no questioning them. He could not convince himself of his own teachings, and that scared him more than anything, even more than dying a forsaken death and falling into the abyss of hell... his loss of faith struck that nameless terror in his heart.

It didn't take him long afterwards, a few precious minutes kneeling there, until he concluded that his spirit could become no more calm than it already was, a slightly less jumpy, jittery mess, but at least he could keep his frontal peace. He shook his head at the thought, banishing it. He had no frontal peace. To put up a front was to lie to the world, and that was one of the easiest sins to fall too.

Standing slowly, he noticed the sky had developed a few clouds in his time consulting his own soul, and they blocked the sun, forcing its rays to shine through slits to play upon the ground. He breathed once, deeply, as one of those shafts played upon him, bringing him momentary warmth before falling to darkness again.

_Always there. The Holy Spirit never leaves your side..._

Suddenly, ironically, Kago remembered a particularly quirky woman who, during one of his first services, had openly started a row with him upon god being a "he". He blinked at the memory, which was the exact same action he had performed to her, a blink. Now, honestly, when he thought of god, he did not see a man either, mainly due to the numerous mentions that god's visage was far too bright for any human eyes to see, and impossible to comprehend. He often fancied it being akin to staring straight at the sun, so that's what his mind gave him a vision of. A brilliant sun.

Still, he was sure this woman, quirky and quick to anger as she was, was not the only one who shared this thought of God being female...but in all honesty, Kago didn't mind what gender god was...the lord was just that, the lord, and most likely might be a Hermaphrodite anyway...although many argued that Man was created in "God's Image..."

He shook his head. Why was he remembering this now? It was making him smile for some insane reason that it might be even slightly funny. He didn't need to worry himself with this...there were literally millions out there to do it for him. He had a job to do too, so he spun around on one heel, and left the quiet, sparse arena he had come too.

**+-1-+**

Godel gritted his teeth, slamming down the receiver on his phone with enough force to send it flying off his desk. His face was red, and the heat coming off of him was enough to burn black an omelet. In front of him, his fire place burned merrily, almost mocking his anger with its cheer. He felt like throwing water on the damn thing. He looked down at his desk, where about three different invitations to his ball had been returned, three carefully written, politically correct and polite letters returned with the same careful political courtesy and care, the decision to come or not to come having been weighed from every angle before the answer had been given. Theodora was coming; the other two were polite and careful un-affirmatives.

_My puppet...doesn't like to have strings attached._

He felt like throwing them into the fire, after all, he did not need them anyway, they were responses, and he had already documented them into his attendance roster...but no, he gripped them, knuckles white before shoving them with more force than he meant to into his desk drawer. He had just tried, for the umpteenth time, to reach his little pawn, Fate, only to receive a blank receiver again.

_Pick up the phone, its Jane; I've got something to say...it's really important..._

The boy had plans of his own, and they seemed to be coming to fruition in an incredible amount of time. Godel had underestimated his strength, underestimated his puppets ability to stand on his own. Indeed, this was becoming a true Pinocchio story, and he was the angry puppeteer whom has just lost his main star. Damn it. Not only that, but reports of a huge onyx dragon sweeping over his many areas of affairs were proving quite an annoyance, especially when aerial scouts confirmed that Negi Springfield was the constant pilot.

_On silent wings, the deadly hunter finds his mark and swoops in for the kill..._

Who would have thought the boy would enlist the help of a huge dragon? What was this, some sort of fairytale dragon rider or something? The boy also seemed to be very in tune with it, as if he controlled it with his every whim. It moved without much of a visible bidding from him, and, upon him spotting the scouts, the dragon, whose eyes and head had been in the _other _direction, whipped around powerfully in the air,coming up behind them and knocking them out of the sky with a few powerful beats of its wings.

_Damn dragon is an eye sore anyway. It looks healthy, yes, but it's all black with red under wings and green eyed like. It looks like some kind of... Oh, I don't know, it's just ugly and stuffs. Light gold horns might fetch a pretty price on the black market though..._

Indeed, disturbing, this development. What was worse, the boy seemed intent on monitoring his activities this way, meaning Godel was stuck at home, like a good boy, doing his work, when he really should be trying to worm his way away from his job and go into hiding...as the promised week the boy had given him was quickly coming up to an unsightly end. His ball would mark the very end of the entire week. How ironic. The boy had sent him the letter exactly a week from the ball, and just the right hour, _right_ before the ball began. Smart. It meant that he could kill Godel's reputation and beat the man himself up all at once, as Negi had not formally rejected his invitation...the boy had laughed in his face about his mother yes...but he had _accepted_ and laughed at him. Insult to injury. He had even penned the number of guests he was brining, taking the time to write: "One of which being my dear mother..."

_Dripping with sarcasm and sweet, sweet love. Is he __**sure**__ he's not a diplomat?_

Godel swore, out loud, just as some poor person dropping off some documents for him walked in. The two stared, one with devil fire in his eyes, daring the other to say something, while his face screamed both; "What the hell is your problem?" and bloody murder. The other, wide eyed and growing in fear, took a step back before bolting, leaving the door wide open behind herself.

_Well...that's your own fault...girl. _

Life was hell. Indeed, life was hell. Hell, even if he was informal, Godel had never seen a diplomat that could, seemingly inadvertently, play a master hand like Negi had. He had terrified Godel and made him think the boy a nutcase, only to make him "realize" he was just an angry little boy with a dirty mouth. He had played a trump card upon him in apparent accident, and yet had "mistakenly" played out a rude comment to show immaturity. All the while, the guests he was bringing, the letter...it all came together now as the jaws of a trap that locked tight upon him. Negi had disarmed him with apparent inexperience and then crushed him utterly in one fell swoop.

_Fool the opponent, make them careless, and then crush them, classic, but it gets them every time...the thing is, he didn't make me think he was inexperienced at first, he terrified me first and then made me analyze what he was doing, coming to the conclusion of inexperience due to my own pride and experience. Experience killed me here. He was both sincere and conniving; deceptive...at once...is that even physically possible? _

To make matters worse, it hadn't happened yet. Godel knew, because Negi was _letting _him know, that there was nowhere to run, and that he was doomed... All, long before the finishing blow would land. Gnawing on his nerves, wearing him down, wrecking him completely form the inside...out. This was the son of a stupid hero and a fiery princess once bent upon saving her country, even to the point of killing her own father. This was a _king_ in the guise of scorned prince.

_Flying around on that dragon, might as well be a throne. Perhaps it is. Still, he shares it with others. A flying conference room perhaps? Oh I need to get me one of __**those**__. _

Damn. He had even launched his attack at the perfect time to enslave both of them to his will. It he attacked Godel, Fate would have no choice but in intervene, and, in actuality, he would like nothing _better_ than too, not even realizing he was trapped in the situation, powerless to do otherwise. Fate would look for other options, he didn't want any. This would start a fight that was sure to wreck Godel completely, and possibly kill him too. He had no way of warning Fate, as Fate has officially stopped talking to him.

_You know what...F$ck you Fate. Seriously, F$ck you. You better have something good up that damn sleeve of yours, because that boy is going to murder us both. Either that or Arika's going to slap me...I can't tell which one is worse...and that is a scary thought. I thought the worse that could happen to me, worse than dead, was being rejected by her..._

Judging by the boy's power, Fate would be injured, but nothing that he wouldn't love to feel again. He would escape, giving the boy an optimal idea of his strength...and goddamn it, the boy would use that to his advantage. He'd chase after Fate again after analyzing his options most likely, and this time, Godel seriously believed that unless whatever the hell Fate had planned was even greater than Godel thought, he'd get himself killed. Then what?

_Damn, I really wish I was this kid right now. Really. He's about to be in the right place, the right time, as he easily and laughable launches his attacks, and in the end, the world will be his, if he wants it. Who doesn't want the world to control though? No man in their right mind, and this child is definitely set up to be in the right mind._

Easy, the boy held the whole damn magical world in his hands. Just like that, with all of Godel's hard work, Negi would come in and use them both as a platform to reinstate the magical royalty. Hell, he had Arika, and he had the other Twilight Princess, Kagurazaka, at his side, didn't he? It wouldn't be hard for him to win the heart of Theodora, and _then_ what?

It would not be hard, without a Governor, for him to set up shop here in Megalo-Mesembria. His mother ruling New Ostia, him ruling Megalo-Mesembria, it wouldn't be long before he could extend his power and conquer all in between. The Springfield line would rule the entire magical world, and, by all the damn rites set up in a hall full of prophecy, Negi had the wit, cunning, brashness, strength, dripping charm and whatever else to whip an entire world to beat to his tune. The boy was just perfect was an ultimate monarch. The thirty percent of people who wouldn't fall for him based on his looks would fall for him based on his unending cunning.

_Not only that, but he could, quite possibly, have Arika wrapped around his little finger, Goddamn! ...I can't believe it, but...I'm jealous of a six year old. Wow, I must have sunk low...really, really low._

Damn, damn, damn!

**+-2-+**

In the darkness, Kago sat, his hands placed firmly upon the Issac's cool forehead. Jasnin hovered, anxiously, behind him, but he could not see her, the room was too dark. That was part of his preference, as he had put cotton in his ears. No distractions, the only thing he was able to hear was the beating of his own heart and the breaths he took, carefully, measured. From his hands, light pooled easily, encompassing them both to shine, beautiful gloves that stabbed at his eyes.

He beckoned Jasnin away, locking sightless eyes upon the form in front of him as he sat, calm, near the bed. She had ordered him to sleep in the end, and he had hastened himself to the darkness, bringing upon sleep to the unwilling body, quelling his consciousness as only one trained to sleep when told to and wake upon command could. Disturbing and unnerving in a way...but still, the young priest would not be shaken from his fare.

"Nympha Somnii, Regina Maeve! Portam Aperiens ad Se Nos Alliciat! Mater Musarum, Mnemosyne! Ad Se Me Alliciat...Spiritus Phasmantis, Aperiens Portam Maeve!"

With that, said, Kago's own eyes, already closed, cease to see as he travels along the pathways to the other's soul. Yet, even as he touches upon the threshold to the other's temple, he pauses. There are no good feelings about what he is doing, that is for sure. None at all. Still, he couldn't let that stop him. He forges ahead, disappearing into a great, more encompassing darkness than the one he left...

He touched down upon a barren field. The soul world. We all have one, and it accurately, indiscriminately, describes us as a whole being. Our dreams take place upon its surface, its land melding to fit our desires. It was an ever changing world in which we lived in, truly lived in. A barren field was what Kago got...but at least _something_ was here. He had done this to others, poor people who had their souls stolen away, empty shells. The darkness he would se, and the pull. A body needed a soul.

For him, jumping into a body was dangerous, as the pull on his soul would be great...it was why a soulless body never stayed empty for long, the demons who ripped the original away jumping in to fill the gap. A cold wind blew by, biting into his arms through his thin robe. No one said this was fun after all, and it prompted him to move, he took a shaky step before setting off North to a tree his eyes had alighted upon in the far distance.

Time was endless here; he didn't know how long he'd been traveling. It felt as if he had just started, but it also felt like he had been here for an eternity. Yet he was used to this. It was normal, after all. The tree was a lone landmark in all of the emptiness. So much emptiness...what had happened here? He should have at least run into something by now.

Spoken too soon Kago. His right foot landed on air, and he struggled to regain his balance, before falling backwards, scrabbling away from a seism in the ground. It looked as if the ground had simply opened up, swallowing air into its depths. There has been no slope in the ground, no signs of stress, the ground simply...ended. Almost like the ledge of a table, dropping off into the space below.

Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked at the distance from here to there. Alright then...if that's the way you do things...Kago turned his back to the hole before performing a quick technique, the same one he had used on both Eva and Negi. In truth, it was three techniques rolled into one combo, and Kago employed two of them now. Sliding back as if friction did not exist into open air, he jumped up before his body had a chance to stop and twisted around to drop kick back down, not straight down, but on an angle, so that he baseball slides along the ground.

Hissing from a long cut he received from ankle to the inner joint of his leg. Well, that's what you get for sliding on craggy rock Kago. He grimaced, but ignored the thin red line that had appeared along his pants, and the rips. This pain was actually physical anyway...and he was on the other side...still, it _did_ sting.

Getting up, he could no clearly see the tree, in which, underneath, there were several statues and a figure moving in between them. He walked up carefully, until, relieved, he saw it was none other than Issac. The solider stopped to watch the priest approach, almost thoughtful. This boy's eyes were bright, but, when Kago came up, he noticed that his neck was bare, upon it, a deep imprint of a hand, or at least, he guess so...the throat seemed to have been mutilated, as if the fingers had been lines of fire to crush and burn away all the skin. Issac quirked a smile at the priest's observance, turning around to go back to...painting? He spoke as he lifted the plate he was holding, mixing colors.

"Ahh. Kago. How are you? I see you've found my little private place here..."

At a loss for words, Kago could only watch as the boy inked in a fine line along the eyebrow of a figurine in front of him. It suddenly struck him that the statue was a life sized representation of a woman who looked...familiar. A man next to her looked startlingly like Issac himself, but when he looked just a bit closer, he saw the differences that were there. A bit broader or shoulder, shorter, the nose wasn't quite as pronounced...Issac answered his unasked question without turning around.

"This? They are my father and mother, this is, of course, Jasnin...and... This... is me."

He said that as he bent down to the ground, inking in a dull part in a single tear upon a dirt stained boy's face. The image was so real; Kago almost thought they would spring to life at any moment. The boy on the ground, beaten, downtrodden, the silver haired girl, a stick in her hand, guided by her mother's hold, prodding him in the back, the Father, indifferent, standing as if to distance himself from the act, and yet his foot was dangerously close to the boy's face, poised, perhaps, to kick him if he misbehaved.

Yet, regardless of the tear in his eye, a wide smile was on his face, almost mocking the painter with its brilliance. He moved smoothly to the next scene, in which he, clucking his tongue disapprovingly, reached into his painter robe to pull out a piece of chalk, rubbing it against the side of an arm to fill in a crack before smoothing it out with a bit of glue, and, finally, taking up his brush again to re-paint the damage away.

"So, I guess you want to know what's wrong with me, hmm? Well, in honest truth, nothing is. I've never felt better, or more free, yet, that is exactly the problem, isn't it?"

The priest looked at him, a bit confused, innocently concerned about his statement. Why should his problem be, "being free"? It made no sense at all. He opened his mouth to say so, but the boy hushed him, pointing. Upon the tree, he indicated. Kago looked. Nothing. Yet, it made him realize, looking, that the tree had no leaves. No. It was full of pictures. Its branches grew pictures, of horror, of escape, of war, redemption, strife...it held so much, and the young man couldn't help but feel he was getting pulled in. He turned around to see Issac shake his head.

"A shame, you didn't see it. Kago, my problem is my very freedom. My soul can't make proper contact with my body anymore. It's damaged, beyond repair maybe. I need to be linked to another to keep me alive, and right now, that other keeping me alive is my sister...with a price of course."

His hand feather brushed by his neck as he spoke, brush almost stroking him with red, which might have been appropriate, giving him an even more wretched appearance. He set the brush down into a cup upon a tray he himself was holding...or more accurately, that a statue of him was holding. At least Kago could tell which one of those glasses actually held real water now.

"My sister has the power to control one's soul. Weave into a person's heart and make them obey only her, serve only her desires, her whims. This ability makes it possible for me to still live, she gripped me, with her eyes and desires if not her hands, and thus the connection was established...her tossing me away doesn't stop the fact she almost crushed me. Tossing me away is akin to slamming a drowning man against the side of his boat instead of giving him the rope to climb up. You brought me back to where I was supposed to, yes, but...you left me unable to really get back in properly, to die in other words...it was only through this connection she made that I survived and was able to get back, haphazardly, into my own shell...of course, being connected to her destroys my ability to act of my own free will."

He sighed; taking a seat upon a chair another form of him had been pulling back for a statue Jasnin. Tossing up his plate, he sent colors soaring everywhere, but none of them touched his sculptures. They splashed against the barren ground, and around the barren branches of the tree. He looks around at all the forms of his life, his memories.

"I am, of course, still here, barely. She keeps me whole more or less, but the price is what it is, she keeps me the way I am now. Bound to her, a true servant, like I always had been. She can release me of course, but the way I am now, my soul would fall apart. After all, I need my head don't I? If I were a body, my spine would have snapped, and my throat crushed into an unrecognizable mess. My skin would have burned away…my injuries would be akin to someone taking a flaming axe to my neck. There is nothing for me."

Of course, he knew that something like this would bring her a great pain. She thought she had left her life of ordering him about behind. It pained her to do it. Something in her eyes, a love. A love that he now knew extended far beyond just brother and sisterly and became passionate. How, he didn't know, not even she herself seemed to know. He looked at Kago, seeing, him as he was, his soul laid bare for him to see, just as he was bare for Kago to see.

Within him, deep within him, he saw a darkness, not of his own fault, but the fault of those who had come before him, the fault of his ancestors. He knew this just as plain as he knew the answer to two plus two. How? Around his neck, where his cross hung…there was, instead, the symbol once held by the mage of the beginning.

A black emblem with tendrils of light, exploding outwards in complex patterns, flowers, circles, homes, death, all described inside. It almost unnerved him, and he felt compelled to tell the priest the obvious truth of his soul, the truth he knew not, the truth he could not see…but he couldn't.

It would destroy his life and all he held dear.

"You can tell her what you like about what's wrong with me, regardless of her decision, my fate is hers to control. I don't mind if she wants to kill me…but I don't want to have her feel obligated to bear the sight of me flouncing around to obey her orders, her every whim. That's another thing. She doesn't need to say what she wants either…I'll know. Her desires are as clear as day to me…just like I know she wishes I would wake up now, that you would hurry up. Shouldn't you go to her now? I'll show you the way out…"

While traveling in a soul world was difficult in its own way, exiting was like entering, easier even, like waking from a dream, rising up from the depth below, Kago was led up to the surface before he took a sharp intake of breath, his eyes opening, pushing himself away from Issac. A light clicked on, and Jasnin looked at him, expectant.

He opened his mouth, but he only got to cry out in pain as memories, memories from the deep and dark recesses of his mind, flowed through him and consumed him whole…

**+-3-+**

"Orbis Cum In Manum Meum, Spiritus o Centum meit centum levitas! Detonus Edat! Buster Ruin!"

_Buster Ruin? What the hell kind of spell is...Holy...__**Ohshit**__! _

Nagi pulled up as many Deflexio spells as he dared and braced for impact as he saw the first shot hit his defense head on, and then the dozens that came afterwards. All in dozens of different colors, they assaulted him from all sides, a barrage of shots that broke apart his defenses relatively quickly, but he kept slamming up more of them. Even from the sky they rained down, sweeping along the ground and all, yet Nagi stayed tall. It was almost over, almost over...yet the whole ordeal wasn't over. The spell ran for a solid minute before finally coming to an end, but Negi jumped up in the air, shouting.

"Oh, I'm not done yet; I want to test this one too! Daemonium continuo valde nebula magica, concidens spiritus detonus! Balstonrand!"

In front of the boy, as he hand outstretched, pointed downwards, a circle, glowing and expanding, gaining symbols, a literal magical circle forming from nothing. Yet, Nagi covered himself again, as shots began raining down, not from in between it, but from the very circle itself, rotating slowly, the circle glowing bright upon the places it had already fired, as if keeping time.

Once the circle was completely glowing, it shot downwards, spinning and throwing off tendrils of power, beaming up into the sky in slow arcs. The circle itself shrunk into a sphere, which struck against Nagi's Deflexio, shattering it, as the final skywards sent tendrils came back down to bombard him.

Why, oh why, had he agreed to test Negi's magical original spells to see if they held merit? He had already been treated to a whole host of spell work that Negi had created, it seemed. Nova Shield, his healing spells, the Sword of Haurus, Hell's Lightning, Cage, Burning Circumference...and now these two. Who knew the kid had forged the road of magical development so far? He had created more spells than he had years in his life!

Perhaps it had just been his cocky hero talking. Hell, he was going to get himself killed like that one day...Still, Negi was still talking bringing forth more power. Yet he wasn't preparing to shoot at Nagi, not this time. He landed lightly upon the ground, his whole body glowing bright.

"I've practiced long in controlling the end of the world class spells, Nagi. I've discovered that they can be used to boost the speed and effectiveness of a punch, like a magic arrow, but can also increase the effectiveness of a limb. However...I've gone further. Witness, my good father, what I call the thunder form!"

_Thunder god form? Oh __**shiiiiit**__..._

The lightning came quickly, coursing up upon him, covering his body to course along his very skin. He grinned, a literal boy in a lightning guise. Smiling at his father, he rose his fist before quickly kneeling to pound the ground, sending sparks flying everywhere. They harmlessly brushed by Nagi's Deflexio, but he got the point that the boy wasn't really attacking here. He stood back up to survey the damage he had done to the cracked ground.

"Of course, this works better when combined with Magica Erebia, a kind of "Dous Complexio", but it takes a bit too long for my tastes, and requires a lot of, ahh, distraction on my opponent's part. I find I can be more effective like this if I cast it twice, a double thunder form with Magica Erebia provides a curious effect...it turns my mind into a speed similar to lightning to match my body...but, once again, this takes a long time to implement...

Personally, I find combining two lightning spells into me along with Primal Prominence, gives better results with a short time scale...but it requires a bit more concentration...still, I think I can handle that, and having the added advantage of being an embodiment of both lightning and fire can trump the ability to absorb my opponent's strength in some cases."

Making himself into lightning, or fire...even a spirit of ice for that matter. Combining your body with a spell to such a point you became the embodiment of that element. Eva claimed that the boy, whose affinity for darkness was so tough you couldn't cut it with a chainsaw, was heading steadily in that point with Magica Erebia, to a point where he wouldn't just_ feel _his dark emotions, he could _become_ them.

The whole idea made his skin crawl. Combining yourself with one of your spells like that? Becoming the very magic you controlled, in a way? It was a scary thought. What if you couldn't come back?

Negi smiled a knowing smile at his father's silence. He could read the man like a book. Honestly, the idiot wore his heart on his sleeve. Grinning ever the wider, Negi shot at his father with all the speed his vampirism and his lightning form gave him, yelling out to the distracted man.

"Okay fever brain, let's see how powerful this spell's modification is... I warn you, it's gonna hurt like hell!"

Nagi gritted his teeth in an attempt to stave off his impending doom. This was how he was spending this week it seemed, as Negi's personal training dummy. Sure, the man wanted to train his son, but, at this point, it was obvious the only thing the boy needed to cap him was power, and that could be bought with time, all the boy needed to go was grow up. He didn't need him for anything else.

Negi stood stock still as he canceled all spell work he had going, his eyes closing. It looked as if he were praying, his head bent to the ground as he began to mumble. This spell was actually his own, for it was modified from a purpose magic had been used for, but that purpose had never been put into an actual spell, per say. It was, in essence, a spell to induce pain.

"Abyssus Laques Captus Cruco, Levitas Crucio, Inge Phasmantis! ...This will hurt like hell. _Soul _Betrayal!"

From him rose up thin streaks of blue, disappearing from view before they even flew above his head. He looked up into his father's eyes, and when his own met his, he felt a lash fall upon his back, making him arch. He spun around, but nothing was there, besides another lash upon his back, making him spin once more. The boy's eyes. They burned. This time, he rushed him, but before he could cover even half the distance, a barrage of lashes upon his back downed him to the ground. One after the other, yet they made no sound, left no mark, as he finally yelled out, a strangled scream. The attack redoubled at his peals, but slowed when he whimpered, until finally, after an eternity, it ended.

"Thirty Seconds can last forever if one makes it so, Nagi Springfield."

The nameless tormenter, his own son, released his hold upon his magic...quite a while ago. Terrible, terrible magic. Even he looked a bit pitying, but not by much. He looked back to see others, who had come to watch the daily training regimen, stare back at him. Particularly, his eyes fell upon Eva, but just for a split second, it was gone long before any real meaning could be established.

"With this, I'll consider your punishment due...for me that is. You can't undo the wrongs you have done; after all, I've already cleaned them up. This never was a spell before, only a purpose used in the deepest of prisons or in magical discipline, but never to this extent. Why make a spell if you can hire someone trained to control the art with their mind? It takes special training to master the art of pain infliction. You have to be hard hearted, and you have to know what it's like to feel pain, to inflict pain...Don't think me cruel, Father...

_Father...did he just call me...Father?_

"I felt every blow I landed on you, as if it where my own spine laid open to the blistering sun, whip poised to rain holy purification. This kind of spell isn't for the weak, or the cowardly. To dish pain, you must be able to take it. So says I. A great equalizer to a potentially over bearing spell...and yes, I called you _Father_. A fat b!+ch, if you put a space where it doesn't belong. Seriously speaking however, I said your punishment was over for me, so you earn back your title. Congratulations..._**Dad**_.

Walking away, he left the man to ponder his fate...

**+-E-+**

Another one for you to chew upon. Now what's going on. ehh? The ball is right on our heels, Kago's got a secret even he doesn't know about, and it pertains to the mage of the beginning no less. When will Jasnin learn what she has wrought? Or has she really wrought anything? Who can trust a painting Issac under a random tree? Kago's doubting his faith, or is he still quite solidly grounded? Nagi is accepted by Negi, at least for now, and a host of new weapons are introduced, including the long awaited Dous Complexio! With this, we can spar with the original! Tell me what you think of this mainly background work chapter!


	49. Chapter IL: Depth of Character

**_O+-+X_**

_Havelock, I do try, I put real effort into spell creation because I find the original series woefully limited to blasts and arrows, beams and the like. Making magic real, making it be a part of life, requires it to be in every nook and cranny of the world. (Not to mention having different forms of it, something I'll explain ~later.) My mind is definite upon the second verse to this song I sing with type written words, whose purpose is to bring this into further into believability, into life. _

_As for the manga, it seems either Akamatsu divines on my dreams or I his. Everything is happening as I expected, which as previously stated, disappoints me, but also frightens me. Is Akamatsu as insane as I am, or is it just his level one I can understand? As for Negi becoming a Mary Sue, once again, someone reads my mind on what I had hoped they would. Worry not, for I do have something planned. _

_I still find need for improvement in every chapter however, as I slowly approach the needed force to implement what I want. Right now, if this were a game, I'd be at the final door, the required level just a few digits higher than my own, the needed weapon __**just **__past my grasp. This is the time many will fail, at the last, when it matters the most. It is also the time they will try the hardest, most of them. They will bring their A game. So I must dig to find my A+. Will I find it? You be the judge. ~Finalage_

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Forty Nine: Depth of Character._**

**_+-AAA-+_**

The night was deep, and, within it, two young males sat, on opposite sides of their current "home" both of whom burdened heavily with thought, and taxation upon their souls. Of them, one shivers in the night. His own continence so shaken that he even doubts all of his life work.

Kago Masato stood bare. For once, he had tossed off his robe, in favor of darker clothing, more fit for stealth training or martial arts, only with the sleeves cut short. Taking a deep breath, he allowed his adjusted eyes to roam the empty horizon.

He had traveled into another's spirit dozens of times. It was part of his job description, so to speak. So why, why had this time been different? These memories...were they even his? They had to be, but what had set off their release? What else was his mind hiding from him...?

We all have our secrets, and many times, our secrets are never even our own, but those passed down, unconsciously, by our very own families. Those who are around us, who raise us, teach us. They teach us to see like they see, give us knowledge through their own jaded scopes, so that we form our own jaded views.

What do you see? How similar is it to another of those around you? How did you learn what you now know? Kago had been in the arms of his church for his entire life, it seemed...yet, even here, he could be tainted with influences, interpretations, thoughts, _and amendments_. Yet, to learn of his heritage, to have it crash down upon him so viciously, was torture.

The mage of the beginning, the source of a cataclysmic war, the very kingpin whom Nagi Springfield was hailed as a hero for taking down, was his...his grandfather. How? Issac, ever vigilant and quietly observant Issac, had instantly seen through to his spirit, seen something no other had seen before, and released unto Kago his very own devils.

Ageless...that's what the man had seemed to be. Ageless. In a way, he was. In control of the magic of the life maker, the man had gained power through time, uncanny power, unbelievable strength, only matched by the rookie wonder, Nagi Springfield.

Yet, this same man had once gone by the very same name he now totted. A Masato, a reverend priest of his own right, thought not of the same scatterbrained profession Kago himself held. Kagashi Masato, taken so deep into his magical prowess he forgot all about those around him, only his twisted task, his passion.

Destroying the world so he could remake it to his liking, at least, that is what it had always been told to be so. If Kago knew the truth, he would be in even greater turmoil now than he was. In his mind now played the dreams, all of them, bursting forth as they had when he had come out from his trance, his journey into Issac's soul.

They had over taken him then, memories, long nights in which Kagashi would place his hand upon Kago's own head, taking him into the boy's own soul, for no other purpose than training. In his mind, a mind Kago thought insane, the man was doing him a favor.

In truth, he was. Kagashi was teaching his grandson, the only one who would survive the ravages of time, the code he had uncovered, the code of the life maker. He knew, knew as plain as the sun rose in the skies, that he would not succeed in his endeavors.

He knew Nagi Springfield would fight tooth and nail, and that the man, so blinded by devotion and illusion, would not understand the need to refresh this world, to rebuild it. He would reach and with his incredible strength, destroy him whole.

This job was bigger than him. So he passed on the knowledge, endlessly, in the land of dreams, where time was of no consequence. Where one could drill their subject, unaware in waking hours, again and again, without any real consequence outside.

Until they got it correct. Kagashi knew Kago would go into the same profession, the church and monastery was his only home. Eventually, he would uncover his potential, hopefully when he was old enough to see the same clues he had, hopefully when he had enough wisdom to know and do what was right...

Nagi fancied himself as a hero, but so too, was Kagashi, in his own way. They both had fought for what they thought was right, and regardless of who actually was, they both had good reasons for dredging up their powers against the other.

Now, if only someone would tell Kago this? Taught eternally that the mage of the beginning only wanted to rule the world, a world he created, had left his scope jaded to that belief, and as he had no other, more trustworthy point of view to go by, the jading became his factual standpoint. Now to learn this evil man had been part of his family…it shook those very solid pillars down to the ground.

Not to mention that the man's "poisonous" teachings circled in his head. Currently, there were only three people who had knowledge of this art, the code of the life maker, Asuna, Fate and himself. What would he do with the knowledge however, was the key point of wonder.

Kago shook his head as he looked skyward. A bomb had been dropped upon his weakening faith, a house plagued by termites. Now, after the devastation, what was left to salvage? If there was anything at all?

There had to be…right?

Across the distance, to the other side of the coin, or, in this case, coliseum, to one Negi Springfield, who was also turning his head skywards, but more in thought than anything else. Thought and doubt. Worry and, surprisingly, fatigue.

It took a lot to fatigue a vampire, but Negi had pushed the right buttons, and as his promised week neared its end, Negi found himself in dire want of some simple rest. Yet, his mind was not one made for easy and complete rest, agile as it was.

_**Why…why did I hurt him so much?**_

Of course, Negi was thinking back to his father, back to that agonizing half minute in the middle of this very field Negi sat upon, head cast towards the sky. He brought one of his legs up near him, so he could prop his chin on its knee.

_**My attack…was not supposed to affect him to such a degree…**_

_I've been through quite a lot father. Most of which was painful. Very painful…yet, you went through a war. Watched people die, like I have, only hundreds of times over. I am sure there were times when, like me, your power was not enough…_

_Times when you had to fight tooth and nail to survive, times that only made you stronger upon survival… It is what makes my control of this spell, to induce pain, solid… even amongst the drawback I employed for it…_

_Yet, I was able to stand tall against the pain I dished to you…and you writhed against the ground, screaming. Does this mean that, I, so much younger than you, having never set foot upon the field of war, have experienced more pain than you?_

_**That…would be absurd. I am certain that I have gone through much, but, unless the pain of war is underrated…**_

_Or perhaps that I have more control over my outward show of pain? True, I am a vampire, but this spell makes me…feel pain…with the same intensity… regardless of race. Is it that you, having been rumored to have "appeared out of nowhere" upon the plain of their war, never had to face such adversity as I have? Is it that you have never had to work for that power which you sport?_

_That is another thing, which disturbs me, my good father. Before the war, there is no mention of you, at all. You literally did, indeed, spring up from nowhere. No whisper of an incredible mage from the distant lands, not even a peep about Nagi Springfield, and no one even seems to notice, or even care. _

_How, why? I doubt you simply just gained you power overnight, proceeding to chase after the war, assembling Ala Rubra as you went along to rush to the aid of my mother, the imperial princess. That alone is an insane idea._

_**Popping up like a… "Deus ex machina" … that would defy logic. People don't simply "awaken" to power like that**_**. **

_Rakkan was one a gladiator, building his strength through dedication and hard work, through survival. Takamitchi Takahata never had the natural gift of spell casting and worked like hell to make himself worthy in the eyes of others. He gained power through dedication and trails as much as Rakkan. Alberio came from a small town in the magical world, nearly dying on his first battle along the fields, but gaining power as he went, power forged in the flames of war. _

_Evangeline…do I even need to mention __**her**__ struggles? I still have yet to sift through all of the memories I siphoned off from her, taking care of her in her delusional states, her transformation weakness. Even myself. I fought off demons since before I could even properly speak. Still, now, when any normal child would be preparing for his first years in school, I am here, trying to stop the resurgence of a war._

_If I cast my spell with the same effort on any of these, they would hardly do more than yelp once or perhaps even twice, before their control took over. Yet…you were affected like any normal mundane, or a simple foot soldier. _

If only you knew Negi…what would you do? The boy continued to look up at the sky; his body perfectly settled into a niche upon the sand had sat in. He focused on the stars, but that didn't stop his ears from picking up the sounds from around. He smiled when he recognized a familiar pattern of step, and shook his head.

"One of these days Eva, I'm going to start thinking you're stalking me, or that you actually, heaven _**forbid**__..._actually _care_ about me?"  
"Perhaps I do boya. Perhaps I do. Someone has too."  
"...True. Someone must, but are they wise to do so, is the question?"  
"...Love, and thus affection and care, are blind, boya."

Eva slid in next to him, filling a void he had been previously unaware of. If this had been earlier in the year...he might have laughed, or prepared an unincanted spell, but, for once, his body was at rest. She watched his head as it shook slightly in a "no". It wasn't that he was saying no to her, or anyone else for that matter, he was just shaking his head.

"...Someone needs to care. I've found that an alarming amount of those around me claim to care, and I feel I can only tell you this...but it scares me."

It scared him, he claimed? Well, she couldn't say she was surprised. Yet she inevitably found herself being so. The boy was a suspicious jackrabbit. When a person like that suddenly finds themselves in a supportive, guile free environment, or perhaps an Italian household as a welcome guest, they tend to do either one of three things. Looks for the nearest bolt hole, endlessly analyze and kill themselves looking for the nonexistent guile, or panic.

Or course, Negi knew he was not without enemies, but that fact was, he knew who his enemies were, and knew their motives, through and through. He may not exactly bee clear upon their true reasons, but he could guess. His job was cut and dry, no extra messy stuff, no assumption work...in other words, it was clean. Too clean. Too perfect.

The boy was expecting God to throw a monkey wrench in his plans, and it wasn't coming, and that scared him, for it made him think it was already there, and he just hadn't seen it yet, or that it was coming at the last moment to slap him in the face. Used to fighting against great odds to win, the boy wasn't used to simply being able to breeze through something utterly prepared for any hitches.

"Call me crazy boya, but you seem to love it when someone throws you an impossible shot and forces you to save, but hate to get free throws, you're too afraid there's a catch."  
"...You get weirder everyday Eva. Since when do you watch basketball now?"  
"...May I remind you I spent years trapped in Japan on a school campus where most of my classmates sucked in academics but loved sports?"

No, she didn't need to remind him, and he only quirked an eyebrow in response before turning away from her to place his focused once more upon the sky. It seemed that, with every revelation, Eva became less of the terrifying undying mage she made herself out to be, and more of an actual person...although he was still thrown off about the Megaman stint she had thrown his way.

"You know Eva, the more I see, the less I know. I can't help but feel that this confrontation I'm about to go through with will leave me...leave me alien to myself."

_Boy, you can be no one other than yourself. Even in trying to be another, you only act out your own desires, the desire to be another. It's impossible to lose yourself...only lose the image you thought you were. Truth is the only thing there, to be gained._

A smile she didn't feel, a strength she no longer had against him, a bluff he could break apart, if he only tried, yet his respect allowed him pause against her feral leer. Playful banter, that's what it was, nothing else. He felt like grabbing her and throwing her to crash into the sand, just for kicks.

Yet, of course, he was too tired. Tomorrow. Tomorrow was the day both Godel and Fate would feel his scorn. His students...his charges, people who had become far more than that...he wouldn't admit it, but, "friends" was the only proper word to use.

Hell hath no fury worse than a woman's scorn, and Negi had definitely gained his scorn from his mother's side...true he was no woman, yet some who cowered in the corner would claim he could probably be just as bad, in his own way...

**+-1-+**

The day had finally come. Dawning like any other, the sun rose in its slow majestic way, its daily procession across the sky. Time moved on in its unstoppable cycle. Life was normal. However, for Godel, as he watched that same sun complete its cycle and sink down below the horizon, agonizingly slow, but still far too fast, he began to sweat, metaphorically of course. Not like he could properly sweat in this monkey suit he was in.

Still no contact with Fate. That, above all, peeved him. That and the fact he had to smile and bear it as the first of his guests arrived. A smile was plastered on his face as he stood, people filing by, being checked against a strict list...how much he wished he could strike out the name Negi Springfield from that list. Yet he had publicly invited him, and he had properly accepted.

To strike him from the list would simply damage his standings even further than they had already been dashed. When the boy came, he would cause problems too. Not for him of course, not being on the list meant problems for Godel. Security would be annihilated. Opposition destroyed.

He bent down to kiss the hand of a particularly important figure in politics at the moment, properly acting in his ever present dance, but eliciting an embarrassed and girlish response from her. Armature. Youthful and powerful, but ever so inexperienced. Had he not been so preoccupied, he could have easily used her to cement his position further than it was.

Shaking the hand of another, he waved them on, his smile still plastered tight; his jaw began to feel numb. How long had it been since a real smile had alighted upon his features? So very long. But what did he care? He gripped the hand of another, nodding to their speech, some non-committal blurb of encouragement.

Godel raised a hand to kiss its back again, another person of no consequence to his current mental state; he let the hand drop calmly and gently, a perfect and calculated political action, something one never took any rest from. He reached out to grip another hand, setting his eyes upon its owner.

_Damn. B*st*rd never answers his phone...Oh...how nice. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. _

Fate. Godel's visage almost, _almost_...descended into something akin to hate. Instead, Godel's grin became gargoyle-like as the boy, in a teenage illusion, passed him by, his harem following close, not even bothering, political courtesy be damned, to conceal their bared weapons.

One thing that surprised him however was the fact that the Twilight princess, Kagurazaka, was with him. She brushed her hand against his in a customary disregarding gesture, an insult to his standing, but one she was immune to losing ground from.

Her eyes. She knew...or she remembered. Her eyes flashed at his visage, seeing through all of his careful masking into the rot within. Inwardly, she smiled. Godel, nothing but a small and hot headed child before, and now, a Governor, who would have guessed? Of course, he was clever.

_Poor Godel. He sees now what his puppet has been conspiring behind his back. Now, as I pass, he shall feel the fear he should have known from long before._

A twist...Asuna would be a bargaining chip, as Negi had already known, displayed prominently in his letter...yet...aww shoot, realization is a b*tch, isn't it...? Godel's fear doubled. He didn't know the secrets that she knew, but he was certain of one thing...that many of them had to do with Ala Rubra...enough of them to turn Negi to Fate's side...make him raise the banner and destroy the very world he wanted to stick around.

While Negi fought to save this world, Godel still had a chance, no matter how slim, to get what he wanted, even if he could not see it...but if the boy was turned against his father's will, to Fate's side...the resulting chaos would be nigh impossible to gain an advantage on, and even if he did, he would be instantly unseated...

Fate would win. Just as surely as Negi had trapped _him_, Fate had the boy in his clutches, and Godel realized, quite suddenly, that he had never been anything more than a pawn in _Fate's_ game, not the other way around. Chess had never been made for more than two players after all, and Godel was quite suddenly on the losing side...with no way out. His entire life spent with one foot in both parties, he only now saw he really had both planted in _**one**_ camp, the _**wrong**_ one.

He gripped the next hand that came his way a bit more forcefully then he meant too, and he felt another hand slap down upon his wrist, growling. Not the hand of course, but the owner. Godel once more almost lost his visage in the face of the people who faced him when he looked up. Arika and...Nagi? No...it had to be her son playing tricks on his mind...but it was not to be, for in the next instant, Nagi's face was whisked away, his body pitching forth as a boot entered the air where his back had been.

"Shut it teddy. Your growls are useless here."

Negi Springfield grasped Godel's hand with a near crushing grip, smiling with such a genuine delight, Godel almost lost his urinary and fecal continence...this time, his face _did_ descend into horror. Next to him, just a bit behind, Alma and Eva stood in similar illusions to him, smiling...and the sight of Eva smiling once again threatened Godel's bowel control... Behind them, Jasnin and Issac, along with Kago, stood in a tight throng, Godel didn't know the girl, but he noted that her eyes were damp.

"My, my, Godel my boy. You have outdone yourself! Yet, you're as pale as a ghost who has just, impossibly, shit their pants!"

Rakkan brought up the rear with Nodoka, Chisame and Anya, toting Yue. However, Godel only had eyes for the boy, who was still smiling as he let Godel's hands loose. He looked up into the open skies; the hall was open to the heavens, stars winking bright.

"Brilliant. I can see that other b*st*rd over there. Killing two birds with one stone...Ahh, no need, hmm? I see what I've come for next to him. Well, nothing to it but to have fun, ehh? Looks like I don't need to crash your party, ehh?"

He walked off, leading his party, falling in line to pass by Godel. Negi didn't head right for Fate, no, surprisingly, he headed for the corners of the room, passing by the table designated for the refreshments, as nothing had been put on them yet, and parked himself into an optimal observation area.

Arika smiled at Godel once before Nagi whisked her away towards the crowd, leaving Jasnin and Issac to find their own way to the other side of the room. Kago and Rakkan plunged through the middle of throngs of people, Chisame and Nodoka... Anya found herself towed by Yue, heading for another corner of the room...just like that, they had assimilated into the crowd, and it became impossible to place any of them.

Godel, was shaken out of his revere when another guest arrived. He was still stuck here for a while it seemed...he turned back to greet them; apologizing, giving some proper excuse, he couldn't remember what it was, even if he had just uttered it. The air became heavy. He thought it was tension, and in a way he was right.

_Fate...is letting out one hell of an energy signature. Was he always this powerful? Damn. How the hell did my Father defeat him last time? He's more powerful than him by far...sure as hell more powerful than me! Nagi's used to being the more powerful one, according to Rakkan, they had been of similar levels before...it was the reason I used Nagi as a sparring partner..._

_Did he gain all of this just to fight me? That would be...uncannily like myself. Trying to stay on top, are you Fate? Worried, are you? Or are you just trying to gain enough power to wreck the world? Whatever the hell you're trying, you made it very personal when you took Asuna over there...I hope you know that..._

_I love playing David, Fate. I love playing him as I aim high my sling shot and bring you crashing down with one fell blow. You only make my heart beat faster, harder, by doing this. _

Music, rooted deep in tradition, applied out upon Negi's ears. Of course, it was too early to have any formal dancing, the music was background, conversational toned. Perfectly orchestrated, politically correct, the cage that comes with a position of power, Negi smiled. He would have loved to crash the party by jumping at Fate, magic bared, but he must be, at this point...careful. Calculating.

The viper in the corner should never be ignored. Not even when its opponent was a mighty lion. Negi rose and eyebrow as someone called order, inviting guests to file to the penthouse, as the tables had been set. Offering his hand to Eva, Alma falling in line on his other side; he let out a calculated amount of his aura, if for no other reason than to tease the one he knew could feel it.

Any sensible mage present would have shivered by now, at least once. The tension was magical. Asuna, Theodora and Arika, all of the Twilight Princesses were here, in the same room, along with Nagi, Rakkan...Fate, his partners, Negi and the rest of his party...no matter how you looked at it, there was one heck of a concentration going on here...tension rose...

...and we all know how well things like this end...don't we?

**+-2-+**

The main ballroom was a spacious area, yes it was. Fate, surrounded by his harem, plus one _irritated_ Tsukuyomi, sat at their own table. Yet, the white haired boy's mind wasn't on the food, which was excellent, or the refreshments, which were also delectable, even the beverage known as coffee, taking on a whole new subtlety under the care of the chefs here...no, his mind wasn't even on his plans for tonight.

His mind was upon, predictably, one aura in particular, analyzing it. Eyes locked deep into the crowd, he imagined the object of his focus sitting down at a table just as he was, staring through the crowds back at _him_. A burst of energy from his aura told him that the boy was keeping his power under wraps, not for any means of stealth, no; he was doing it to _tease_ Fate. He wanted a confrontation as much as the other, and indeed, that was the truth, in part.

Negi however, was no fool. His IQ, when last checked, came back indeterminate. Not that the test was an accurate and viable measure of intelligence anyway, but the fact that he could score so high that the results were indeterminate, due to the fact it had not presented a high enough difficulty for him, proved some worth.

Fate had kept his party near him; Negi on the other hand, had given specific instructions. Spread out, sight the target, surround them, keep within sight of friendly eyes. Web them. His small army had already infiltrated the territory of the enemy, and they were all within position, as far as he could tell.

_He's on the move. Heading towards you, and bee lining it too._

The message came via his mother, not by his own observation, but he honestly had not needed her to tell him, not after he could feel it himself within the next second. He took a glance around. Anya was right next to him, oblivious. Alma was off a few yards, raising a cup of some kind of drink or other, but behind the cup, her eyes were on him. To the other side, an equal distance away, Yue sat rigidly.

Negi reached for the pitcher upon his table, pouring himself another glass of water, delicately dropping a few precious cubes of ice to plunge into the depths. He sat back to look around him. People. Innocent people. How fast, he wondered, could they run? Not fast enough, never fast enough.

Negi looked up just in time to see Fate emerge, Tsukuyomi not far behind, but otherwise, he was alone. Her weapon was bare, glinting in the light from both the stars and the candle's might. Unconsciously, he gripped the hilt of AtraCrolacri, tracing its length with his finger. It was well hidden, but people were moving away.

Tsukuyomi had set it off, and with Fate's intent of coming to him quite clear, others needed no additional prompting. Quite a large amount of the uncomfortable power exuded from them both after all. Negi smiled as he set down his glass, standing up quickly, but none _too_ quickly. Manners Negi. Manners.

"Fate. A pleasure to see you, no? Did you receive my letter? I do hope it found you well..."

His addressee was in no mood for games it seemed, even as he stilled Tsukuyomi's hand in drawing her blade. The boy was _his_ they had discussed this after all. Negi's smile was icy as Anya, suddenly finding her knees were "malfunctioning" so to speak, struggled to get up. Alma approached Negi quickly from the side, but Eva, who had been behind him a few yards, got there first; Negi spared her a token glance.

**"Of course. However, you must understand that the princess Kagurazaka does not want to go back to you side...you may attempt to convince her however..."**

Fate finally gave a half smile as Negi narrowed his eyes. His fists quietly balled up to show themselves. About him, the air seemed to thicken with magic...not his own, but another's...Fate's. Negi stood his ground however, as the silver haired boy reached out, pulling from the air a grand key.

"...So you _do_ want to fight."

In the next instant, AtraCrolacri was out, lighting Negi's eyes with its sickly green/purple hue. Yet, Negi could hear, faintly, a rumbling, as the other smiled. He jumped back as Tsukuyomi shot forwards, and Negi jumped off to the side, Eva making a beeline for Fate...even if she could do no true magical damage to him...Negi shot at Fate too, bringing his blade down upon the other's key, which threw sparks as a retort.

_Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. _

Fate threw Negi off easily however, and shot out his foot to catch Eva in the gut, the move was almost too fast to see. Negi gritted his teeth as he landed, seeing that Tsukuyomi hadn't actually been headed for him, but Anya, who escaped by a hair's breadth because Alma jumped in, fire blazing from her hands.

_Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο._

His own hands grew dark almost instinctually as the ground beneath them all rumbled all the fiercer, becoming prominent as political figures began to panic. Magica Erebia, always faithful to the vampirc boy, exploded around him. He smiled as he steadied his blade, fists closing tight.

_Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε! _

The spell didn't rain down from the heavens, he took it into himself, grinning as he barreled towards Fate. His blade met the other's guard once more, throwing off more spars, yet still, Fate managed to push him off. Negi wasn't fazed as he skidded back however. He ducked under Fate's swing and shot out his own free hand.

"Incendia Laques!"  
_κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! _

Fate spun his key, jumping away from Negi to combat the bars of fire and darkness that had shot around him. His weapon sliced through them all neatly, but the red head wasn't bothered as he broke in to close the distance, calling for magical arrows this time.

"Sagitta Magica, Centum et Nonus Novem, Spiritus Obscurans!"  
_ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση, έκλειψη! _

Arrows from around him circled his body before shooting out, as the Eclipse Axe formed in his free hand. He brought both of them together, using his blade as the faucet for the power as he swung it out, head on, close distance. Fate smiled, he actually cracked a smile.

_**Deflexio! Ex Somno Exsistat Exundans Undina Inimicum Immergat in Alveum! Vinctus Aquarius! **_

Ropes of water, binding spells, they normally were nothing, but when Negi dodged, one wrapped about his foot, and he found that it anchored him to the ground, disturbingly firm. He pulled free with some difficulty, only to see Fate's Deflexio had handled his axe and weathered his arrows. The boy smiled as he spun his key, and the ground shook all the more fiercely.

**"Negi Springfield, your power is great, but mine is greater. You are no match for me."  
**

No match? He was kidding right? Negi allowed his head to fall as his hands gathered more power about him. If he was no match, he'd just have to make himself match up to the bugger! Already in thunder form, using Magica Erebia, the boy had a few choices, but what he didn't want to lose time. He needed power now.

_Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. _

Why not go for the Dous Complexio then? No. Fate rushed at Negi with a speed never present before, and the boy sidestepped quickly, slashing out his blade to meet the key once more, which began to glow, pulsing with its holder's power, pushing him off to skid away. No. That would give him speed, but not enough strength.

_Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει._

Damn! Fighting so much, only to find your friggin opponent was still so much stronger! What the friggin hell was Fate anyway? Unless...it was risky, but what if he tried to bring out the thunder form and then add some fire to the mix, or bring fire while fulfilling thunder?

_Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο..._

Could he control four spells at once like that? He had been practicing that for ages, but had made little headway in the art before his father had shown his face, and Negi had shifted his focus to his strength. It was worth a try though, no?

_Τ__ὸ__ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά!  
_"Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs!"

Power, it flowed through him, actually overwhelmed him. Committing so much to his body, o flow through his veins and meld with him, it was insane! How could one be both fire and lightning at once? The amount of energy required was phenomenal! Yet, it came to him, and he rushed at Fate, a blink of one's eye as he struck.

Once, twice, thrice, his silver haired foe held him off with his Deflexio, or his uncanny speed, and yet, lightning was faster. Faster and faster still. Fate struck out with his key, catching Negi midriff to blast him back and then took to the air upon his own steam, calling up to the heavens to rain down stone spears.

"Daemonium continuo valde nebula magica, concidens spiritus detonus!"

Pointing his hand upwards, he shot off one of his original spells at the mass of stone preparing to pummel him and his own, hail that defied gravity as it barreled up, striking the stone, blasting it to bits and more as Negi himself kicked up off the ground, through the hail and smoke, to punch Fate dead in the middle.

Hands came and grabbed his head, tossing him down, over Negi to receive a knee gut-wise. Again, the boy had managed to lay his hands upon him! Negi still had hold of his head as Fate punched Negi in his own middle.

Disdainfully the boy let go of his head, twisting around in the air to axe kick him in the back, casting him from the skies with authority. Negi shot after him, landing into Fate's back barely a split second after he slammed into the quaking ground, and yet, he spun up, tossing Negi off him in the process, slashing out his key viciously to slam into Negi tossing him like so much garbage into the air before slashing his key back down, crashing against the boy's head and crushing him to the ground.

Negi landed hard on the ground, yes, but he managed to leap forwards at Fate tackling him while his body coursed with darkness and lightning, even as that very lightning faded. His body coming back into being, once more matter in place of pure energy. Fate recovered quickly, arm barring the other away, yet he landed on his feet, chanting.

"Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε! Igneus Ambitus!"  
_Τ__ὸ__ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs! _

**"Deus of aquilo, temerarius unto mihi vestri vox, orior oriri ortus aequora ut meus order, M****alleus Aquilonis! Τό τε****ῖ****χος διερξάσθω! Δόρυ Πέτρας! Τό τε****ῖ****χος διερξάσθω! Δόρυ Πέτρας! Βασιλισκ****ὲ**** γαλεώτε μετά κ****ὦ****κτ****ὼ**** ποδ****ῶ****ν καί κακο****ῖ****ν ****ὀ****μμάτοιν πνο****ῆ****ν το****ῦ****ἰ****ο****ῦ**** τόν χρόνον παραιρο****ῦ****σαν! Πνοή Πέτρας!"**

Fate was more powerful. Yet Negi was using end of the world class spells. Lightning and fire meeting solid stone and ice. The crash prompted the shaking ground to quake far more roughly, as Negi saw, out of the corner his eye lent him, the magic circles. Demons, summoned from down below, demons, appearing out of nowhere without them, all of them dancing to the tune Fate beat out with his key.

_Damn! He's controlling them and fighting me, all at once! That key! The hell does it do in truth? I have to level this field. Now!  
"_Abyssus Laques Captus Cruco, Levitas Crucio, Igne Phasmantis!"

Negi reached out, deep with his mind, as he chanted that spell, putting his heart into the attack, striking at Fate with all the pain he could muster, and seeking at the same time to rip his mind through with an attack. Yet, while his aim was true, and his practice and timing impeccable, it was not to be, as another stepped in, whose timing and practice far outweighed his own. Asuna stepped in front of Fate, her hand coming out as if to grab the invisible effort Negi made with his mind, just as his magic was caught, not cancelled, by her touch.

"Redirect."

Magic cancelation was a great gift, but each gift of royal magic had its road, the path that one traveled in training that gift, like one fire arrow becoming a hundred, or a simple blast becoming Primal Prominence. For Negi, reading one's thoughts and desires branched off into telepathy, and into the use of memories and thoughts as weapons, even means to control another's mind and body...for Asuna, the gift cancellation could become the gift of redirecting the target, or even absorption, similar to Magica Erebia...even, over time, weaken or expand its power, like an amplification field. Now however...

Negi, eyes wide, could not prepare for the pain that lanced out at him, doubled by the fact the spell not only made him feel the pain he had been planning on dishing out, but also the equal pain he had to feel. His mind shook from a spear of his own thoughts and memories blasting home, confusing him, throwing his sense of purpose off kilter, dizzying his eyes, yet, it wasn't over, for Asuna...had ridden the barb with her own mind.

Negi's conscious was powerful, so much so its defenses were paramount. Yet, it you used his own power against him, and rode the attack you deflected with a little piece of yourself...you could break into his mind...laughably easy, the task became. Asuna frowned, but her grip tightened upon him, as his own pain washed over him. Her focus narrowed, her grip intending to force Negi's own spell to redouble its efforts. The boy actually cried out, pain.

_**"The HELL are you doing to him, b*tch!"**_

So addressed, Asuna looked up and almost instantly, the weapon that was hers, had always been hers, flashed upwards in the form of a card. Tossing it forth, she activated the pactio, formed not with Negi, no...this one was formed with _Fate_, but the end result was the same, her chosen weapon, long since sealed with her memories, erupted forth, and she held it still hovering a split second after, at Arika's throat.

"I suggest you stay out of this...dear sister."

Anger and then recognition. Asuna, Asuna Kagurazaka, grown into a young woman, at least for her haphazard race. The blade is what gave the scorned queen pause. Asuna...her half sister. it was one of the deep, dark reasons why she had murdered her father, along with his inability to see the suffering under his rule. At a loss for words, she was silent for nearly a minute.

_**"...Asuna...? W-what are you doing to Negi? Why are you on their side?"**_  
"Duty before kin, law before affection. Such is the royal decree. If one cannot sentence their own family to death, how can they effectively lead a country? They are soft, and must be weeded out. You knew this, once...but that was a long time ago, wasn't it, Arika? Now you have a son, and a beautiful one at that. But...you've lied to him, and so too, has his father, even to you, the man has lied. His lies give this young soul suffering, unimaginable pain. You abandoned him Arika. Your husband left him so the devil could harvest his soul."

Asuna bent down low to run a single finger through Negi's hair, letting go of her blade. Yet, it still hovered there, pointed at the neck of her sister. Arika knew better than to try and move. She could only watch as her sister ran a loving, sad finger through the boy's hair as he squirmed under the pain she was in control of. Her eyes looked up at the still queen, and she took Negi's head in her own arms, continuing the calm stroke on his hair.

"Poor Negi. Alone always, and yet, no he shall know how truly alone he is. Don't worry, your pain is only eight times greater than what you sent at Fate, although I fear you put your heart into that attack, I had no choice, it was the plan after all. You mind is mine my dear Nephew, your defenses are down. Allow me to show you now, just how far you have been betrayed. Let me show you, Negi Springfield, why I fight on the side I do...who your friends really are.. Memoir pactum, Ad se me alli musarum spiritus lucius, ego dictum, unum socius bellum portam maeve, solvum valde!"

Arika had no choice but to watch as Negi's body jerked once before he stilled, a ragged breath drawn once before his body stiffened once more. This time, he truly did scream, and Arika knew now, hearing him scream, why he never allowed such a sound to exit his mouth. The very pain required for him to make such a sound, melded with his youth and all his power, made the howl an unearthly sound that shook her.

Shook her, above all the din of war, to the very core.

**+-E-+**

_Now, I have no idea if this is good or not, wrote it too haphazardly... but I do know that when I create a chapter with so few separators, it is because I do not have to search for inspiration. I generally have a rule. No separator before ten kilobytes per segment. However, this one has three segments in which to share nearly fifty kilobytes between, which is around the old length of things before I switched to forty. I'm nearing my final climax I believe, and I am finally drawing out a more suitable game. Next time, I hope to construct something worthy of being dubbed the "A" game._

_Memories near and far, it's time to be cast from the shadows and into the abundant light! What is the truth of Negi's past? What is the truth of Kago's past? How is Anya dealing with those demons that have suddenly spilled all over the place, or Eva for that matter, she's just as helpless, well perhaps not just as helpless...Can Negi defeat Fate? Or will this god-like character brought to his knees by an impeccable Fate for good? Not only that but...is Asuna __**pawing **__Negi, or is she just trying to get inside Arika's head? Stay alive, and in touch!_

_By the way, when I say "candle's might" I meant "candle's might" not light._

_Signing out. ~ Finalage._


	50. Chapter L: Truth

**_O+-+X_**

_I was going to type a moving paragraph about my own life, my adversity, my rising from the ashes I wallowed in, but I won't. It matters not, in the end, where we came from, only why we are here. Where we came from is only for history, why we are here defines our reason, our justification. _

_Last chapter...it's been a long while since I was able to type like that. Just continuously, without pause. Too long…however, the typos caught me again there. _

_I say to you Galerians, there is no encouragement I find "lame". As for how Negi can get out, I think the more proper question is how will Fate survive this...don't understand? Then let us see._

_The fiftieth chapter of "__Young Negi: An Applied Approach__", awaits. I never expected to get to this point starting off, but here we are. I do not, in any way, own Negima. Kapeesh?_

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty: Truth_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

Warmth. Playing across his face, flickering light, a shivering candle flame held captive; his eyes. He was...underground, deep in the caves used for a library. In front of him, a man dusted off the dirt from a door, barely recognizable from the walls around, the scholar's eyes grinned, knowing. The lantern was passed, elder hands, gnarled with time and power succumbing to younger, clear ones.

_"This is the truth, Negi... I will hide none of it from you."_

_"…Won't you? I hardly know who you are anymore, Asuna."_

_"The one you knew was an illusion, a girl made an orphan to be watched and pitied. Did you really think you knew who I was?"_

Pain stabbed through him, lancing his heart in a passing blow, making him draw breath, quickly, painfully. He looked up to see Asuna, standing tall above him, a regal figure to his bowing submission. He pushed himself up off the ground, realizing he was, as a spirit, naked, something quickly remedied… not by him, but by a wave of Asuna's hand.

_"You are someone important, that much I knew already, no one could be as dense as you were without being impressively retarded. Your memories were sealed, that I guessed. Your power was the reason, I thought. Magic Cancellation is a royal magic however, so I assume, following logic that you and I are related, unless you come from another line, which I somehow doubt..."_

_"...Always Negi, you are the sharp one. You make my task so much easier this way, you do. I...am actually not to much the junior of your mother... She and I are sisters, half sisters, but still sisters... My age does not show quite like hers...being a half breed has its advantages I suppose..."_

It had been hazy. Through the pain, the boy had been unaware of that fact. Yet, as he looked up into those brilliant eyes, his pain receded; fell from him, giving birth to strength. The boy, lantern in hand, looked so much like himself...it only took a moment for his muddled mind to place him as his father...and yet, he looked so..._different_.

He held his lantern up higher for the scholar in front of him to see. He was mumbling something under his breath, throwing odd gestures about, magic flicking from him here and there. Nagi stepped closer upon being bidden to do so.

Large spectacles graced his eyes, sitting complacently upon the bridge of his sharp nose. Befit of his youth, a few sparse freckles graced his face here and there, mainly near his nose, where he tended to rub quite a bit. Thin, lanky some might say. Gripped tight in his other hand, the one free from the lantern, a star wand was held captive, dull…

The star wand was more than a training wheel for the practicing mage. These wands were created with a large gem set upon its top for an actual, practical purpose. They allowed a mage to easily gather magic from their surroundings, allowed them to let it out easily too, due to the purity and size of the gem, but...

They also were indicators. They were made to siphon magic from the air, and thus, in the hands of a mage, it would feed off their aura, showing those around how powerful the mage that held it was… Negi had always noticed how his star wand would glow brightly under his touch, but under the hands of magical students his age...they were dead, save for spell work.

_"See him, in all of his glory, Negi. He is thirteen now, nearing fourteen. Was it not at fifteen that he stepped onto the field of battle, a rookie wonder?"_

To see his father hold that wand, clearly a teenager and well into his power...to see it so _dull_...was disturbing. The scholar in front of Nagi gripped a large staff, one Negi instantly recognized, for it was the same as the one his father held now. The man spun it eagerly, making it glow faintly in the dark. Negi watched Nagi's eyes as the locked upon the arc it swung.

**"Here we are boy, the deepest of libraries we have, finally rediscovered after being hidden for so long. The last time I saw this door...I wasn't even half your age! Ha ha! You surprised me with your sudden passion to follow me in my search to rediscover this place, you never were very scholarly, Nagi...but I suppose your dedication is justified."**

The boy's lantern lowered, darkening his visage. Perhaps his arms were tired, for this place was deep inside the catacombs housed by their library, but Negi doubted this severely. Most only went into the first of the chambers, down here, in the deepest hallways, the natural cave was thought to be still un-used. Yet Nagi had found something, something that lit a fire in his eyes. A want, a _need_…for excitement, for power.

"I came with you, didn't I, sir?"

His home was far from the upsurge, the obvious tension of war...and, even if, push came to shove... many of his village would raise the banner of the king under Ostia. Yet, it didn't seem like _any_ of the action would _get_ here. The only thing that exited Nagi, the only thing that he was good at, seemed to be battle. That same excitement, that same battle lust, ran through his genes to his son.

"**That you did, that you did. We've done a lot of studying, and taken quite a few wrong turns, seen a few odd sights too for that matter, this cave seems to have plenty of secrets…but **_**today**_** is our day. This is it." **

The man laughed, his eyes warm upon Nagi's visage. He spun his staff for more of an affectionate fondling than anything else, bracing against the swollen door. Nagi wasn't quick enough to offer his help, for the man was powerful, if aged. Finding his strength not enough, his staff shot out as he leapt back.

**"Effrego!"**

The blast shook dust from the ceiling of the tunnel they were in, but the door was blasted back to crash off in the distance, slamming up against a wall with authority. The man stepped through, Nagi not far behind him. Eagerly, the man spun his staff again, calling up a sphere of light to float upwards and towards the center of the room. Upon the bidding of the other, Nagi set down the lantern upon the floor as his partner ran his hands over long abandoned shelves. It was the boy's _eyes_ that roamed however, for one specific book, even as the mind drifted back…

"_Gah! Shit, her boyfriend is here! Run!"_

"_...and what, leave the wicked little witch, no way! Sagitta Magica, Trias Spiritus-"_

_The boy gagged as a fist shot into his gut, sending him skidding as Nagi spun around, planting his boot right into the boy's face, knocking him down. Another grabbed him to drag him up as Nagi held up both of his fists, attached to arms, slender… but far from weak. The two turned and bolted, leaving a third to scamper the other way. Nagi grit his teeth._

"_Come back and fight me, yah whelps!"_

_He sighed, lowering his fists slowly. Looking back, he saw the girl they had been victimizing, whom had been fending them off with magic, believing her to be the one who had ratted them out on stealing another child's lunch. She tilted her head to look at him as he stood all the straighter. She smiled, but her smile had a laugh behind it. Ahh, he was a fist person, Nagi was it?_

"_You okay…? I can go beat them up if you lik-"_

"_Don't. You try Nagi, I'll give you that A bit too hard though..."_

"_Damn straight! Besides, it was Flora who ratted them, not you, Clarie."_

_She knew that already. He didn't need to tell her, she had been covering for the shy girl. Dense as hell, that's what Nagi was. He came up, about to ask her an obvious question, an attempt to try and wheedle her in to a walk maybe, or something else… Nagi was quite a charmer, but he didn't have the power or brains to back it up, only his fists… before he could squeak, she held up her hand, shaking her head again._

"_Nagi, you're nice and all, but you're just…too brash. Your magic is proof of that. I wish you'd take that skill in fist fighting and boost your magic a bit. Besides, I know you've got your eyes on Laura, not me, I'm not a step ladder…"_

Nagi was a free spirit. He was brash, and, regardless of his appearance, he loved a good fight, and while he could be a bit dense outside of it, inside, he was quite the tactician. Still, he had little to no power to his name, an unimportant boy in a non-descript town. A magical school drop-out had no future here in the magical world...at least, such was told to him...

Until now. Forbidden things...secrets, they had always intrigued him. Nagi was never much of a study, but when it came to the quick, he could pull himself together for something interesting, something..."forbidden". He had come to this town for that very reason, and had spent nearly four years, quietly waiting…for that very reason. Historically, in the grand magical school of London, there were only two years in which a student had not been found, once entering the Forbidden Libraries...in truth, there were three.

One year, there had been two to enter, and only one was found. Nagi Springfield. Yes, he had entered the library, but only once…and like Negi, he had found something, but what he had found, unlike his son, ignited not a passion to learn, but simply a stirring of a hunger already there. For power. A lust for strength.

Within ViaVox was his answer, he need only find the book, documented, under the meticulous care of some long gone scholar, of being in this very library, this one town he had spent years turning upside down, looking everywhere…everywhere but here.

_"It is always the weak that succumb most easily to the darkness, Negi. The scorned…and the weak. Some however, don't have a choice. Like you. This is the very moment Negi, when your father chose your destiny, so that he could run free into a battlefield he knew nothing about...ViaVox is an ancient, dark text. I am sure you have read of it."_

_"ViaVox...its name means "The way of power" doesn't it? Said to have been written by a demon, it documents many of the dark spells used to gain strength, in grim detail. It mainly deals with, according to the books I have read, demonic pacts..."_

Smart boy, as always, the quick study. She wondered just how much of the famed library, now burned to the ground, resided in his head. How much could be retrieved from him, what could be rebuilt, and even gained, from his influence? She gave him a small smile. He was a library in himself, and yet…yet, yet, yet…

This was of no consequence, and Asuna taking him by the hand, lead him through the memory, following Nagi and his elder as they worked in double time, the hours flying by in mere minutes, until time ground to a halt as Nagi lifted a book from deep in the heart of the room, quickly ducking under to avoid any kind of trap...but there was none.

A demonic book, dedicated to under worldly pacts for strength was an entrapment enough, after all. A quick glance around told Nagi that there was no one in sight, Suallice, his elderly friend, was in another row...he was free, and he had found it. All of his common sense, which was not much, admittedly, told him to put the book in his pocket, read it later, smuggle it out somehow...but no. Temptation was too great as he pulled his wand from his sleeves.

The book fell open when he dropped it out of clumsiness, opening to a random page, particularly upon magical amplification. Nagi bent down, carefully picking the book up to read upon his deficiency. Negi tossed his eyes to the sky, aghast.

_"Are you trying to tell me my father gave up his immortal soul or something to gain magical power? If so, I don't really care, you know? So cliché... I fail to see what this has to do with me...mademoiselle." _

Asuna said nothing, just bade him to continue to watch, so he turned back to the image, mildly bored, to see Nagi twirling his wand, pulling upon what little he had to commit himself to chanting a spell for summoning up something or other, probably calling up a damn contractor. This was boring. There was nothing to be learned here, he turned his back to his father, and was about to tell Asuna that, unless she had something interesting to show him, she was wasting his time

...However, he suddenly found the vision had shifted, and he was once more looking at his father reading from a book. He raised an eyebrow to his current captor, not amused. She controlled his surroundings at the moment, so it was best he pay attention. That's what her eyes told him. He already knew what was going to happen though. The fool was going to summon a demon and cut a deal. What did this have to do with him?

Ahh, but it was not to be. For at that moment, soft, padded footsteps prompted Nagi to quicken his pace, stupidly trying to finish the spell instead of stuff the book away. Suallice came down the row just as Nagi finished the spell, calling forth from the ether, for only him to see, a dark contractor…he froze at the sight of Suallice, but the man locked eyes with the book in his hands, chuckling darkly before coming up, taking it from him.

"Ahh, I don't think you want to read that one, Nagi my boy. Dark magic seems to come from it. For the life of me, I can't read the title though. Must be in full Latin text...it's old, I'll tell you that much…"

He looked about at the shelves, all of which were in disarray, thanks to Nagi's searching. He gave a half smile, commenting on Nagi's trademark haphazard way of going through something…he had come to help, but it seemed that Nagi had this section already, hmm? Book still in hand, he walked off, leaving Nagi with an invisible horned friend to deal with.

He called back just as he was about to leave, asking him if he had found Mermoristan Bolcor, the book he was _supposed_ to be looking for. Of course, Nagi had not even been really searching for it, but he was certain it was not in this row, as he had looked through it to find ViaVox, and if he had found the other, he would have, of course, put it aside…right?

"_Oh nice, so now I get to watch my father make a deal to get some power and sell his soul in exchange…I still don't know what the hell this has to do with me."_

Negi couldn't hear what they were saying as they began to go back and forth, it looked to be, at first, a normal offering, a smooth vendor talking his customer into buying his wares…but it soon became heated, Nagi tossing his head about. The boy looked to Asuna, but, grim faced, she offered no means of getting a better hold on what they were saying. However, Nagi smiled, and his voice was clear.

"Ahh, So wait. What's the catch to all of this? There's got to be one…What, I go to hell or something when I die?"

Laughing, silently laughing so the sound only bellowed in Nagi's own ears, his companion looked Nagi up and down. No, no. This man's soul was no kind of prize to take. He wanted power, innocently, as innocently as the sprite of death pinned for it, in the deep of the night. He was a free flying spirit, his soul was simple, and there were enough simple minded fools he had made contracts with. No, he needed something else.

Contractors existed outside of mainstream time, a kind of limbo scale that burst forwards at great speeds, but lagged behind too. These were masters of deception, winding around the tempted being and drawing them deep into darkness. The demonic being snaked out his arm, catching Nagi on the wrist to pull back the robes. His bracelet, set with a brilliant and clear gem in silver, glinted in the darkness. Smiling, he fondled it before answering Nagi.

"Each time you kill one of your enemies, you shall tint this stone a deeper and deeper color. Depending on how and who you caused the death, the color of the taint will change. Each soul sent into the darkness grants you a measure of their power. Your first shall grant you all of theirs however. I will take from you my prize, the luck of one you will soon know. Cursed they shall be, as long as you stay as long as the bond be. I have nothing to gain from taking what you have."

Scotch free huh? Still didn't seem right, but hey. He didn't come all this way for nothing. Let's do it, yeah? He nodded his head once, an affirmative, but just as they were about to begin, Asuna stepped forth, pushing the vision away with a sweep of her arm. Her eyes closed, morose her face, when Negi cared to look. Slowly, she shook her head.

_"That day, his gem stained pink. Suallice had come at the last second to see the magical circle, and tried to stop Nagi. He was too late however, and Nagi was too fast. He took a book from the shelves and knocked him out cold, but not before he had stabbed out his star wand in panic. It had stabbed through the old man, making all of his pent up magic fall back upon him. The book ViaVox was burnt in the process, and those catacombs, with all the fire and smoke, collapsed not long after Nagi escaped…_

_"He had managed to grab Suallice's staff however, as you might notice…This demon also did, indeed, take the "luck" of one Nagi would soon "know"… he took _**_your _**_luck, Negi. In essence, the spell's price was that Nagi's first born would be cursed. The reason you are a catalyst… is because of this. Nagi left that burning underground library with Suallice's power flowing through him, and his staff… and while the man was old and weakening, he was still a powerful mage, perhaps near that of a lower Magister Magi even…"_

Negi had locked focus with Asuna upon the mention of him being a catalyst, yet, putting the blame upon his father's actions here seemed steep, almost unreal. This could not all be real, couldn't it? Most likely it was a stint cooked up by Fate and herself to trap him; turn him against his father, against trying to save this world…and while he didn't mind much, the turning against his father part, he knew what he had come here to do; however, Asuna was not done with her story.

"_Nagi attacked the war his way, traveling and ambushing lone sentries. Do you know why this war started in the first place Negi? Lack of communication. If The Mage of the Beginning had been able to explain himself properly…there wouldn't have been any war."  
_

"_Oh, so you're saying he would have been able to talk people out of trying to stop him from destroying the world? I take back what I said earlier about hardly knowing you; you're still as dense as ever. You think people want some dude destroying their world and remaking it how he wants, and killing them to bring them back into the new one just like that? You think that if he explained himself, they'd just tell him it was a smashing idea and give him free reign?"_

She shook her head again, he didn't understand, not that she was surprised, he was misinformed_._ She put her hands together, letting them slowly expand out, showing him a globe, the surface of Mars. Not as seen from space, but as seen with the magical world super imposed upon it. It expanded until she practically disappeared behind it; however, the growth was slow, hard to notice, as she walked around to him, speaking.

_"The Mage of the Beginning knew more than you think Negi. This world…is dying. Look with your eyes, and you'll see it too. This illusion is old, and handling far more people than it was made too, for longer than it should have. It's crumbling to bits Negi, right before our very eyes…_**_look_**_! Do you think this is the paradise our ancestors thought up; do you really believe _**_this_**_ is what they made for us? The Mage of the Beginning wanted to take this world and heal it, at first, but the damage, over time, and magical strain was too great. You want to see? Here, look at my home, look at my birth world, the spell that holds it together!"_

In front of them both, as Negi felt his pain once more increase, the world disappeared, replaced with the dead surface of mars, rotating slowly. Yet, this is not what Negi was focusing on. He saw…the spell work. The rows and rows, the columns, the strings, words, stringing out, not in Latin, no not even in Greek. Negi recognized the guttural, strong language of Norse. His eyes were wide.

There was too much information, for once, there was too much information for him to absorb at once. An entire world, described in full, mountains, lakes, deserts, gravity, periods of rain, and periods of dry, varying temperatures, all as it _should _be. He took a few steps back, his knees collapsed under him when struck with the hammer that was his own spell's might. It was torn… everywhere. Ripped apart, with age if not contradiction. Landscapes had changed, resources taken, some areas were so sparse of the vibrant strings, reminding Negi of cloth. Tendrils flying free.

_"I have no idea however, how the world is now Negi. The war that was waged between the Mage and his forces against Ostia, and the magical concentration, especially in that final battle, when the very world almost lost all of its power, transferring it into one place…that even further damaged this delicate, grand spell, as you might imagine…this is the image I gained from The Mage of the Beginning, Negi..._

Negi looked up at her. It was…**worse** than this? Now, in front of him, the puzzle pieces fell into place, and no more could he deny that, at least in this, she was telling the truth. It fit, everywhere, and no matter how hard Negi looked for a loop hole, he knew she was right…and, once he admitted that, he realized that…just like when he had researched his father…he had already known it, only never paid it any mind.

It was like knowing that if you times any number by two, you will get an even answer. You never think about things like that, it's obvious after all, but once you do hear it you _**realize**_ it's obvious…you always knew that, but did you ever really think of it like that? You double the number, doi, but it's even too, right? Obviously...just never gave it thought, I don't have to, so why_ bother_?

_…This is the true reason my mind was butchered the way it was. I knew too much, so much, I could play a grand part against the mage, but I hated to do it, because I knew he was right…I could have stopped them, but instead, I played a part in destroying our world…and, unlike the others, who celebrated thwarting an "evil" mage…I cried. I had just single handedly destroyed our world. Never again would there be a human who could learn the code, gain the key and have the power needed to do this. I can't even blame your father for that one. It was me Negi, me who played a main role, in Arika's plans, to control that magic, to push it back, redirect it unto itself."_

Swallowing, Negi looked up. Hooked up to a generator. An entire city, an entire nation, losing it's magic to keep Asuna juiced, to give her the mental force and the physical push to hold off the magic with an entire fleet's energy to back her up, and Nagi. The whole country fighting one man with the power and the key to destroying the world, for a good cause.

In life, there really is no "pure" good guy, no "instant hero", and many times…those hailed as heroes are really the villains.

_"People who wanted the war to take place would shoot down messengers from either party, and while Nagi was unaware, he ambushed and destroyed the most of them, believing the war inevitable anyway...in essence, even if I can't blame him for my bane, I can't absolve him of responsibility for the prelude to it."_

"_Are you saying that, in trying to gain power, he was instrumental in __**starting**__ this fool war?"_

_"It's no excuse to say he did not mean to, but yes. Nagi started this war. He destroyed the most, and most important, of the messengers. They were also the weakest, as, due to the sensitive information they carried, could only be limited in numbers to prevent sell outs, and were sparsely armed as not to alarm the other party…but... that is not all…there's another thing I have to lay upon you…do you know who your father is? Is it Nagi, or ...Nagi?"_

"_...Is this a trick question? I don't like trick questions. Like my computer asking me for the answer to the square root of negative one, knowing full well that it cannot comprehend the result. The hell do you mean is it Nagi or Nagi? They are both the same..."_

_"Actually, they are not, Negi, for one of those "Nagis" is only a perfect, down to the DNA, copy of the other. Whom do you know Negi, that can become another person? Anybody, you may answer, anybody with an illusion pill or the will too. Yet, there is only one person who can become another so precisely, so perfectly, they can copy that person and their memories, and even their states, at the very moment of documentation, down the very DNA."_

"…_I don't know any…one…like…that… ... ...oh... my... fuc-"_

_"I see… Nagi wasn't well liked by his opponents, Negi, in fact, many demons cursed his name. Nagi thought he was brilliant in one thing however... He killed the contractor whom he made the deal of power with. He thought he had gathered enough, after a few months of fun, to go back and try and kill off the deal before the demon could extract his price... _

_However, while this cut off Nagi's incredible growth of power, it could not stop, obviously, the price tag. Someone still needed to pay…Nagi laughed in the contractor's face that day he killed him, paying no mind to him as he cursed his name, his family tree, and vowed the man would never have children if he had anything to say about it…and he did…I'm not sure if you are aware, but Nagi and Arika tried several times to sire a child, and failed…until Nagi thought up a brilliant plan…"_

The boy said nothing. Even as he opened his mouth, no sound came out. It was impossible, after all, impossible, what she was suggesting. Impossible...he was impossible. This wasn't real anyway, right? No, no, he didn't want to hear this. This was the fundamentals of his existence, uncharted territory for a child. He shouldn't know exactly what went on "in the hotel room" so to speak, as long as he knew who is parents were…but that was the point, wasn't it? He didn't know...

_"Not yet Negi. You see, Nagi didn't have a pactio with Alberio yet…That story requires some more time to tell, and more sin to be seen spilt. No child should know exactly how they were sired, it's extremely rare that their parents tell them everything…but I shall tell you it. Witness the brash man you know, carefully planning out a ploy that would have put Shakespeare to shame..."_

As the world around him shivered and shifted into another time and place, pain lanced through Negi again, sending him to the ground once more, hissing, and strangling his pain. Asuna shifted her mouth about, apologetic. She could not hold back the pain forever, not while keeping his body and mind under control. Her power and concentration were only so much, and Negi's struggles to escape were great...she allowed the memories to flow, dredging up her power to swallow the darkness whole once more…

A bar this time, and inside it, the past…

**"Come on Nagi, cheer up. Arika is just a strong woman. Don't doubt your manhood...she's just too much of a woman for you!"**  
"Alberio, shut the hell up. You're not helping me."  
**"Glad to be of service!"**  
"No shit. Seriously man, be quiet. I'm trying to read."

Now, this was indeed a new sight, and Alberio wasn't sure if he approved of it or not. Nagi reading a book, a magical textbook to add irony to the whole thing. He wasn't sure what kind of text it was though, just that it seemed to have lots of magical circles in it.

Partner in crime, if more subtle and calm minded than Nagi, Alberio rose a glass of red wine to the bartender as it was passed to him, depositing his coin upon the table to be scooped up deftly by meaty hands. Nagi had yet to take anything to drink himself, and this slightly worried the other. The only time Nagi didn't drink while in a bar was when he was _seriously_ bogged down.

**"Well, well! You find some kind of Magical Viagra in that book? Not that your performance is off par Nagi...not that I would know...it might be though...hey, hey, I have a wine glass here! Seriously though...what are you trying to do, cast a protection spell on your semen? I mean come on. They have pills for this kind of thing you know; mundanes manage it all the time."**  
"Ha ha...Not my case, I need this, now. My case is magical."  
**"Oh, so someone spelled your dick to be infertile? Hey, hey! I said I had wine here!"**

Nagi turned back to his book, quietly fuming at the pure _nerve _Al could occasionally pull. The other lowered his glass back to the table slowly, taking it from its protective position in the air. Nagi's grunt upon the other lifting the glass again to his lips clearly claimed, without words, that if Al cared so much about his wine... he wouldn't jibe him anymore.

"I am a man Al. Don't push me, I'm already at my wit's end. If I can't give my wife what she wants, something we men are practically _made_ to do, what the hell _can_ I do? It's not about pride Al, it's about her."

Of course, there were other small reasons that came with this admittance. Nagi hadn't cared for a child before, and if you had asked him even two years earlier, he would have looked at you as if you came from Betelgeuse. Still, now he thought it probably wouldn't be all that bad, as long as the brat wasn't all "cry-e" like. Yet, Arika was a queen, and Ostia was steadily falling without its royal line. Sure, she was supposed to be dead, but she wasn't, right?

Then there was the fact that Arika wanted a kid, not for royal reasons, just to _have_ one, yah know? He swore it was a phase these women went through, and they somehow infected otherwise sensible men, making both their lives miserable in the end, ehh?

That was the other thing, he caught the disease, or more like something in him nagged him about it. He needed to have at least a firstborn, for some insane reason, like fulfilling some kind of debt. If only he knew what kind of debt it was, he might have veered off course, but, like Nagi was, he had forgotten all about it.

He'd find out soon enough though, but Negi turned away once more, eyes closed to pain, only it was a different kind of pain than the one lancing through his body. It was one he thought he had gotten rid of, used up, burnt out. The pain of his heart, a tortured soul. Asuna shifted the vision again, but Negi closed his eyes, trying to beat it out. Even that didn't stop her…

"I...don't need to see any more of this. These…lies. You can't know all of this! Your memories…they were sealed before any of this even happened!"

That one truth he held dear to him, it was his tool to use against her, and once he had found it, he employed it, harshly, his eyes snapping open to see the lies. Yet what he saw was only pity, and truth. The power in her eyes, it burned him, singed his pride, beat him back and down into the darkness. He fought, of course, he fought. The other would not be denied however as she rose her voice, shooting him down.

_"Sealed? The only way they could seal my memories is if I would let them Negi. I am a magic canceller. I did not let them, and even if I did, once I started to practice magic under you, the seal would have been broken… They did something to me, something far more efficient, more binding. You know computers, do you not, Negi? Tell me then, what is a partition?"_

"…_No. That would require…"_

_"Require what, Negi? Nothing. No magic, no nothing, just a simple wall of will. A simple unconscious wall. Why do you think Alberio was locked away in Library Island, so close to the world tree? Why is it that my dorm is the one in a building nearest to the tree? Why was Takahata one of my supervisors and teachers for so long? Nothing is a coincidence here, my dear nephew. Alberio was the secret keeper, the guard to the safe. Through him, these memories became mine, locked away in a convenient part of my mind, that I could not access. Alberio put them there, without permission I may add. He just couldn't handle them alone Negi…"_

"_No."_

_"Alberio was called out by Nagi, on a mission he knew there would be an ambush, Nagi let them get captured, made it impossible to get out without giving Alberio a pactio. Always a military tactician, Nagi was. Later, he wheedled Alberio, and believe me; it took a lot to bring Alberio to such a task. Arika is a beautiful woman, but…Alberio wasn't one to bed another's wife. He didn't have to though, just transform into Nagi at a crucial point…"_

"…_No…no…this doesn't make any damn sense! Besides, there was no kind of time!"_

_"It does. Al was in the room, invisible Negi. It was the first time that Nagi managed to successfully cast a spell on Arika too I might add. Distracted I suppose…"_

"_Do you KNOW how stupid this sounds to me? How farfetched? I am not going to believe that Alberio hid in the room my father and mother did their business in, waited for Nagi to spell Arika, transformed and f*ck*ng stuffed a shaft where it didn't belong! I don't care what the hell you say here, I ain't buying this crap!"_

_"Oh, but you must Negi. What would you do if you have the power and the skill, and knew your friend, your best friend, had been suffering on this point for so long? If you knew nothing else but his suffering, it you knew he had been cursed somewhere along the line, if you knew Negi, if you looked, through Alberio's eyes? What would you do Negi?"_

"_I would sure as hell not do what you're suggesting!" _

_"Of course not Negi, it's all nonsense anyway, isn't it? You're a smart boy. Alberio is a clever man, but he had nothing on your intelligence. You figure it out for yourself. I gave you an alternative to the truth there then."_

It was said quietly. Yet the force behind it made the pain redouble, he winced, gritting his teeth, dealing with this pain was wearing him down, breaking his logic, destroying his ability to fight off this nonsense, and yet, those eyes burned still brighter, stronger, more justified with every word. He shook his head, looking away from her eyes, yet there was no escape from her, she was in front of him once more. She was laughing now, in her eyes…making _fun_ of him.

"_I am Nagi's son, no matter how much I despise the dude-"_

_"Genetically, yes…you are. Actually? No, as twisted as that may seem. You have his eyes, his body, perhaps some of his brash heroism, but you are not his…should I show you now how your mother abandoned you? How her own hate for your existence drove her from home, using the excuse of looking for Nagi?"_

No, he didn't want to see. Yet, that didn't matter, did it? His face twisted with all the more pain. She couldn't keep this up for much longer, his face, his pain, was killing her, not literally of course, she felt nothing doing this to him physically, but it tore her heart. Yet, he had to know. He must know the depth of character that his family held, the consequences of their actions, his remorse. The damnation that they must face for it all, reasons so flimsy, nothing but petals scattered near and far…the memories, to cleanse his soul, prove his worth and finally put this to rest…

"_No…I said no God damn it!"_

Deep in the depths of night they went, as, in front of them, a village materialize, one that struck Negi hard once more, that infernal hell hole, whose burnt remains haunted him far more harshly than he ever should have let them. A single cottage, its light glowing softly from the windows, peaceful as the snow quietly fell. However, nothing moved.

_"No...don't show me this...god damn you, anything but this!"_

Negi looked to Asuna, but she shook her head. He must do this. This one, he had to see for himself. It burned in her mind, harsh and powerful, so much so, the detail so strong, that it could be offered like this. She indicated him forth softly, a simply lift of her head, eyes momentarily closed. Negi shook his head, swallowing to keep from biting his tongue. He couldn't do this. That door seemed to speak his entire history. He wasn't pushed, but he felt his foot move forward anyway, of its own accord.

He reached out his hand for the door's knob, instinctively, but he passed through the door. Of course, a memory, he had no substance here. He saw a typical home, cozy, none too small, but cozy nonetheless.

Walking by the entrance, he entered a living room in disarray...no, he was wrong. It was organized chaos. Messy to the stranger, but to the familiar, everything was within reach. It had the feel of a home haphazardly broken in, but broken in anyway. A strain, a kind of strangled cry, made Negi whip his head around.

A woman, bent over a crib, reached down, scooping a bundle out to hold it in her arms. She looked so much like his foster sister, but she was older perhaps her mother... Negi watched, and felt something inside him burst, in a way. The expression on her face was one of pain. Her hand was bleeding...

Negi's ears picked up upon the crying of a woman. He already knew what he was going to see, even as he began to walk towards the sound. Morbid curiosity. He passed by a fridge. Upon it was a list with daily tasks, many of which were dedicated to his, Negi's, care. This list had been crossed out recently, and a new task written in:

**I HATE THIS.  
NAGI YOU B*ST*RD!**

Negi walked by it, ignoring the message. Even as his eyes failed to leave the ugly writing, written right over his name. His mind called up an excuse, Post Partum depression, he told himself. A common medical condition. Nothing of his concern. If this was what Asuna meant, she was simply ignorant of the medical knowledge...still, something inside him laughed at his excuse.

_I...I have accepted my mother, this is nothing worth importance to me..._

Once more his hand reached out to push a door open, but he met air as he passed through to the bathroom. A knife, a simple filet knife, lay in the sink, stained red. This was perhaps the reason the woman holding him had been bleeding.

**"F*cking thing. Damn it and damn it's crying!"**

_It's just a hormonal stage, I should walk out now and leave this behind, it's nothing of my concern._

**"Damn her and her sentiments too, don't get in my way next time, b*otch...If I want to take it out of this world, I brought it in, so I have a right!"**

_...You tried to kill me? ...Not that I'm surprised at the attempt, as it is possible...yes, this has nothing...but it's my life, it has everything to do with me...no! This is old, forbidden pasts; I have nothing to do with this! _

No matter how much he told himself he should turn away, his feet stayed anchored to the ground. Arika looked up, allowing Negi to see bloodshot eyes, and a face that had seen better care in grander days. Nothing but depression, his mind told him, but what was left of his heart...it quaked at the sight. A crazed smile, almost, graced her features.

**"You said we'd stay together, one family, Nagi. Now where are you? Off to lay another woman? Or have you just abandoned me to the shame and the burden this...thing gives me? I hate it. It reminds me to much of you, If I could, Id' break it over your head, kill you both, I would, if your beer buddy Al didn't keep getting in my way…and then your b*tch of a sister…"**

"_I don't need to see anymore of this."_

He said it simply, but his fists were clenched, his voice clear, clearer than ever before. The vision faded, leaving only Asuna standing with hands clasped in front of her. He felt like rushing at her, calling up whatever power he had in this realm against her, running her through where she stood, but he was still, tired, done. He coughed, and spat out what looked to be bile, blood.

"_I don't need to see anymore of these…lies, truths, opinions, visions, whatever the hell you call them. I'm done. I'm out. This, this…I can't deal with it anymore, that's it. I'm done. Let me out, come on, wave your magic hands before I break them. I want out. Friggin move!"_

Blinking, she turned her head to the side, but made no motion to let him out, or do anything for that matter. Negi felt his temper, and thus his power, rise. She looked up to see his shaking fists. What…was this now? His fighting had redoubled, and slowly she was being shut out, the mind righting itself. She was losing control.

_"I pushed you too far."_

"_Damn straight."_

'_I told you nothing but the truth, however."_

Negi shook his head, allowing it to lower as he felt his emotions take hold, confusion, anger, hate, revenge above all, destruction, need, want, power. Even in his mental visage, he felt his hands darken, the whisper of power swirl. Asuna focused on him as he shook his head again, looking at his shoes. She had struck him. Yet he only continued to grow in power…where was it all coming from?

"_I don't care. Nothing matters anyway. I'm a tool, remember? A catalyst. None of this matters to me. I shouldn't hate, or love even. I can't be loved, that's why. Easy as pie. I was cursed. Now my curse will serve a purpose. You said no one will ever be able to save this world? I'll do it then. I'll get the power for it; blow my damn self up because I have no purpose anyway. I shouldn't be able to feel, damn it all. Just a tool, just a tool…die, all of them, for all I care…catalyst, unloved child of a fake father, I don't care what's true and what's false anymore. You wanted something to purge you of your sins and everyone else? Here, I'm your stand in sacrificial cross, throw it on me. Just get out of my damn way!"_

This time, his arms did explode into black, as around him, the darkness shattered, his body had fallen to the floor, but it exploded upwards, his fists condensing painfully black, traveling up his arms, gaining substance, he seemed to grow actual claws, fur even, hair blowing free, his eyes shrunk into pinpricks of light. Familiar symbols glowed painfully bright, expanded outwards, encompassed the air, some even crept up to take over his face. Asuna had still been holding, him, but his transformation blew her off, her blade send skidding away.

She landed on her feet, cursing. He'd gone berserk! She'd pushed him far too far! This was Magica Erebia, and in his pain, both physical and emotional, she had broken him open. He was no better now than an animal! Yet, even so, his hands broke into electric light, crackling along as practically roared out a spell. The thousand thunder bolts, cast twice, once in mind and once by mouth. He crashed against Fate, a solid wall that pushed him off, with difficulty, but he came back again, hands now glowing with fire.

"Τὸ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs!"

_Τ__ὸ__ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs_

Negi landed upon his feet, feet that were more wolf-like than his own. His hands alive with fire, he didn't shoot it off, but…took it in, to himself. It wasn't…possible…Negi barreled at Fate, alive, sparking with lightning, burning with fire. He had just…activated a Triple Complex! This was his magical capabilities once driven to the edge, his berserk? His strength and speed, he almost matched Fate, almost unseated him but his silver haired opponent sidestepped, swinging his key out, glowing now all the brighter.

Negi ducked low, swiping out a long leg to trip Fate up. He punched up in the air, catching Fate and sending him sky wards, literally, the boy crashed against the edge of the ceiling, just before it opened to the heavens. He used that as ground however, and shundoed right to Negi, punching him in the gut with his key.

He avoided Negi's charge and ducked under a punch, disappearing from the front to axe kick his berserk opponent in the side, but Negi spun around, grabbing his foot and tossing Fate to slam into one of the pillars, rushing after him. He never made it, for the other disappeared from there, quickly shooting out his hand.

"Τό τεῖχος διερξάσθω! Δόρυ Πέτρας!"

Hitting home right in his chest, it gave Negi a little pause, enough for Fate to punch him dead in the face, his fist exploding into a powerful spell, a direct hit, the evil eye of petrifaction, but the swirling power around Negi, he laughed, striking out to kick Fate in his own face, knocking him back. He had no teeth to grit, but the pain was obvious, the spear was still sticking out of him. Stone was creeping out from his middle, but the boy rose a voice above the din his own body was making with magic.

"Precor...lux lucis, signum vulnus, conforto vulnero Aceso... Achelois, lavo mihi in vestri lux lucis, succurro meus in meus vicis of postulo, restituo, Amplitudo Rememdium! Fragrantia Floris, Meis Amicis Vigorem, Vitalitatem, Auram Salutarem! Refectio!"

It normally needed a catalyst to work, but Negi pulled off the spell regardless, after all, he considered himself an object anyway, at least his twisted and broken emotions told him so. Fate however, pointed off to Negi's side, and When Negi ignored the jibe, rushing at him, he shifted behind him, so Negi would see.

Eva, Anya, Alma, They all were in a ring, surrounded by summoned demons, as the shaking continued, calling up some unknown beast from the depths…something inside him told him to save them, but another thing told him to leave the traitors to lie. Fate absolved him of the responsibility, smiling. He was enjoying this, every time, more and more. It seemed that Springfield kept surprising him, every time. Negi didn't see Asuna attack him from behind, even as his instincts took over, too late.

"Redirect."

Negi was powerful, but Asuna had Fate on her side, and drawing from him through the pactio, Negi felt The Thousand Thunder Bolts leave him, Primal Prominence leave him, but she could not remove Magica Erebia from his form…instead, she redirected those two still active end of the world spells to slam into Negi, burning and striking him again and again until he fell. Fate smiled, seeing that they were near the exit, and his party had succeeded, gathering near him.

"We should make our exit. These demons won't stop until they are dead or the others are, and this building will soon collapse…are you coming Kagurazaka?"

She couldn't help but look at the burnt, smoking boy, still breathing, by the miracle of Magica Erebia, but in danger as the rubble from the ceiling began to fall. This was her nephew, and he had just displayed how much power he could hold…how hard he had trained, how far he would go. Yet, it was impossible. Only a human could control the Code after all…and Negi had been through enough pain…yet, even as she thought that, she remembered the Rosary.

Would he use it? Would he go that far? If so…he would not be able to defeat Fate…but if he could…did she still have a hope? Instead of having this world destroyed for good, the people transferred to earth, could this planet be rebuilt? Would she risk the boy who had been through so much, seen so much, once more, this time for good, to die?

"Of course…I am…sorry. I'm sorry…Negi."

Turning around, she went to Fate, as he held up a bauble, glowing bright, a teleportation device. It activated in a muted explosion, drowned out by the destruction all around. Nothing but a whisper of the wind was left as a piece of pillar fell and shattered upon where the party had been. Three for team Fate, zero, Team Negi.

**+-E-+**

Wait…I can't find a separator anywhere here…holy…I went through this whole thing without one. That's…never happened before. Even if Fan-fiction has made the old style of them, the one I used to have, null and void, I always had a separator somewhere…I planned on continuing this, but then I realized this thing was...long. I didn't accomplish all I wanted, but I have a feeling I finally found something I can call A game, maybe. Up to you what you think. Where's my A + I wonder?

So, is it true? Any of it? Or is Asuna lying? Did she apologize to him for those very lies, or for pushing him too far with the truth? Negi's magical berserk isn't as grand as I originally planned, mainly because I thought I'd either overpower him or overpower Fate, but hey, Fate effectively controls one seventh of all the magic in the world, almost, with that key, not to mention tying himself to all that gathered magic at the gates he calls a temporary base.

Number fifty, complete, what do you think for the half hundred? Is it worth that title? I might also madd that the formatting for this chapter gave me hell, when uploading to FanFiction...FanFiction also, increasingly often and increasingly in time, steals my daily hits, saying they are zero. I think it's trying to tell me something.

Broke four hundred thousand words. I forgot what I wanted to say.


	51. Chapter LI: Choice Past

**_O+-+X_**

_As I get closer and closer, little skirmishes, and truth, is seeping out from all over. Anyway. I'm still looking for my best game. I need to bring whatever I've got left in the tank now, ehh? Oh, don't worry, there's plenty of story left to tell but not a lot of time to tell it._

_This chapter sees more of my spell creation work, although not Negi's original spells, no, I bring out more spells that are missing from the original Manga. NightmareSyndrom, how nice to hear from you once more, and yes, you spelled messenger correctly. Indeed omegarulesall, using the rosary will only bring him more pain...and once he discovers the price he must pay...will he be willing to risk his life again, and all of his possible happiness, perhaps for good...to save an illusionary world?_

_With great power comes great responsibility, and I'm sure you know by now, I won't even give my OC's a break. They get no slack from me. I am cruel like that, if you wish to call me that. I simply think I display life as it is, not as it should be, full of both incredible beauty and hope but rife with pain and destruction. "Every rose...has its thorn."_

_A last note. I realized that one of my paragraphs in chapter fifty, unintentionally, contains the titles of chapters forty nine backwards to forty one, in order. I know I try to choose my titles carefully, but...wow. They fit well together too...It seems I shocked you all last time. I'm still unsure, ehh? ~Finalage._

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty One: Choice_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

Negi slowly, ever so painfully, opened his eyes. Everything was silent, or at least, it seemed that way to him. A piece of rock tried to take out his eye, falling from the heavens, Negi could only close it to offer protection. Everywhere hurt. _Everywhere._ You would think, after all of these months doing nothing but fighting and getting hurt, that he would know all the places on him, but still...he was hurting in places he didn't even know he had.

He pushed himself up, painfully, a hard job to do, for the ground was shaking like hell, and he was singed, bruised, whatever the hell else, he didn't care. His ears assaulted him now, telling him that, no it was far from silent in here. Ringing blasts and sounds of fighting, a scream ripped through the night, and Negi managed to whip around. Shit.

He ran, like hell, he ran, mentally reaching for something, anything. His mind snagged on a certain dragon, and suddenly, he was in the fray of demons, his legs having taken him, faithful to the end, swiftly to the heart of battle. He was once more in control, even as he ached; he dragged AltaCrolacri from its sheath. Even as he hissed, he ducked under a thrust, grabbing the demonic pike and stabbing out with his blade, its glow practically ripping apart his opponent whole.

AltaCrolacri meant something akin to Blood Lust, or Blood Truth. Its effect was quite deadly, perhaps not as powerful as HeartBreaker's multitudes of strength, but incredibly powerful nonetheless. The blade sought to purify the soul, in the most painful way possible, plunging straight in and turning the darkness into pain, pain and power in which to rip through the body, if it was enough. Purification.

That is what its main theme was; still, it was like Negi. The darkness was taken unto itself, until, in the heat of battle, it would become a mass of darkness, practically useless unless allowed to rest. Negi had no such rest in his soul, one could not simply "lay him down" to bring him back when he had cleaned up his soul...living beings didn't work that way...

He switched to a one handed hold, his free hand flashing out, glowing brilliantly, while around his wrist, another spell took hold, both of mouth and in mind, he called up ropes of binding to blast forth at two demons in front of him. He spun around to cast them again at another pair.

"Ex Somno Exsistat Tumbus Undique Inimicum Tectum Terreteres! Victus Humus!"  
_Ex Somno Exsistat Complexio Tumulus Inmicum Silens Fulgor! Lancea Fulgurans!_

Capturing them in his ropes of both earth and lightning, he brought his blade into both hands, slashing right through them both as he jumped in between, dissipating them into darkness. That's all these were it seemed. Summoned magic, doing Fate's bidding.

"Dea of igneus incendia, commodo mihi vestri spiritus, flamma ut tripudio ut meus terrenus, Verbero Flamma!"

Calling up a whip of fire, or, more properly, the whip of the Valkyrie, the snapped it out, lashing it in a circle, more like a fan or a lasso than anything else as he continued his charge further, wading into the mass of demonic flesh, his whip and blade cutting a path.

He finally managed to get to the middle, where his entire party was in a tight throng. Calling out, he put both hands down upon the floor, as a tired body and mind sought to gather the magic needed for this last, incredible escape. He managed to find it.

"Vertatur Tempestas Veris! Nobis Protectionem Aerialem! Flans Paries Venti Vertentis!"  
_Continuo Flans Venti Nobis Protectionem Tempestas Orbis Pulvera!_

The winds exploded around him as he spun, a blue ring appearing around him before blasting outwards, pushing the army back just before the circling tempest surged up, preventing any of the summoned beasts from coming in. Negi turned to look at all of his allies, his eyes hovering, for just a split second longer, upon both Arika and Nagi...

Now was not the time for that, and he knew it. He quickly called out orders, formulating a plan as he went along, knowing full well that he could not fight in his current condition, and that there were too many people who needed to be protected to stand and fight anyway, they were out of time.

"Okay, listen up! Fate flew the coop, and this building is about to collapse. All the political like people already ran away, don't bother looking for any, it's time to get outta here, ASAP! The entrance has caved in; we'll have to use the sky dome. Nagi! You carry Arika, and don't talk to me! I'll talk to you later!

Arika, if you need to speak to me, speak to Vir, and he will relate to me, I will be too busy. Anya! I've taught you how to fly that damn dragon, haven't I? Good, He's coming. Take Issac, Jasnin and Rakkan, get on him and get the frick out of here! Alma! Grab Nodoka and use that power of flight you have. Nodoka, I want you to use that Pactio of yours to keep track of Anya and Nagi.

Eva and I can fly. Yue! Get Chisame on your pactio! Hope to hell you have enough magic to carry the both of you, but if not, stick next to Anya's party and land on Vir if you need a break, he can take you all, but I don't want him too initially, we need speed. There's something huge outside...only reason there would be so much damn shaking! Now move! This spell won't last forever, so get into your groups now! I'll lower this when Vir comes, which will be any second!

Eva looked at him while Nagi swung around his staff to get under him. Arika and himself made no comment about him reverting back to their names instead of "Mother" and "Father". Although Arika did look a little confused at the poisonous look Negi had in his eyes, yet, it wasn't directed at them, not...completely.

"Boya...you know I can't fly."

Yue grimly called up her pactio, looking Chisame up and down. Did she suddenly seem to have put on a few dozen pounds? Did Negi trust her so much that he'd give her this task, or was it that they had no choice? No choice it seemed. Anya looked about for a way out. Not that she didn't want this chance to prove herself, and yes, she knew how to fly Vir...but Vir didn't_ like _her...

"I know Eva, I know."

Negi lowered the churning winds just as Vir would have blasted through them, Landing heavily and shaking the ground all the more, his wings blasting back a few demons that had surged forth. Nagi took off upwards on his staff, Yue following a bit shakily afterwards as Rakkan took Anya and practically jumped on top of Vir with her, leaving Issac and Jasnin to jump up.

Vir took off just as Negi pulled Eva towards him, locking her tight against him. So close...and in illusion form too, Negi looked right into her eyes, letting her see just how close they were. Fatigue, anger, loss...he might not make it, carrying her. Still he held her tight in that embrace, determined. Such was his style. The heart of a hero.

"...I'm going to supplement that."

So young, and yet, he had robbed her of her heart, it seemed, just as Nagi had done before him. Eyes ablaze, they spoke of a soul, a soul that, unlike the other, _could_ be hers, if she wanted it. He shot out his hand at the onslaught of demons, calling out once more a final spell before jumping up, returning his hold to her, to take to the skies.

"Continuo Flans Venti Nobis Protectionem Tempestas, Orbis Pulvera!"

In the air, as they rose above the building's roof, the shaking finally stilled as the whole thing collapsed, throwing up dust as Negi's eyes locked upon the sight in front of him. A huge mass, made of nothing but pure darkness it seemed, but perhaps hat was just the night. Its sheer size, and its crushing power, consumed him.

"Ho...lee...heeeeaaallll Shit, that' thing's huge!"

Negi didn't bother trying as it turned what he assumed was its head, a huge dark block of shadow that might dwarf the average small town. He had nothing against that. Nothing...He had to high tail it, the opposite way from it, taking the long way, and when he got the mental message from Vir, he relayed that back. They all would have to take the long way...they had nothing against that monstrosity.

Fate...Fate, in trying to control that at the same time, had probably gone easy on him. It had taken so much from him, but Fate had won, and had gone easy on him. He hated people going easy on him...perhaps for the first time in his short life, faced with a huge challenge; Negi did not charge his fists. He turned tail and ran. Sometimes...you just gotta know when to run.

Grasping Eva all the firmer, he shot off in the opposite direction, soon becoming nothing but a tiny dot upon the horizon. A smile, not from the beast, but the smaller beast on a hill in the distance…Fate. The darkness broke apart, becoming leagues upon leagues of flying demons, which Fate lazily sent upon their way before turning around. Walking the long way home to meet a puppet copy of himself, which Negi had fought, that was his one and only task.

The boy had skill, and power, but his strength was far too great, and now, it was almost saddening, Fate could crush him like a fly. Next time though. Let him have his fun with those demons, and train some more to come after him. It wouldn't matter, in the end. Negi Springfield's destiny had already been decided. The catalyst would lend his power not to stop Fate, but to be the final piece of energy needed to let him succeed.

Tertium was sure of it.

**+-1-+**

The wind had stung at his eyes as he had flown... Silence, but for the rushing of the wind. Darkness, but for the brilliance of the moon. Empty, but for himself and Eva. Her hair had whipped behind them, if it weren't for the fact she was facing him in his arms, it would have melded with his. He was close enough, held her long enough, to feel that undying heart beat, so quickly...but none faster than his own.

Now, it was even more urgent, that beat of his heart, but it wasn't a pleasant beat. No, it was one that signified the oncoming of war. He was tired, and he felt it deep into his frame. Magica Erebia normally didn't affect him so much.

Sure, if he used it like an ass, it was going to drain him, leave him indifferent and tired to the world, but it never had drained him in one go like it had now. He had felt those symbols upon his very _face_, knew as they crept up his back and down his spine, condensed into _claws_ upon his feet, his hands, energy creating _fur_ along his arms even.

It had felt incredible. He wasn't Negi Springfield anymore, not when he was in that. He was...emotion. Just emotion. An animal acting upon instinct. He was powerful, and only in trying to think, did he come to his downfall, only in trying to control himself, did he leave himself open. Perfect. Still, now he clutched tight unto the trunk of a tree, breathing heavily. Shadows condensed upon the already pitch black sky, turning it impossibly dark, all around him.

"Eva...you know how I fight, right?"  
_Senior Sanctus, commodo mihi vestri vires shafts niteo mei oris, tripudio super inimicus...  
_**"Of course boya...why?"**

He only knew the blade in his hand, and the body behind him. Demons, they had found them. They had found _him_. They wanted _him_. No one else. Eva wouldn't let him simply give himself up though. The inconsequential one, the one who meant nothing to anyone...

"This blade will only work in the hands of one who can fight like me, otherwise, it's awkward. I can take care of myself for now. These things...take AltaCrolacri...and fight like me."  
_Sanctus Lancea! Senior Obscurum, tribuo mihi vestri cruor, umbra assilio meus commodo, perussi inimicus..._

Meant something to her. The catalyst, the cursed boy, the biting, burning boy who held his tongue only by the grace of god and his good continence, he who had never let it's true bite even grace those who knew him now...now found that his "unlovable" visage had attracted love.

**"...Fine boya...I hope to hell you've got a plan, because I can see that sweat on your brow."**  
_Atrum Falx!  
_"Sure I do. Fight like hell."

He tossed the blade to her just as the darkness and light exploded about him, wrapping themselves into weapons, a gleaming lance of light in his right, and pulsating scythe of darkness in his left, he shot off the trunk of the tree just as the first of the demons began to swoop down, Eva right behind him.

He ducked under a stab and swung out his foot, swinging out his scythe to cut right through the beast in front of him. His lance forked out, stabbing through one more before he shot up and sidestepped a punch, slashing up with his scythe to catch another's pike.

He ducked just in time to avoid getting his head chopped off by Eva, who, expecting him to duck anyway, sheathed her blade into the chest of another demon at his side. Negi's foot swung out to relieve another of his feet, and he rolled away from another pike to give Eva room in staking his downed opponent to the ground.

They brushed by each other, back to back, as he struck out with his lance, and she, his blade. Yet, the contact was only a brief pause, for momentum carried them away, Negi lunging forward and Eva off to the side, each in their separate battles, ringed with foes.

Negi charged forward with his lance, hooking another demon to fly with him in his charge via his scythe, and stopped short to make him fly into three others, just before he took his lance to slice through them. There was no mess, they were made of magic, and returned to that form once defeated...

Still, as one caught Negi's arm with a spear, ripping into his flesh, he knew that, magic or not, they could still deal some serious, and _real_... damage. Gritting his teeth, which was a bad habit of his, he stabbed out with his lance, skewering the culprit and forcing it deeper in so it screamed while disappearing.

Behind him, an explosion of light made him spin, his lance lacing a thick line through those around him, and he shot through the gap between his fallen enemies to see Eva, holding a gleaming blade, sink the weapon deeper into the one in front of her, her free hand coming out to ensnare another behind her in her web of strings. Eyes searching, the locked unto him.

_**The hell does this thing do, boy? **_

That's what her eyes seemed to say, but he only smiled, twirling on the spot as his ears alerted him to a presence behind him, insubstantial lance cutting through equally insubstantial opponents. The lance of light and the scythe of darkness, along with the whip of fire, the hammer of the ice god, the axe of lightning...as long as a mage had knowledge and energy, they were never out of weapons.

"It's most powerful against these things, made completely of magic. It takes all the darkness in a soul and turned it into raw energy to rip the body through with pain. Or rip them apart if they are just dark magic..."

He jumped away from an arrow, his lance digging into the earth to stop him from falling as he braced and shot off in a new direction, both weapons streaming behind him as he ran. Enemies everywhere, but they were thinning. Slowly, but surely, they were thinning.

Using his lance to launch off the ground, he spun his scythe in a wide arch crashing it down upon his opponent, a clean cleave in two, darkness, sifting away on either side of him. He ignored that however, for he leveled his lance again and charged forth, a new enemy already in front of him.

The thrill of battle, it was pumping, yet he knew it could not last forever. Spinning on the spot to blast back all those around him with his weapons, he rose them both to clash against each other, calling out his spell work, drawing upon his reserves once more.

"Cocatrice ocululem accusative, adveho unto mihi, trado vestri obtutus, levo vultus orbis terrarum skewer meus inimicus, Ortus Phasmatis!"

Up from the ground, through the soil, shot up sharp spires, skewering all who stood around him as they continued to rise, effectively raising a five foot wall around the boy before falling away, yet even this small break gave him enough breath to yell as he raced over his own receding spires, swinging his scythe high and stabbing forth with his lance again.

The wind played on. Swishing through branches peacefully, masking the sound of battle, the screams of fallen demons, the whisper of forgotten spells. Eva spun to avoid a charge from one of her opponents, and effectively managed to run him through when he tried to charge her again.

_**One hell of an ability. Not much different than the one it had before if less powerful in some areas...yet this power is more...appropriate perhaps?**_

Stupid thing had no real mind of its own anyway. She turned just in time to see Negi jump up into the sky, calling out another spell, once more, one she wasn't familiar with. Truly, if anyone deserved the title of "The Thousand Master." it was him. He was the one who continued to twist Latin and Greek to dance to his own tune, creating spells as well as calling forth from the ether long dead ones. A professor to the very end.

"Splendens thorns, tripudio super mei oculmens ensare meus inimicus in vestri habitum, adficio lemma unto mihi, raptor vires, raptor vitalitus, Ortus Bona!"

Vines, creeping, shooting vines, crawled along the ground and ensnared those around him as he fell back down to the ground, panting. They squeezed tight as light, faint light, green spheres, siphoned off the plants and floated to him, ever so slowly. Just as the first reached him, his opponents dissipated into mist, and Negi ducked under an axe to stab with his lance through another spelled crone.

Breathing heavily, his weapons cancelled as did his illusion, and he looked about as the other opponents dissipated into mist. Fate must be calling them back, having finished his game, perhaps thinking that he had measured Negi's strength, or just that he needed rest.

Who knew? Honestly, Negi didn't care. He was focusing upon the green light, the one that had reached him. Breathing deeply, he tried to focus upon the energy it gave him...it wasn't much. This spell was a risky one at best. It dealt damage to your opponent, and restored a small portion of your energy, equal to a fraction of the damage done...but it was slow, and if interrupted, all energy that had not reached you would be dissipated.

It wasn't much, no, only a drop in the bucket, but it stopped his limbs from shaking. He had battled nearly non-stop all week, and then the disaster at the ball, followed with the hours he had flown carrying Eva, and now this. If something attacked him now...he probably wouldn't have the strength to fight it off.

Eva came up, slowly, flipping his blade in her hands so she held the blade, offering him, silently, the hilt. It was clean. Obviously. Pulsing gently for a moment when both of their hands were on it, he received the blade and sheathed it silently, still sitting there on his knees. He sat there, in silence, for quite a long pause before he decided to speak, and by this time, she had taken a seat opposite him, looking up at the sky.

"Rakkan's house is still about fifty kilometers from here."  
**"Hmm."  
**"I don't think I can make the trip."  
**"No Negi, I don't think you should."**

So what were they supposed to do, wait around here? Hell no, not in his opinion. He needed to get back, damnit. He needed to train. If he was planning on doing what he was...he needed power, more than he had now, obviously. He would need to be able to control the flow of energy, a flow of energy that kept an entire world in check.

"Eva..."  
**"What?"  
**"Do you think the mage of the beginning was justified in what he was trying to do?"

Where...the...hell...had that question come from? She had been about to berate him for stupid, random questions, but his face, calmly analyzing the stars, gave her pause. She hadn't been with him the entire time in that ball, but...she had seen him go down against Asuna, and knew, even as she could do nothing, in her own fighting...that Asuna's memories had been unlocked, it was just in the way the woman _stood_.

Once trained in it, you held a certain air, in royalty. You walked a certain way. A certain, _annoying _way, but a way none the less, a way. For Negi, having never been taught that pompous..._shit_, he walked like a hunter, an animal. Arika, walked like some kind of damn horse prancing around, and, until her memories had been returned, Asuna had walked like a mundane.

Not anymore. So this is where that question had come from, and it was a delicate thing, the answer. For once, she wasn't sure _**what**_...she _should_ say. His face said it all, which was rare. Weighing the past, judging the future, and her answer was a main piece in the puzzle. Licking her lips, she looked at him, honestly looked at him. Since when did she put so much thought into talking with this boy?

**"...Honestly? Yes. It was one of the reasons I never really fought for Ala Alba, regardless of what I might have felt for Nagi. I pretended to be higher than it all...but I couldn't stop Nagi, and I knew that the mage was right."**  
"Yet you were prepared to let me just go off and fight the same fight my father had, against something that needed to be done? Agreed, Fate is going about it all the wrong way, but still."

What could she say to that one? Yes, she had let him go off, assuming, wrongfully, that he would be as thick headed as his father in these things, that he would stop Fate and it all would be over, no need to go off actually rebuilding a world, right? No, that wasn't it, and Negi knew it, from the look on his face, he knew it went deeper than that. She had been..._protecting_ him. He wasn't strong enough, and Fate was wrong anyway. Tired as he was, Negi still managed to call up a small sphere of red in his left hand, his right dancing it's fingers across the dim surface, bringing with it traces of light purple.

A crude model of how Mars looked, super imposed with the illusion spell it held upon it. A crude mockery of the world today. He held it up in the darkness, inspecting it as Eva looked on. This was the magical world. He sighed as he let it go, he didn't see her shake of the head, but he felt her grab his arm, firm, real. He was looking at this wrong. He needed to understand.

**"Do you remember Rakkan's idiotic power chart Negi?"  
**"What about it?"  
**"Right now, I'd put you around four thousand, power wise, although you have proven more than capable of sparring off with someone far more powerful, but this is a spell you are trying to cast, Negi, and those don't take compensation, you either have enough power to cast and control it, or you don't. If you use that pervert's chart, I'd estimate needing, literally, a level of over five hundred thousand to comfortably control that."  
**"In essence, I'm hopeless. No Eva, you don't need to justify anything, I know that already..."  
**"...No Negi, you don't understand my-"**

He interrupted her with a hand. No, no. She did not know this already, not the whole story, she'd hear that when they got back, when the others were near, when he would only have to explain himself once. Once. Now however, he needed her to not know, needed her to not be able to see past all her emotions, so that he could do it for her.

"No Eva. Don't say it. I'll say it. You see, if you tell me I should go do this anyway, and I die, you'll have no one to blame, but yourself, won't you? In the end, your heart will say that I listened to you, no matter how much you curse my stupidity. So I'll say it. I'm going to do it anyway Eva. Regardless if I might die, regardless of whatever, I will do it. I say this, and by saying it, I take all the blame... if I die, no one can be blamed but myself, and just like you couldn't stop Nagi, know that you cannot stop me. Blame me, no one else, because the last thing I want is to leave you with some stupid guilt."  
**"Wha...l-like you're worthy of making me guilty over a-anything!"  
**"Of course Eva, I'm not. That's the point. Catalysts are only tools...right? Now, I think I might have some energy, enough to get us home and then make me drop you on the roof, so I go crashing into the sand below anyway."

He held out his hand, a small smile on his face as he beckoned her towards him. She looked at the hand, and then him. The tired little boy, holding out his hand to the eternally youthful vampire girl. She shook her head. Stupid kid. Always pushing himself too hard...but that was just what getting stronger was all about, pushing yourself to the limit. Taking his hand, she knew that this lesson had been bred into him, and it would not ever change. Not ever. Clasping her tight, together, they regained their wings to the sky...

_The heart of a hero, her very own thousand master, but for how long?_

**+-2-+**

"You're free to go, so why don't you beat it? No one ever forced you to stay, Shiori."  
"N-Negi-san! Ahh, you're all beaten up!"  
"Oh, it was nothing but a confrontation. I lost, your magister and I, but another interfered. Shouldn't you be heading back to him?

Indeed, no one had forced her to stay. Unlike Fate-han, who had chained up Asuna until he was prepared for her, Shiori, fully expecting the same treatment, had received none such. Instead, she was given a room and generally left alone, unless it came to meal times, in which case, someone banged on her door to tell her to either come down, or starve. Little was said to her besides that though.. in fact, the only one who really spared her much more than a word was, surprisingly, her enemy, Negi Springfield.

"Did Fate-han do that to you?"  
"Not directly, no, a bunch of his summoned demons, and my aunt. Nothing serious...but aren't you more concerned about Fate?"

Over the time here, she had learned to get a feel for the acidic and sarcastic boy, observing him and gaining valuable information for her magister, but she knew this information was inconsequential to him. He didn't need nor want his opponent scoped in such a way. Negi Springfield was a delightful mystery to him, a beautiful surprise every time. Stronger and stronger, without any rest, but yet still oh so far away. He was Fate's toy, and for a long while, under Fate, she had thought the same...but now.

"Y-yes...b-but I'm still your prisoner."  
"Never said you were. You could have left the first day I discovered you, you only assumed I was keeping you here, all a bit really loosely. Go, you should see your friends again, and prepare for your last battle against me, huh? You probably have lots of juicy tidbits to tell Fate about my fighting style."

He was a person, a person who called her by her name, and whom held a respect for her, if a gruff, careful acquaintance. She was the enemy after all, but he was a good keeper of his "prisoners" if one could call her that...literally, there were many times that she could have just up and left, he never _did_ formally said she was their prisoner after all, and the doors were hardly locked.

"N-no! Fate-han likes to fight you as a surprise, no cheats..."  
"Of course, one as powerful as he shouldn't need to use "cheats" Fate is an honorable bugger, isn't he? Ha ha. Of course."

A part of a haphazard community, that is what she had become...Normally, during free time, two book loving and dark haired girls, whom even boasted a similar eye color to complete their companionship would quietly practice magic together, although, they liked to grab their teacher when they could for explanation on a particular magical topic, when their books failed to clarify...but mainly, they kept to themselves, except the shorter one, she conversed with a younger red headed girl whose fire magic was superb, under the watchful eye of her teacher.

One grumpy red headed girl, who was always trying to alternately use her laptop and find some new way to draw power to it. Her teacher granted her a little spark of charge, through carefully controlled lightning magic, every three days, upon his word, but she had to find the wisest way to spend that sparse gift. Next to her, there was almost always present the interested raven haired one, whom managed to alternately freak out and aggravate the other, through no actual outwards movement.

Then came the red headed man, so many red heads...her eyes were swimming! He hung around with a both a tiny blonde haired girl and a blonde woman. Shiori kidded herself however, she knew the woman was Arika, scorned queen of calamity, the man Nagi Springfield, the famed thousand master, and the girl the dreaded vampire Evangeline.

On a typical day, she could look off to the side from the main group, and discover A silver haired girl staring out into the sky, trying to pretend to be deaf to all the ruckus her fellows were causing, as, off into a more clear area, two young men sparred, one sandy haired and light skinned, if somewhat tanned and weather-beaten, and the other slickly tanned, and seemingly of Indian descent, spinning a mammoth blade to the other's quick whip.

Then there was Rakkan, laughing along with Nagi's antics as he tried to engage his wife in some kind of conversation that would lead somewhere other than getting slapped, and finally, all alone, quietly holding up a vial of what looked suspiciously like blood, sat the teacher himself. Teacher of all, he would sit with a look of one trying to figure out the meaning of the very universe as he tried to examine the blood in his vial, almost as if debating whether or not he should take a swig.

No, she had never been a prisoner. Perhaps the cruelest title you could give her here would be "unwelcome guest" or "generally ignored passerby". She was an observer, and she was free to observe. She blended into crowds, watched from a distance...perhaps that is why her pactio was what it was. Fate had asked her to risk her life, and she had been happy to do so, but the enemy party was not as sinister as they had been made out to seem.

Now however, Negi held out a pack, one that he shook to break her from her revere before dropping it into her hands. Supplies. That is what he claimed. Enough for a good five days at least. By that time, she should be able to get picked up by her magister from wherever she would find herself. She was free to leave, in fact, it was recommended, for he would be buckling down now, and it didn't bode well for her to stay with one she was supposed to be fighting.

The haphazard family was kicking her out in other words, and while it was supposed to happen, she found herself a little reluctant to leave...so imagine her surprise, if you will, when, as she was being ushered out of the door, early in the morning, an explosion greeted her, right in front of her face, knocking her back into Negi, who managed to dodge away from her, but still caught her, magically of course.

A tinkle of glass, scattered far and wide, the shards mere specks of dust all around her. It wasn't the explosion that caught Negi's attention, it was the figure that had arrived, holding high a now shattered teleport bauble. Asuna Kagurazaka. In her hand, the bauble was crushed just as Negi's hand touched his ever present blade.

Paranoid to the end, even while in his base, effectively his home away from home, he wore that blade, and his short sword, sheathed away close to his heart. However, Asuna gave him pause, if only with her eyes, once again, those eyes bearing unlocked brilliance, truth. No, he did not want another dose of those eyes, thank you very much. He didn't attack, but he still didn't let his hand fall from his blade's hilt either.

_"Let go of your blade, Negi. I already know you can't handle the rest of the truth I have to tell. You are weaker than I thought... but that is of no consequence."_  
"Way to come into someone's house. You don't say hi, you just shoot off the insult."  
_"...and you don't insult me with that blade?"_  
"I always have it on, I haven't drawn it, you are seeing me as I always am, if that insults you, take a number and get outta my sight. Last night was enough."

She shook her head, and actually had the gall to take a step closer, tossing a bauble at Shiori, compliments of Fate. Her face said plainly her desire for the girl to leave, now. She pressed the bauble to her and left the room, but purposely forgot to mention one thing...she'd never used one before...Asuna focused upon Negi, but he beat her to the punch.

"What the hell do you want now? Fate send you to finish me off?"  
_"Fate attacked you after the mission was concluded. That' wasn't part of the deal I set for him. He figured that I had taught him all he needed to know, and didn't need to listen to me anymore...Fate doesn't "send" me anywhere, Negi. He has no control over me."_  
"So what are you here to do? Come back to me whining? Your plan didn't work? Or do you actually have the balls to come here expecting me to follow you? I told you what I would do, but I also told you to stay out of my f*cking way too."  
_"No one can teach you the code of the life maker but I Negi..."_

Nagi was confused here, having come down with the others to see Shiori, the uncomfortably accepted guest, off, and now seeing his son having a row with Asuna...holy hell, she had grown well, hmm? Not to happy though, and he knew it was because...ohhh sh*t. Her memories, her memories...shit shit shit...and if she had told Negi...teaching him the code of the life maker...crap, he had to stop this!

Yet, even as he rushed forth, surprised that Rakkan wasn't too far behind, an explosion of magical power caused him to fall flat on his face. He craned his neck to see Rakkan fall next to him. Both of them chained to the floor with links of brilliant magic. From the shadows, a boy stepped out, hands glowing.

**"That...is where you are wrong. I can teach him it..."**

Kago Masato, through hard training of his own in these past weeks, held tight upon his conjured chains as he walked between the fallen Rakkan and Nagi. His luck was with him here, he had tripped them up out of pure surprise. His eyes were focused upon Asuna however. Once again, he had forsaken his robe to the closet, wearing a navy set of mages robes.

Darker every day, that seemed to be his theme, for he had a far way to fall, and quite a lot to analyze. One thing he did have however, was the code. He couldn't use it himself of course, he had been taught unconsciously, and thus, it lay locked in his mind, only available to him now, after being brought forth, but he didn't have a key, and his power...was not enough.

If he had chosen a different path of training, he might have had enough power to stand a chance now, might have been able to step up and fill those shoes the mage of the beginning had, but he had chosen a lower power path, and had stayed too long upon it, but that didn't stop him from being able to teach.

He was quick, his weapon flashing into his hand as he lashed out, a single hair's breadth away from Negi's neck as he struck out at Asuna, and yet, she was equally quick, her own weapon flashing out, coming into existence just in time to deflect the sharp cross edge. He reeled it back just as easily and struck again, once more watching her swat his whip away. The gravity of both minds weighed heavily, a physical presence.

_**Why am I attacking this woman?**_

Negi wasn't aware of it at the time, but both of them, Asuna and Kago, were grabbing upon the skill of the code, using it in a more dynamic presence, without a key, to affect the world, to bend it to their will. He didn't know it, but, unspoken, they were fighting for supremacy, for the right to be in the same space.

_**Simply because instinct tells me to? Or is it a test of worth?**_

Asuna was more powerful, naturally more powerful, naturally stronger, more experienced, polished, but Kago was innovative, and had more knowledge then he even knew, more than her, knowledge he employed instinctively. Once more he struck, his whip slicing through the air, faster than before, he withdrew it before Asuna even had the chance to deflect, and struck again, a different area, this time, he hit his mark.

_**Supremacy. To prove something, deep. The boy, that's what's in her eyes. The boy, the only one who has the power, the potential, to learn this, doesn't he need a good teacher? I am too weak, and she...she is of an impure race...to control this, but too chose one of us to be his mentor…for her, it is about control. She needs to control him. I…I must best her.**_

She grit her teeth as it sliced at her neck, bringing a crimson tide. He had struck deep. He lashed out again, and her blade rose to block it, only to discover it passing through. It wasn't real. Only a shadow. Her eyes wide, she looked down, he had once more slashed at her, slicing the leg.

_Gah...he's good. His control of illusion and time...he's not strong, not as much as I, but nonetheless, he is powerful._

Kago lashed out again, and again, and this time, Asuna had to chose, to dodge or to let the hit fall, and not always did she anticipate the correct one, which was false and which was real. Kago followed no pattern, none she could perceive. She received another lash on the leg for trying to leap from behind Negi to close the distance.

It didn't take her long after that point, swinging about her long blade, trying to avoid his shots, did she realize that her defensive position wasn't working, and that she would inevitably lose to this other anyway, no matter what...

Controlling illusion, realizing the world all around you isn't real. Knowing this and turning it to your advantage. Defying physics, breaking the laws. One needed to either be from the outside, or be tossed hard into that realization, as Kago had been, to truly appreciate this...and use it. She grabbed her leg as the world righted itself, and Negi, caught in between the two, helpless, released a breath he hadn't known had been held.

His world had just slowed to a stop, as he watched the two fight in between him, impossibly fast. This was the power of the life maker? To take the world and wring it to your will, and with a key, you could control it, create and destroy it, as you wished?

_"Fine...you may teach him. It matters not how he learns, only that he learns well enough to do what he must."_

Kago shook his head, a small, sad smile on his face. She would not control the boy. He would see to it that. He knew, from her eyes, that she had not told him the price of learning this magic, what one must give up in order to wield the grand master key. One had to be human. The boy was a vampire. Yet, something told Kago that he had a way to change that, that she knew this, his, way.

He would tell him the price, and then let him chose again. The priest would not control him, not as the world had done so many times to the boy. No, as little of a choice it was, he would give it to him, and he would absorb his anger when it came.

One last time, he would be a priest and comfort the hurt, one last time, he would purify the sins and let the one he held see the light. One. Last. Time. After that, he knew there was no going back from the darkness that would crouch in his soul. No longer pure, he could not continue the lie he held behind the robes of a priest, praying to a god he was losing faith in. He wasn't worthy of that holy grail, not anymore.

He would be a liar, more so every day. Yet, now was not the time, now...now he had a task to do, one in which the fate of the world hung upon the result. Now.

**+-E-+**

_Once again, I've no idea how this chapter really is, it was written oddly. Hmm, I see the last one only got two reviews. Not that I am not happy I got reviews, just I normally receive three, and my two diligent reviewers didn't comment. Did I upset or disappoint you guys? Not good...but, I cannot let anything stop me, I must search for my current best, and bring it forth, because I still don't know where it is._

_See you all! Finalage, out!_


	52. Chapter LII: Decisions

**_O+-+X_**

_One thing I fear is that I have so much I want to say, and yet, my time is closing so quickly against me, ehh? There is so much story to get out, and while I am keeping a good schedule, I still worry. I also worry about the reception it will receive. Am I doing a good job of doing what I am trying to do? This is what I always have to ask myself. _

_If what you say is true NightmareSyndrom, I'll just have to boost it further; maybe I'll return the feedback on sheer firepower from awe, although I would never think of myself on such a skill point. Mainly, at this point in the story however, there is so much I have to tell, I did say it would be an explosion of events after all. The tension continues to build, how much higher can it get? ~Finalage._

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Two: Decisions_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

That which is not real should not be able to feel. It should be a law. A fricken law. Damn. I am nothing but a tool that the world will use, so tell me, why does my heart ache? All emotion comes from the brain, one should right upon their cards that they love one from the bottom of their brain, but the human anatomy clenches muscle in emotional distress, and the most diligent muscle in this area if the heart.

It's just a fricken muscle! Nothing else, but it hurts, aches. Why? Just because of my mother? My idiot father? Is it because of a girl I have come to realize as my aunt so easily losing her innocence and sundering mine, without so much a shred of outward remorse? Or is it the fact that I have come to realize companionship, only to realize I must now give it all away?

_Life is...cruel, so many times, it is cruel, to me._

Negi sat, calmly, at the "dining room" table, just hearing himself think. The place was fancy, Rakkan's house... He had never let himself just sit down and see it. The chairs were a fine Mahogany type of wood, solid and strong to fit the table, which was set for about twelve people. The room was well furnished, if a bit spartan. Just right for Rakkan.

In front of him was Chisame's laptop, it was time for him to keep his promise after all and charge it, along with the other electrical devices of hers. It was a nice exercise, doing this; it allowed him to control his magic small scale, for precision more than anything. While he did this however, he took advantage of using the thing. Internet was a disgrace of course, and working through Mahou Net was a pain, but he could manage.

_"Negi..."_

It was when his mother walked in that "Grand Finale." began playing as loud as possible, and by no coincidence at all. It blared out, starting off violently into its hard guitar, made the woman jump. He didn't want to talk to her, that's basically what he was saying, without any solid words. Calm as you please.

This morning, he had seen Asuna lose to Kago, and Kago promised that tonight, they would begin his training in the code, if by that time he still wanted to learn it...Negi didn't quite understand that comment, but he had a feeling that Asuna had been hiding something from him, something that Kago knew as well, and unlike her, he planned to tell the boy.

_"Negi..."_

Arika swallowed as the music entered into a false end, a short solo of a piano fading into nothingness. She was about to open her mouth when the music blasted her again, once more making her jump. Loud as hell, and harsh, that's what it sounded like to her, but she recognized the energy behind it.

_"Negi..."_

She knew, as he was a vampire, that the noise was probably assaulting his ears. Yet she could also see that he was using it as an excuse. He had heard her, but he was ignoring her. Now, after seeing Asuna just...appear...the way she had, and sporting the obvious fact her memories had been shared with Negi...it sparked a fear in her. Many of those memories would be very damaging to her relationship with her son...

_"__**Negi**__..."_

She just needed a confirmation, but as the music entered into a more pronounced Cello (Or violin, she couldn't tell...) theme and less of the hard guitar, her patience with Negi thinned. Her mind was more of a mother than an actually logical person when her mouth opened next, forgetting just how Negi worked.

_**"Negi Tajaiwar Springfield!"**_

The boy, needless to say, turned slowly, instantly shifting the volume down a near minimum, but loud enough for both parties to still hear it, while he reset the track. He looked at his mother full on. Tajaiwar hmm?

Tajwar was an Arabic name for crowned king. Yet, Tajai? Closest thing he had heard to that was the Thunder God, meaning, if he was correct, the name meant Crowned Thunder King...some kind of middle name, hmm? So that's what the smudged "T' word on his birth certificate said...his eyes took their time in giving Arika their attention, even if they were trained on her, there was no focus.

"Tajaiwar? Funny how my first elemental affinity was Lightning magic then, hmm? Unless I misinterpret the name...What do you want with my life? Come to drill me on what Asuna told me? Or are you here to "_hug_" me and tell me it's all a lie? I tell you right now, doing that to a steel rosebush, thorns bared, would be a more comfortable experience at the moment."

He was, as always, too quick for his own good, too smart. Arika paused as once again, the song entered into its false ending phase. She didn't jump when it started again, but she found her heart beat along with the pace of those ever present Cellos. Negi watched her, carefully.

_"Listen...I don't know what Asuna showed you, but you have to understand, whatever it was...you know that we love you, right?"_

Avoiding the issue, like a true diplomat... and he said so too, plainly, to her face, just as his music reached a new crescendo, a constant thrum of string to back up his words, she was angry, but he let her be. She didn't expect him to see past the stall, or worse, she did, but hoped he would be blind to it, wanting love.

_"Negi...please."_  
"Paused to long there, and you stall. Listen to me; I am no judge of sin. I am not god. I can't know what you have been through; I can only know what I saw. I'm not going to sit here and hate you, or my father, for what you did. You people acted like people always do, for the moment. No one can see the future, not even I can predict it, not for any real purpose, it's a fleeting gift."

It just so happened that Negi had a playlist on that laptop, one that Chisame kept out of plain respect, and the fact his soundtracks weren't all that bad to listen too...as "Grand Finale" faded away, taking with it it's elevated energy, the music brought one down gently, playing another, softer track. Negi stood up slowly, still letting the electricity play from his hands into the machine's ports, slowly, methodically.

"You know, most people now a day, don't listen to the words of a song, Arika. They listen to the beat, the tone. The song can spew blasphemy left and right, but they won't hear it. That is the twenty first century... "

The boy sighed, casting his free hand out to the computer behind him. He shook his head before continuing. He reset and paused the track currently playing.

"That's one of the main reasons I _generally _stick to soundtracks. I never chose a song without a meaning behind it however. It becomes a game. The last one was called "Grand Finale, or "Postludum"...besides its intense theme, I enjoy it because it does indeed remind me of _my_ grand finale, a grand battle in which I have to lose. A catalyst as I am can only expect that...

Pressing play, he waited a few seconds before the a chorus of strings entered into the play, but he did not waste those few seconds, he spoke, and the music caught up to him.

"This one is called "Finding Beauty" recently brought to life just this year. It is, perhaps, one of my favorites. Do you know why? Listen to it... Hear that? Those instruments sing. They sing, for Christ's sake! F*ck, you have to hear it! The world vibrates goddamnit! The world...!

The impression of waiting, of seeking, of dreaming, is played out in such a clear, powerful way, and right in the middle, when the power comes to bear, do you see...it is only in music can I see. Life is full of so much terror, so much "_ugly" _that I forget sometimes...its beauty...

I have to find it, chase after it, and yet, every time I come within a hair, it slips away...my dear woman, I have hardened myself. I have become so hard, due to those mistakes you made, due to my own mistakes, that the beauty runs away. It runs from me. You hear me? It runs!"

At this point, Negi swiped at his own face, and Arika was surprised to find they had become teary, actually teary. The boy was actually spilling a piece of his soul, once more, to another, letting the world peek in for a rare sight, the admission that he still was alive, and could still be hurt inside.

"A catalyst, born because his father wanted power, a catalyst, whose own mother, out of sorrow, tried to kill, numerous times! A catalyst who failed to save his own family, regardless of the excuse of being too young to know. One who should not be able to feel, who has killed, stomped and eradicated so much beauty from his own mind, the beauty of innocence!"

She would have interrupted him, but he was pacing now, wildly casting his eyes about looking everywhere, anywhere but at her, all at once and the same time. He was looking for the words to describe what he wanted to say, looking for the means.

"I am that sole figure, that fool! Tell me something, does a screwdriver pine for companionship? Does a saw search for a mate, do pens ache for love? Why does this hurt, why do I even _**care**_? I shouldn't, as I am nothing, and nothing can't care if it dies, won't give a damn if something changes…"

He looked at her now, stopping near the table to stand stock still, just staring, unblinking at her. It was creepy. He was switching from one emotion to the next, a tirade of flowing energy, and she couldn't pin him down to anything, not any one mode.

"I am not saying this music exemplifies all of this mind you. I am simply saying what it makes me feel like, and what is on my mind because of it. My life is not mine to control, I am not like you. You may listen to this and think it beautiful, and yes, perhaps it is, but I see deeper into it, and when I apply it to my life, it takes on a whole different level of meanings to me. Not the music's beauty, but the music that life beats out, that is the beauty, and horror, that I am looking at."

She came closer to him, a means of comfort, but Negi backed away, dangerous, unpredictable. His eyes managed to snag the screen of the computer, which confirmed a full battery, and just in time, for he felt that any longer wouldn't allow him to control his flow anymore.

"Don't touch me. I don't need to be told I'm wrong, not again, my life is made up of lies, what's one more, if it even is a lie?"

He swallowed once and his eyes were clear once more. It was as if it had never happened, not as he powered down the computer. His eyes burned as his father chose that time to come in through the same door. He stopped when he felt the sparks fly however. He had been around long enough to know when Negi was dangerous to come in contact with, and this was one of those times.

He stared at Nagi for a few seconds, Negi did, before seeing Rakkan and Eva enter after him. It must be near lunch time, only reason people would be coming in, in such numbers. Was it only time for lunch? Really? He thought it was, hoped it had been, later than that. He sighed as the culprit herself, Asuna, paused behind Eva.

"_**What's the hold up?"**_

This had come from Rakkan, and for it, he received a full on blast from Negi's eyes. Not that it had any real effect upon the carefree, "invincible" man. In fact, Rakkan welcomed it. It meant the boy was ready and looking for a fight, and if he wanted one, his elder would only be too happy to oblige. Negi pointed a vicious finger at Arika, although his tone was calm, smooth…dangerously so.

"Oh, there is no hold up at all, just Arika over here trying to interrogate me. Why don't you move out of the way so the people can get through? I'm pretty sure it's time someone went and started to prepare lunch, and I'm certain it isn't my turn."

By now, she was steaming, and she really had no idea why. All she knew is that all of her careful groundwork, the rebuilding of a bridge she had never have let get torn down, had been swept away in one fell swoop by a tsunami named Asuna, putting her at odds once more with her son, and she didn't even know how far the damage went…

"_I…I never tried to kill-"  
_"Of course Arika, of course you never _tried_ to kill me. It was an accident, right? The first time, oh, you were cutting peaches while I was watching and your hand _slipped_, right? The second time, you were trying to open a package in front of me and, ohhh; you used just a bit too much force, hmm…

Ohh! Let's say the third time you forgot you had me in the bath! The forth, hmm, what should I say? Ahh! You conveniently forgot to lift my head when giving me a second pillow, and it wound up on top of my face instead of under me, oops!

How about the time you almost cut off the arm from my foster mother's body, as she tried to stop you from butchering me, oh sorry, I meant that family turkey. You were using the wrong knife Arika…ohh dear. Ahh, and all those times you screamed at night, at the top of your lungs, to shut me up, or the times you would mar your fridge with words of hate, that wasn't about me…it was a story you where writing, yes? So creative you are!"

She took a step back, accidentally tripping over Nagi's foot and winding up in his arms, pressed against him. That didn't have her attention at all however. No, her ears were the only part of her that was working right now, and they were being shot down. Stunned. How much had she told him about that?

That… that was…all these old demons, dark days, coming back to haunt her, and yet, Negi was never one to leave things half done. Never. Now that he had started, he continued, spilling out all he knew, things hidden in his mind, things Asuna had not even shown him, but hidden there, just for him to see, when he cared to know…

"Ahh, the amount of cursing you pulled off, I see where I got my tongue from! You literally built a plan in your head, no? Since you couldn't kill me, after trying several times, you'd go off and try to find Nagi, leaving me to Nagi's sister, but ahh, that's not the _whole_ story, is it?

Who was it Arika? Who was it that left the note? Who was it that whispered to the darkness that Nagi's son and his wife lived here, hoping, praying that while you lived here, demons, dark foes of Nagi, would rage the village. You figured Nagi would come to save you, no? Ah ha, ah ha! I see your eyes now! You!

While you lived in that village, plagued by rage, you sent those rumors spreading about, hoping that, if attacked, Nagi would come! Yet you grew impatient when nothing happened, and you up and left the village you had doomed! You left me there too, to die with them all! You…**you killed them, all of them!**"

His voice had finally broken from that whisper into a strangled yell as he blurted out what seemed to be blasphemy. Nagi took a step forward, and so too did Rakkan, but Nagi was quicker, appearing right next to Negi, his knee coming up to hit him in the gut, but Negi was too quick for him. He teleported to his back and grabbed his left foot, literally lifting him off his feet and tossing him to slam against a wall, hard.

"You too, yah sick b*stard! I know who actually f*cked my mother, you piece of…oh don't even let me start! You…I don't even know what to call you, you're just a dude whose DNA is a part of me, but you ain't my father. Shit, I don't even know if I can be qualified to say I have one. I'm made up of human DNA and magic; I'm a fricken test tube monster!

Not only that, but would you love me to tell your friends just how you got all that power of yours? Would you like to see their faces as they discover how weak you are, why my pain spell affected you so much, just how hard they worked compared to you? No? I thought not. You're silent now, aren't you?"

Indeed, Nagi had slipped from the wall unto on knee, and he was gritting his teeth. He didn't say a word, knowing full well what the boy was referring too. He swallowed, painfully. Demons, old demons, brought to bear, just like a criminal who, twenty years after committing a murder, is caught and brought to trial, the evidence final, the judgment passed. It matters not how old the crime, not to the law. You still must pay, and pay in full you will. Still, Negi's voice calmed as he brought back his control. He took a deep breath before, seeing Chisame, shoved her laptop in her arms, perhaps a bit more carefully than he wanted too.

"You...I don't even have a curse word severe enough to describe what I feel right now, the word Negi should become the newest and more offensive swear in the world, for it would describe all the shit and hate in my whole, damn, short, life. Yet, I don't blame you, I've cleansed my soul, in this very room, and I'll leave you all to clean your own. I've said it once; I'll say it again...

No one can ultimately predict the future, and even divination is simply a guide, a warning, of what can and could happen. I blame no one for the result of their actions here, for they could not have known, and I would hope that, when they made the decisions that brought forth the effects I see, they were choosing the best option available to them at the time, and thus the cause matches the effect justly…good day."

Spinning on his heel, Negi left the room, taking with him nothing; leaving behind him in his wake a train wreck of emotion, past demons, shattered faith and, finally, truth. Nagi stood full up, brushing himself off and walking to Arika, who was shaking.

She spun around to find Asuna, whom she knew had come up behind her, but, Alas, her sister had vanished, gone at the same time Negi had spun, hiding a secret, knowing smile. Arika could hear peals of untamed laughter somewhere down the hall, but Nagi held her tight, and she quite suddenly found that her body had been stripped of the energy to give chase. So this was revenge then, hmm? How far will you go...Asuna?

"_**Uhh…whose turn it is to cook? I'm getting kinda hungry here." **_

How…the…hell…could Rakkan still be thinking about food? Didn't he see, _anything_ of what just happened?

_"Revenge, after all, is a dish best served cold...ice cold, straight from the fridge. When it's ready, you put on your suit, Sunday best, and pop that sucker outta the fridge...enjoy..."_

**+-1-+**

"Alma. Please. I am not your master."  
"I am sorry, Master."  
"Damnit Alma, I'm not worth being anyone's f*cking master!"

Negi grasped his head, pushing back his hair as Alma, slightly sheepish, simply repeated the line. You would think, that after so long, either Alma would crack or Negi would learn, but neither would happen it seemed. Negi looked up at the late midday sky. Taking a deep breath of the air, he marveled at the fact it was all illusion. Just like him.

_Life can be so cruel, and beautiful, all at once, but for one like me, I don't deserve the wonder it grants mine eyes, day by precious day. We see such wonder every which way, but we let it slip by, leaves upon the wind of flowing times... Life's stress robs us blind, drives us mad, takes our love and dashes it like sand...the hell am I doing? Poetry? F*cking insane, that's what I am. Insane. I can't look at a flipping sunset without breaking out the melodrama and singing the sad song._

Oh, it didn't matter what one told him, he was fully well convinced now that he didn't meet the requirements to be called a real boy. He was Pinocchio, minus the happy ending. A puppet to be controlled, used, and then, when finally broken, discarded to the winds, burnt, ashes the only grace that remains. Licking his lips to rid them of that annoying dry feeling, he looked sidelong at Alma. She saw herself as a tool too. Only problem was that she was wrong. She was a human and a real, solid person at that...

"Alma. Do you see yourself as a tool? You do, don't you?"

She said nothing, but her eyes, the same color of his own, were trained on him. She was listening. He indicated the area next to him on the balcony he stood upon, looking over the low railing. She joined him quickly, obediently, but his hand slowed her motion. It wasn't an order, his eyes claimed, it was a request. Everything he told her was a request. He had long laid that rule. She did not have to obey, and he made a point of claiming he would like her to refuse some of his "commands".

She refused to listen to that one, which kind of exasperated him, but at the same time made him smile. You see, she was already disobeying orders, even if the order was for her to behave normally. Each time she called him master, she disobeyed an order too, which confused her, and for about a week, she had not said anything at all, afraid of disobeying orders _and_ conflicting traditional training.

"You should not think of yourself that way... You are a person, with your own ideals, dreams, hopes, life. No matter how long the life, or how much you feel the need to be under another, you are your own individual. I am no one's master Alma. I am a teacher, and a tool. A true tool. You are human but I am...I suppose you could call me a doll. I am just like that wand Anya has. My only purpose is to direct and store magic. I create it too. Just an engine, with a bomb attached. I can only get hot enough to blow up, you know?"

She didn't quite understand his point, so she stayed silent, but she knew, from magical study, what a catalyst was. It was a terrible diagnosis to say the least. Short, painful lives, full of sickness or drama, until they died from disease or killed themselves. In that quite sudden moment, she was afraid. This master...was very different from the others, besides the want for her not to call him master.

"I asked you this once before, but I want you to really think about the answer this time. What do you want to do with your life? Where do you want to be?"  
"I…do not know."  
"That is the perfect answer."

Confused, she looked at him, to see his bangs fly back in a gust of wind. His face was completely free of guile, and he seemed genuinely happy with her answer, although she had no idea why. He told her though, and she was surprised with his response.

"It means you are thinking, and that you truly know you can't see into the future. You aren't resigned to your "fate" in life, you have no sure destiny. Your path is thus yours to choose. Not knowing where you will end up is the first step to admitting that you know nothing about where you are going after all, and… that you are free to go wherever life might take you."

He had a spark, a personality, a way with his words. He was a powerful mage, a being with a clever wit and an agile mind. Tactician and solider all in one, with the heart to teach and the strength to lead. She had heard a saying, a while ago, that reflected him, that good men always seemed to be the first to die…

"I…"  
"You don't need to think. With what you just said, you admitted what you already knew, deep inside, that you are the slave of no one. I was never your master, but you chose to call me that out of your own free will. The very fact you disobeyed the order not to call me it means that."

What? No! Yet it was true. She did disobey many direct commands, but she had considered them conflicting with her training, and had thus ignored him, no she followed all of her proper training, if her master was unconventional, some conflicts would be obvious, but she had to let those go and focus on her code, her job, and that meant disobeying some orders...right?

"W-what..but...wait…master…no…"  
"No what? I never said you were part of my employ, so nothing changes. I release you from your services, if that's what you want me to say, but you never were bound to me, not in truth, and you know that. It's your choice to do what you wish now."  
"M-master?"

Including calling him master, including following him around all the time, including all of it, she could still do, but it would be her choice. It had always been her choice. Now he showed her, her simple stubbornness to stick to tradition had blinded her to the very fact that she wasn't following orders, _wasn't_ following the tradition.

Slaves don't have to call their master "Master"; it was a preference after all... Slaves did not have to follow their master all over the place either… that too, was a preference. Slaves had to, however, follow _every_ order, _every_ command, not the ones that they thought were appropriate. If she had been in any traditional community, she would have been hanged for her impertinence.

She stuck to him because she found that, after years of having one, and being starved of that security from her ordeal, she needed that security, unconsciously, again. She had needed to have a master to follow around, and who she could follow, so she didn't have to think, about the past, about anything.

Again, he had proved himself above normal, breaking through her and shafting light. For once, perhaps the first time in years, decades maybe, she hesitantly allowed herself to smile, just before it broke into a full one, which probably had never seen the light of day itself, in centuries... Negi nodded his approval.

"There. That is better. Now you look proper, and now, you can do what you wish."  
"I still wish to call you master then."

Negi looked at her, and she let loose another full smile. Damn, look how much that face can change with just a smile on it. He shook his head. Looks like he still managed to lose, didn't he? At first, he had been a bit pissed when she said it, but the smile shook his peeved face away. Damn her and her impertinence, he still couldn't get rid of it, could he?

_Ahh what the hell, you can't win them all._  
"…Damn. Alright, you win, just don't f*cking over do it, will yah?"

Negi turned back around to look at the sunset, while Alma, allowing her smile to fade slowly, took up her place next to him. Just a little behind, slightly off to the side, a bit below his standing. Perfect. The way the sun looked now, fading down to kiss the last of the horizon goodbye, reminded her of a dandelion, and that, in turn, reminded her of how much she used to love flowers, nature...life. A sad little twitch of the lips, but she had fulfilled her smile quota for the century, thank you, she kept firm.

"Master?"  
"Yes Alma?"  
"Are there people who just take care of nature, animals, trees...are there people like that here? Once, long ago, there was nothing but farmers, but I loved to see the wild things grow...is it all gone now?"  
"No Alma. There are plenty of people who look after nature, and those who cherish it, love to let the wild things grow as they please. I should show you one day, if I ever find the time, if I ever survive."  
"...Thank you Master."

As the sun finally gave up its grasp upon the final strip of horizon, and Negi heard quiet, calm footsteps approach, brought about by the swish of a robe, Negi turned to look at Alma, full on and nodded his head. He was ready. His mind was set, and his heart was open, at peace if not pure, it could never be pure anymore, after all.

"You are welcome Alma..."

**+-2-+**

**"It is not necessary to be human to learn the code, but to wield the key and control such an ancient spell such as the one that makes this world, in order to wield the code well enough to find the grand master key...one must be a human Negi Springfield. Your aunt tried to steal a cross from your room, I assume she knew about it before, and perhaps wanted to force my hand, have me teach you before you could be offered your choice...but I have spent years reading eyes to see desire and motivation Negi...it's how I know one is genuine in their faith, or trying to play a farce...**

They all sat, Eva, Asuna, Arika, Nagi and Rakkan, quietly. It was a sun room, but now, in the night, the sparse light from a fireplace cast an eerie glow all around. Negi stood, facing Kago, who, form his long dark robes, pulled out a cross Negi was familiar with. The Immortal Rosary. So, Asuna had tried to steal it huh? All at once, his mind jumped forward, formulating reasons, ideas, motive, but Kago stopped thought, simply with his voice.

**I caught her with this, and now I know why she puts so much urgency upon teaching you the code. You are a vampire, but with this...with this, you could become a human, can't you? Of course, using it in such a way, in inexperienced hands, would cause it to shatter, and by inexperienced, I mean earthly. I might have, perhaps, been able to use it twice before such an effect, but now? I have no purity in my soul, never had and never will, I only believed I did before. So I present you with the choice, Negi...**

It was obvious now, what he was going to say. The answer was the hard part though. What was Negi to say? In all ways, however one looked at it, it was a lose-lose situation. Did he want to just let this world collapse, in all of its importance? Regardless of being fake, it would be an incredible blow to the entire society of mages, not to mention those unaware of their predicament, snuffed out like candles in the high wind.

**Will you risk all to save this world? Will you chose to be a human, slowing your reflexes and mind, weakening your body...degrading you potential lifespan...so that you can fully control the code? Knowing full well you might die on this quest, knowing full well that your chances of doing so are somewhere in the ninety nine percent range? Or will you choose to live what remaining joy and peace you have in your life, forgetting all about this...?"**

He had to give it all up now, didn't he? That is what Kago was telling him now. He held the item high, an item he had ripped from Asuna's hands. Where she had found it, only God knows, but Kago knew it belonged to Negi, and he knew that the boy could not hold it, no longer could he hold something like this, no vampire could, or should, be able to hold it at least. Kago had paused to look at Eva when he claimed "degrading your lifespan."

Negi knew what he had meant with that look...

The priest held it still, by what power, Negi didn't know, for it had glowed brightly upon his touch in that dark cave, that hell hole, he had found it in. Now it was plain, quiet, a shining piece of what seemed to be white silver, adorned with designs and simple, large gems. Asuna was the one who did not look happy now, for the boy had blurted out the secret now, of all times, when he was most uncertain, when the boy was most likely to want peace, solidity.

"My choice huh?"  
**"Yes. No one else's. yours. No one can blame you either way."**

It was a time like this, as Kago well knew, that Negi would want to abort the project the most. A time like this, amongst all the pain, that he would want to just forget it all and run away. Here and now, Kago knew that Negi would not be forced into doing anything. Asuna had planned to train him, to wait while Negi discovered the power the code could give, hiding certain lessons, certain words, until she was sure he wanted more, and _then_ tell him, when he was most likely to want, to say yes...was Kago tactless?

No, not tactless, he was stupidly trying to prove some kind of honor. The world needed a savior, and by god, Negi was the only one truly fit for the job. Kago the immortal fool, stealing Rakkan's title for idiocy in one smooth blow, was giving Negi a choice instead of a commandment. At the time when his answer was seventy five percent of more likely to be the one Asuna did not want to hear.

Negi however, smiled, seeing her face. The boy was sharper than any knife, and he saw through this all. The face she had stolen the rosary, trying to force Kago to go her way, only to get caught by Kago himself, was the best possible scenario or this, he swore. Irony is a b*tch, they do say, or if not, they should. Yet, his smile faded. He was faced with a choice here.

He looked to Eva, seeing her face stock still, stone. She wasn't going to say or do anything to encourage or discourage his decision, yet Negi knew, having become a true meter for her emotions, just how much control that took, and how much turmoil was going through her right now. Just how much restraint. Irony really was a b*tch.

Sending him in there as a human was the only way he could wrestle that Master Key from Fate and destroy him. It was the only way he could use all that magic to find the Grand Master Key and rework the world, completely breaking it apart to rebuild it from scratch, and yet, sending him in there as a human was suicide.

True and utter suicide. Damn. His heart, for whatever it was worth, beat like hell. It wanted _out_, that was how hard it was beating. It wanted to beat right out of him and go splat on the floor, and for what kind of life it was seeing, who could blame the muscle? Negi took in a breath, painfully, for there was a tension in his chest, not from nerves, he just ached.

_This should be easy, just forget about it all, you've been through enough, seen enough, just blow them all off and walk away. It's easy. Why am I making it difficult for myself? There is no way I can win. None. If I give up, I can go back to peace, this world isn't my responsibility, I can just leave it to let it rot, it won't disintegrate for probably decades anyway...and Fate can't do jack without the Grand Master Key..._

Yet, even with this assurance of knowledge from what Asuna had gave him, he was hesitant. He had to do it, not because no one else would, not because he knew Fate would destroy this world and the next if he didn't stop him, but because...he had promised. He had promised Eva among all the others, that he would do it. Forget about telling Asuna, he didn't care about that. He kept promises.

_To those of whom great power is given..._

He wanted to do it. He shot forth, faster than Kago had even seen him do, faster than he could react, and grabbed the cross, screaming unbidden as it touched his skin, burning, blistering, seeming to melt away his hand as he held it high, clasping the other over the searing object, calling forth magic, quickly, eagerly, light consuming him, and all the vision of those present.

_...so too, is a great responsibility._

Light. It faded away slowly, alighting upon the smile Asuna had on her face. Maybe the priest wasn't such a dolt after all. Give him a choice and not only does the boy praise you for not forcing him into anything, he still chooses the option you wanted him too anyway. Perhaps he's as sly as she was...maybe more. Who knew? Maybe holy men were slippery b*stards too...

Upon the floor, Negi lay, face down, and Eva knew, even if his look had not changed one bit, that he was no longer one of her own. In his hands, the cross shattered, just as she was certain his own heart had… and perhaps hers too, she hadn't known it was still there. His eyes, still open, said it all. Life well and truly...sucked b*lls. Yet, time robbed him of his mind, as he fell into a dreamless sleep, out like a light.

**+-E-+ **

_Tension builds, and builds and builds, and this pressure tank isn't going to take much more I tell you, she's gonna blow! I kept finding myself listening to "Manic" by Plumb while writing this. I have, again, no idea how this chapter is, I wrote it continuously, and I don't have time to proof it. Oh well. Short chapter. Some notes for you all...(For those still reading. Helloooo out there! Kidding.)_

_"Grand Finale" - Therion, formerly known as "Blitzkrieg" I believe. Orchestrated in 1996, it is an incredible piece I believe, tense and full of energy, like a final boss! It was re-recorded in 2007 I believe. _

_"Finding Beauty" - Craig Armstrong. Orchestrated in 2002, it is a calming and brilliant piece reflecting some nice tones I believe._

_Next Chapter, Negi's training begins, and he soon discovers another setback! Shiori, being unable to use a teleport bauble, where is she? How evil can Asuna go, and what does Arika mean by revenge? How will Nagi react to the truth that she caused that destruction of the village? How will she react when she knows whose son Negi actually is? Or is this really just a big web of lies, perhaps half truths? You know this insane author, what can he pull?_

_Now, with that over with...see you next time! Finalage out!_


	53. Chapter LIII: Overpowered

**_O+-+X_**

_Dog-Latin? Ahh, "xog", I see I have upset someone about my new spells. I am well aware of the..."of situation." for lack of a better term. I tend to try and limit my usage of that word for this reason, trying to use more inventive ways of stringing words together, but alas, I cannot avoid it forever. I don't simply stick words from vocabulary into a spell, unless the spell is an elemental one like Sagitta Magica...those you can "stick vocabulary words into." _

_As for a translator, I don't simply use that either. I use a combination of my studies in the language, self taught ones, so they are not very strong mind you, a Latin dictionary, vocabulary, imagination and a translator if all else fails. I do have a list of vocabulary, but it is more for reference. I also have a list of all the spells I use, and I do look over my work, speaking of which, one of the spells in the fifty first chapter was wrong...and I never got around to fixing the bugger...there we go._

**_WARNING: _**_Some of this chapter needs a _**_strong _**stomac_h. Darkness incarnate, here for you all to see, the journey into Negi's soul, the one who, for what seems like an eternity, has sucked up all the evil around thee. Now, all that evil will show itself, all that darkness, having nowhere to go, will materialize, solid and real, in the living soul of Negi Springfield. You have been warned. _

_I do not own Negima, I just was the pioneer who came here and made it...like this. I admit, I was placing quite a large amount of emphasis upon Eva and Negi there, for good reason though...good to see you back, Havelock, and indeed, I have heard people say it is far over-rated._

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Three: Overpowered: Broken Characters._**

**_+-AAA-+_**

_Come on, I know you can move faster than that! Move Negi, move!_

Negi skidded backwards, his hand stopping himself from falling forwards on his face. He pushed himself up, sidestepping to avoid a punch from his father, and ducking under his following kick. Nagi's free hand spun around with his staff, shooting an arrow right at Negi's face, knocking him on his back, where he rolled to avoid getting staked.

_Damn! I've gotten this slow? Shit! I can barely avoid him! His power is overwhelming from a human standpoint! I've got to gain distance! Can't pull of Magica Erebia either, shit! He warned me it would be difficult, the magic form the rosary still affecting me, but still, to have the holy magic interfering is really annoying! _

_I could try initiating Kanka, but with my constant use of Magica Erebia, suddenly shifting to the opposite method of power will take some concentration, and some time...damn! Duck! Shit, that kick is going to...hurt like hell tomorrow!_

It was late in the afternoon, and Negi was not happy as he was sent soaring into the sky, via a kick from his father. Yet, he wasn't finished, not by a long shot as he gathered his energy, sustaining himself in the air with his magic for a quick moment while he chanted.

"Senior Sanctus, commodo mihi vestri vires shafts niteo mei oris, tripudio super inimicus, Sanctus Lancea!"  
_κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση, έκλειψη! _

**"Κενότητος ****ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ**** τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος!"**

A lance of light in one hand, the eclipse axe in the other, Negi swung up both of them to counter his father's weapon, causing an explosion in the sky…and sending him crashing to the ground. His lance shattered in his hand, his eclipse axe didn't fare much better, and it was only saved because he had formed it along his blade...

Nagi shundoed into Negi's face, his knee catching the boy in the gut. Reaching out, the man grabbed Negi's blade, wrenching it from his grasp and thrusting it away. Instantly, the boy felt his pathway to magic closing.

He reached and managed to grab it before it went too far, snapping it forwards to force his father back, lest he get slashed. Damn, a human had that weakness too, he had almost forgotten. He had to use his blade to siphon magic now. It was his wand. That or the magister wand he had received, even his tattoos, which he was regretting at this moment, not replacing them.

"Deus of aquilo, temerarius unto mihi vestri vox, orior oriri ortus aequora ut meus order, Malleus Aquilonis!"  
_Of obscurum quod flamma ... adveho quod vultus mihi a telum et...Haurus...Abyssus mucro!_

"**Κενότητος ****ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ**** τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος!"**

With just a single axe, Nagi fended off his son's sphere of ice, and sliced right through his blade with little resistance, making the boy roll to avoid the man's swing, lest his head be severed from his body. Not good! He formed the Executioner's Sword in his free hand, swinging it out to shatter the remaining strength of Nagi's axe, before he could refortify it.

"Daemonium continuo valde nebula magica, concidens spiritus detonus!"

"**Deflexio! Deflexio!"**

_Just those two…just those two Deflexio spells are holding off a torrent of shots from my hand, even at such a close range! I have to think of something else! I need to use Kanka…it's the only way, separating myself form my emotions…_

"Veniant Spiritus Glaciales! Extentantur Aeri! Tundram et Glaciem, Loci Noctis Albae! Crystallizatio Tellustris!"  
_Sagitta Magica, Centum et Centum Spiritus Aquilonis!_

"**Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis, Centum Iaculatio Fulgurans!"**

Again, a single spell from Nagi was enough to cancel both the arrows and Negi's frozen earth combo, the water was supposed to carry the flow, intensify the blow, but even with using Electricity, Nagi sent it back, forcing Negi void the ground, calling up Deflexio spells of his own to avoid electrocution.

_That…shouldn't be __**too**__ hard, voiding myself of emotions, making myself nothing in the face of the world…I don't want them anyway, feelings… and I shouldn't have them either. Catalysts are bred to die. So why do we need to feel, why do we need self importance? The answer is, simply, that we don't…_

Damn, even his magic had been weakened with this transformation! How the hell was he going to fight Fate? Closing his eyes, he listened as his father's feet slammed on the ground and he ran at Negi, quickly, lightly.

_Forget yourself. Tune yourself with nature, like you were taught before. Think of only the battle, listen to the opponent, hear his heart beat._

As Nagi approached, Negi listened. He had always listened, only, in more recent times, he had become so involved in his power to increase his performance, he had forgotten, forgotten the quiet, martial artist's way.

_My magic, come to me. Feed into my hand, condense, lay bear your strength. You are the left, the Yang. Feel my desire._

He heard...he saw with his ears, the man jump up, twirling his staff. Negi's hand twitched, his magic bared, chi flowing quietly. It was there, the power of life, once more, it was there...That immortal rosary, an item of angels to be used only by their hands truthfully...he had used it sinfully, and so it had shattered. Yet, it had given him back life; there must be an advantage to that, for all he had lost.

_Come, my life force, thy Chi, flow through me to my right, you are the peace, my inner strength, resolve. The Yin. Feel my essence._

His hand shot out, his blade clutched tight in tiny fingers as it spun, deflecting his father's staff as he stepped to the side... His mind was clear, he was nothing. All around him, all the air the essence of the world, flowed into him. All was outside, peace, unity...slowly, he opened his eyes, and saw.

His father thrust out his staff again, close range and sparking dangerously, there was very little chance of dodging that move as a human...

_Life is unending, and so is death, the cycle repeats, and there is not stopping that breath. With magic flowing through my right, and chi to my left, mixture of time and breath, of life and death. I am nothing, only a jar, pour into me, your power forbidden from far. Kanka!_

Literally, Negi twisted to the side, jumping back at the same time, and grabbed his father's hand, bracing and throwing him to fly. He back kicked, catching him on his gut, while he was still near and turned to rush at his downed form.

_Sagitta Magica Centum Spiritus..._

Nagi spun up, swinging out his staff, but Negi ducked under it, forcing out his knee, catching him in the middle again. Negi teleported to his back, grabbing Nagi's head and pulling using it to slam him to the ground, and grabbed the staff from slack fingers. His blade swung high blunt side coming down on Nagi, hard.

_Lucius!_

The explosion that resulted from that conflict was hardly a happy one for Nagi. Yet, it was lacking in any real power to do much damage to him…but Nagi could feel some of the old strength Negi had wielded before, while a vampire, in that hit…

He spun away from his son when he swung out his foot, cursing the fact that Negi held tight unto his father's staff, and his own blade. He smiled as he quickly teleported to the back of his opponent, flashing both weapons, charged with energy, into Nagi's back, calling out the final word for an unincanted spell of pain, lancing his energy into the other until he fainted.

Sighing, Negi let both weapons fall to the ground, just as his father's body had done. Damn, he was shaking all over, and he made a mental note of how hard it was to keep Kanka going as he watched the energy fade from him. This…he was weak.

Weak. He had managed to defeat his father in a spar, disarming him and cutting off his flow of magic so he could be shocked until he fainted, yes, but he was still weak, much too weak. He could not do the same thing to Fate...and when Kanka was active, he hardly could keep control of it to do anything elaborate...and he'd need it just to match Fate's speed on a sub-par level alone...

Negi hated being weak...well, he always had that one solution...more training.

"...Who's next? I'm ready for some more."

**+-1-+**

Deep in the night, under a magically induced sleep, Negi lay on his bed, ringed by two people, one with flowing red hair and piercing eyes, the other cool and washed out eyes that bespoke of lost innocence, stability. Determination burned in them however, as both figures place their hands upon the forehead of the boy, fingers just brushing the others.

They gave each other a mutual stare, a kind of ritualistic agreement. Two generals on opposing sides, acknowledging the other's strength, looking to come to a suitable agreement on central, middle ground terms Kago was the teacher, but two was always better than one, and demonstrations could be much easier. if done in pairs...Asuna brushed away a lock of Negi's hair before closing her eyes. They both spoke the same spell, at the same time, though the tones may have been different, they had to meld as one for it to be successful as separate casters after all...

_**"Nympha Somnii, Regina Maeve! Portam Aperiens ad Se Nos Alliciat, Mater Musarum, Mnemosyne! Ad Se Me Alliciat, Spiritus Phasmantis, Aperiens Portam Maeve!"**_

Together, they stepped as one into a land of dreams, the soul of one troubled with the past, the impending future, and the ugly present, a soul the universe always seemed to rely on for its little problems, and now, for one that threatened an entire world... and what they saw once they got there almost defied both their combined beliefs...

Asuna ducked quickly, almost losing her head, literally, to some flying object, that upon closer inspection resembled a butterfly...A butterfly with wings of sharp _steel_ that is... Its paper thin blades beat through the sky, slicing through a small portion of Asuna's sleeve as it twisted about her, just before it took off slowly in the distance, meandering all the way.

_"What...was that?"_  
**"A butterfly."  
**_"I can see that you insolent twit."  
_**"Then why, oh why, my dear royal princess, did you ask? Oh, by the way, watch your foot..."**

Asuna looked down at where she had been about to step, to see a beetle sluggishly make its way around the grass filled field they were standing in, only this beetle, which kind of looked like a Hercules, curled up when it saw her foot heading for her, extending sharp spikes. Hesitantly, she muttered a thank you while replacing her foot where it had been, planted firmly in the tall, slightly blue, grass. Kago ran a cautious finger along one of the blades, pulling it away to see it was bleeding.

**"...I didn't even realize it cut me, so sharp it is...I'm afraid my dear lady, that this is not the kind of place to be wearing a skirt, even one that is three quarters like yours."**

He turned to see that, of course, she had already edited her image. He cast his eyes to the sky, and was surprised to see it was a brilliant, if deep, red... sickly purple clouds, with yellow tinges, soaring on by along its span. He took a breath, and nearly choked, the air was caustic, and did not support deep breathing. He also noticed, as more of his senses dictated themselves to this world, that his feet felt heavy, the air thick. He watched what he assumed was a bee zoom on by.

It was huge, its stinger menacing, and it was green with black, not yellow. It also made a hideous buzzing sound, some kind of sick play upon a normal bee's hum. Another followed after it, zooming over it. Now, Kago had seen animal's fight, had seen them mate, in the air and all, when it came to insects. Yet he had never seen a bee fight another one.

This pair did, as the first zipped after the second and flashed by, cutting it with its razor wings. The second turned and stabbed the first through with its stinger before ripping it out and diving to slice it's foe in half with its own wings. Kago couldn't take his eyes away as the pieces fell, and the survivor, its hind stinger still intact, buzzed off to finish its business.

_"Cruel. Harsh...dark. This is his soul, and yet, I see beauty, everywhere I look, there is incredible detail, I can, from here, count the very cells on that blade of grass over there, and easily, for the pure vivid detail...but all the beauty has been tainted by darkness, fear, anger..."_

Kago made no comment, even as his brain thought up a snappy retort to her, claiming, correctly, that she would have played a large part in that anger, sorrow, darkness and fear...instead, he watched as an elk, it's antlers looking more like an iron maiden's twisted insides, wrestle with another one, going back and forth in the grass, he turned away, for he did not want to see who won that one.

Kago looked to the sky again, only to see Vultures, only edited to grotesque proportions, wielding huge ugly beaks and silver feathers, perhaps more steel. Even the trees looked sick, dead, their bark rough and wet, rotten. The closest thing he could place them as would be a purple leaved evergreen, whose leaves were rock hard and jagged when they fell...

It was getting darker. By the moment, and it was easy to see too, how quickly that darkness came. Off in the distance, Kago saw a lone building, overlooking a hill. There was a town off to the side, but the lone building drew him. He walked off, taking care not to turn his legs into fillets upon the grass. Asuna, looking at the elk, followed him.

The rough grass cut through his robs, and even the pants underneath, like the hot knives of pain that they were, taking souvenirs of his skin with them when they brushed by. Kago avoided stepping on another beetle, and spun, stepping on it anyway, when Asuna gasped, having stepping on what seemed to have been a purple mushroom, exuding noxious fumes.

The beetle cut into his feet, right through his shoes, and kept right on wiggling, it hadn't been killed, Kago wasn't heavy enough for that...it stuck to his boot when he lifted his foot, meaning he had to mutilate his hand to get it off.

The priest did it quickly, hopping away from the fumes he was certain were not healthy, judging by the almost _blue_ face in front of him...but he knew that he had no worry of her safety, for she was steadily running ahead, disregarding the fact that her legs were being cut up more than any sensible grater would dare a carrot, one reason her face was in front of him, she was looking _back_.

It was far farther than it looked that building, or perhaps that was another torturous affect of this world, the illusion of distances. It didn't take long for the gravity to pull at their legs either, making the already difficult walk even more so, setting in fatigue. It seemed that the higher they went, the thicker the air, the closer to town, the more acidic the taste, almost like a world ruled by the effects of greenhouse gases.

It was, at the point of being near unbearable, that Kago reached the door of that lone building, and knocked. The wood seemed rotten, and oily, not making much sound. He had to force some more effort, knock harder, before, with a bang, it was ripped from its hinges to slam on the floor, kicking up dust, stinging his eyes.

"Don't...pick... it up."

Asuna looked about the room, shivering slightly. Statues, everywhere, pale, grey and cracking statues, their sculptor must have been extremely skilled, for they were just a bit too real looking, uncanny. She saw herself, stone eyes afire with determination, Kago, his own filled with an unnamed sorrow...on the floor, dozens more lay, shattered, along the sides of the walls, stone littered the floor, yet in the middle, there was only one broken statue on the floor...

It was of Negi. A young boy, red haired and perhaps two or three, bent to pick up a piece of the face, a stone eye. He put it over his own, and for some reason, the sight struck terror in her heart. The boy smiled however, pleased. Not at his actions, no, he was pleased at her _terror_. He reveled in it, silently, as he watched her.

"You see? He's broken! Yay. Play, play until they all crumble away!"

He smiled, but his smile was almost instantly replaced with pain, and he turned very green, bending over double, as his bared feet grayed out, turning to stone. It swept up his legs, cracks lancing up along his thighs. Asuna was stock still, frozen, Kago took a step forward, but the boy smiled. Ahh, he had played and played, until they all would crumble away, and now it was his turn!

Black lines, veins, traced up his entire body, turning his eyes into pools of darkness, as he opened his mouth, sticking out a swollen, dark pink tongue. From his mouth, he vomited darkness, darkness that flowed in increasing speeds until his entire body, stone, broke apart against the torrent from his mouth, the goo seeping along the floor, making Asuna jump back hastily when it came too close, almost touching Kago's shoes...and yet, it stopped, quivering.

**"My... good... god..."**

It took up the statue of Negi, absorbing it's shards of stone into itself, and then lay still, before it turned a dark red, the color of blood. It began to retreat, for at the center it was building up, growing, gaining substance as it continued, until it took a general shape, arms, legs, hair flowing free, eyes encompassed in light...the concoction became a mannequin of Negi, without a face, yet, even as they watched, a face began to appear, growing out of the blank slate. By this time, Asuna's face was green.

Negi stood there, his usual self, yet his hair was streaked with black, and his very eyes were black, red irises resting upon the obsidian surface. He wore a martial arts outfit, but it had been slashed, the place where his heart was supposed to be sporting nothing but a whole, dangling...well, none of the two standing there really wanted to know what was dangling in that hole to tell you the truth...a long scar, from the above the right eye and through it to go straight down to his chin, stood livid against the rest of him.

If he stared at you directly, the scar tissue on the eye lined up with the scar on his face, giving him quite a grotesque appearance...He smiled, for, even as they watched, darkness traced up his arms, legs, until it consumed, him, his scar turning bright red, still visible, his eyes burning brilliant red in place of white... Yet his irises took on a blue hue, Magica Erebia, in all of its glory, only twisted to look disgusting that's what this was. Purple/green lines formed symbols about him, and his female audience finally decided to void her stomach contents.

If she had any to void that was, this was the spirit world. So she could only gag, still feeling miserable at the end of it. The boy laughed, harshly, as his weapon materialized in his hands, HeartBreaker... the fur ran up his arms, formed sickly real, off-white claws on his feet and hands. Asuna swore he had grown a cape too, as a key spun itself into existence, floating next to him, glowing bright red.

"Welcome, welcome! I hope you had a pleasant stroll, the weather is quite beautiful today! Haha, when isn't it?"  
_Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them all! Not worthy to stand in your might, the enemy must die! I am free, I shall reign supreme! Power, power, mine, MINE!_

Magica Erebia whispered in their ears, here in the soul, it's messages, to kill all, to reign above all, to slaughter and manifest, to become a king, a ruler of the world, that dark emotions, to take all that you want, have whatever you please, do what you wish, and care nothing...they beat. Kago blinked, giving no comment, and neither did Asuna, although Kago could swear he could hear her internal distress, as this was her internal being.

She had not expected him to be so dark...and his grin had shown teeth, fangs.

**"Negi, we have come to teach you-"  
**"Negi, we have come to teach you, look at the arrogant shit. The code of the life maker huh? I don't need the damn code. Can't you see the f*cking answer? Magica Erebia is all I need, be*tch."  
_"Negi, how do you plan on stopping all the magical condensation, stopping Fate, even-"  
_"Screw Fate, he's another f*ck. I'll rip him in two, sink my fricken teeth in him and drain him drier than burnt toast, if he wants it. No concern of yours, b*tch."  
_The enemy is nothing, you are all! Destroy all who dare defy, make them bow before you might!_

_"Now, I really wish this would stop...I can't sink my teeth into anything, I'm not a vampire anymore, so if you would please..."_

Kago and Asuna turned to see another form of Negi, wielding AltraCrolacri in his left and clutching his short sword in his other, standing in the doorway. Unlike the other, he was closer to as Negi was in life, uninjured in any place except on his tattered, light brown mages robes, which sported a burnt, sooty area where his heart lay under. Yet, the cloth was intact, so there was no way of knowing what was underneath, unlike the other, who, in his current form, still sported the hole, which dripped darkness like a liquid down back into the mass below from the top of the injury.

This Negi pushed his bangs out of his youthful face, and Asuna first noticed at that moment that he was wielding Kanka.

_"I need the code so that I can disarm Fate, think for a second, will yah? Once I have his key, I can use it, and he won't be able to wrestle it from me if I know the code, I can fight him, he will lose. Without the key, he will be nothing to me. I would trust that, while Fate was taught by Asuna, she did not teach him everything, and he did not have the advantage I do in Kago."_

"F*cking b*stard, I thought I broke you already."

The other indicated the floor, where there had once been the shattered remains of a statue. The one in the doorway shook his head, smiling.

_"I have lived here since my birth, friend. I am the light that continues to drive Negi to do what he must. You are the ever increasing darkness, wrapping yourself around me, the core, trying to crush me... Yet, you never shall. We shall die before then, or you will be sundered, by my own hands, not the other way around. I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve, as you can see...but, we stall, our friends have caught us in the midst of a battle, and they need Negi, neither one of use will do, you know this, true you do."_

The other scoffed, and then openly laughed, slashing out his blade, only to find it calmly blocked by the other, as he called up the thunder form, condensing it along with the form of fire, around him in a split second. He stood tall against the other, whose darkness flowed around in waves, Ice began to pile around him, condensing into an Ice form. Laughing again, he disengaged his blade.

"Pah, I will win, sooner or later. F*ck knows I will."

_"A curse word is not sentient, and thus cannot know anything."_

"Ahh shut yah **rass**, aren't you coming so that we can f*cking merge again? You did say they wanted the whole damn pie, didn't you?"

_"Of course they do."_

"One of these days, I'll destroy-mph!"

The lighter Negi had reached out, sticking his blade right through the void heart as his hand came out to block his mouth. Eyes burning, his darker counterpart slashed out his own blade, stabbing right into the same place. The two stood like this, while their blades glowed, condensing with power, until it consumed them both in light and shade.

An explosion rocked the rotten wood house, blowing the dust from the floors away, shattering all the statues littered on the ground, nothing but dust remaining as the light fades. Dust, and Negi...but was it still him?

"Ahh, so those two tried to fight again. They try and try, to control my soul. Destroy the other, and they win. Fricken imbeciles...they should know that the most power, the greatest strength, comes from a whole soul, a chaos mixture."

The symbols of Magica Erebia ran along his skin, yet they were a bright fairy blue, imposed upon skin that shone silver. His entire body radiated an aura of fire as lightning crackled along his finger tips, ice particles glittering around his guise. His hair even, condensed with so much energy, glowed in the same shade as his skin, if more reflective. He held both his Key item and AltraCorlacri, his smile had no fangs...

"Do you know one of my greatest secrets? It is this. This form. Every day, without fail, I dream of it. An unobtainable object, a whisper upon the wind...this is what I call "Enthoalis Complexio." In other words, it is a complex of all my power. This is Magica Erebia, this is Kanka, this is the form of Thunder, Fire and Ice...all in one."

His hand came out, the blue symbols shining bright. One could swear that if wings sprung from his back, they would look right at home, for right now, it seemed like something was missing from him. He looked up at Asuna and Kago both, studying them with those brilliant, fully blue eyes, true sapphires. They somehow seemed to radiate sadness, perhaps pain even, as he spoke again.

"The thing that kills me is that I truly believe...I believe that this is the only way I can defeat Fate, and perhaps stand a chance at succeeding in the plan. The way I am now... I would be killed before I could even begin to attempt destroying the magical world's spell, let along rebuilding it. If I had this...I might succeed...

Don't get me wrong, I know that I most likely would still die...but, at least I would be able to complete my mission, for I think we all know that this is a ritualistic suicide, with little chance of success..."

He closed his eyes, the energy flowing around him quieting, retreating. His visage calmed until he stood, just Negi, brilliant red eyes still housing sorrow, pain, anger...his everyday eyes, power doused as a campfire to the rain.

"You wanted me for something? Or are you two just here to bug the living daylights out of me? My body is sleeping you know. This is one of the few times it gets any rest, and the mind isn't faring too well either...as for myself, well, you see the damage done to me already."

Negi walked to a rotten window frame, looking out into the darkness. He shook his head as he saw two people walk along a road, heading to meet in the middle. Both figures twisted beyond belief, once they met, drew weapons, breaking out in a fight, some meaningless squabble, or a family feud... It was true that this was himself, that all of this represented him, the caricature a soul used to represent itself but a piece... yet the soul found it hard to care for what went on inside itself anymore.

He was a tree that did not care about the rot spreading inside, or, if he did, in such a way that no human could tell. It was inevitable, so why fuss?

_"We are here to-"  
_**"Teach you."**

"...Brilliant. A priest that gave up and a forgotten princess, I suppose the two of you could try. Shall I give you a proper stage?"

_"No...with your consent, I have prepared one."  
_"Then go right ahead."

In her hands, light condensed, and she was glad to use it to rip the walls in front of her away, to soar upwards and destroy all the misery. An open field, full of grass, sparse trees, wind, bright sunlight, deep, clear air. Streams surrounding, bordering off the land from the whole, this was where they ended up, and Asuna smiled, in control again, away from the sorrow.

**+-2-+**

**"The first rule that you must learn is that all of the magical world, in all of it's glory, is false. While this is a fundamental truth, it is perhaps the hardest law, the greatest hurdle. It is what stops most from ever learning the code, and it stops the rest from fully grasping it."**

Asuna gave a sideways smile to her "partners" explanation. Of course, he was correct, but It was such a sparse statement, he was aware that time really had little to no meaning in this realm, was he not? He could be as detailed as he pleased. Still, no comment on his methods, but he head dredged up something from her life believing herself to be a mundane, and she brought it to the table.

_"Think the Matrix Negi. The concept is the same...except, I'm none too sure about the machines using us for batteries...once you learn, fundamentally, that this world is false, you can bend and even break many of the general laws of physics, the ones put in place by the original casters of this spell. This is something that has not been taught to Fate. I did tell him that this world is false, something he already knew, but I did not drill him on how to use this knowledge to your advantage, did not train him until the knowledge was instinctual. This means that, for all his speed and power, for all his strength, as long as he is not using the code of the life maker, you will have the advantage over him. Then we shall teach you the code."_

Kago put one foot forward, assuming a fighting stance. Negi smiled. He remembered The Matrix, and he knew what Kago was going to ask him to do. Since this spiritual world was one that was not his creation, the general rules applied to him, as if her were on earth...but Asuna and Kago wanted him to disregard this, to look past the realism in this world and break it's laws... For once, Negi saw a flash of the old Asuna as she quoted:

_"You think that's air you're breathing?"_

Doing that in someone else's spirit world was essentially the same as doing it in the magical world. Succeed here, and you can succeed anywhere. Break the laws. Realize your potential and hit the dude, hard. Kago was in his face, and his punch threw Negi backwards, falling to the ground...He clenched his fist, ready to cast a spell, but he knew, even before he tried, that he had to do this without magic, just his body and his mind...this was conditioning. Kago kicked him in the side, making him roll up, only to be unable to block Kago's next punch, which grounded him again.

Damn, he was fast! He didn't even see that, and yet he knew that wasn't a teleport, or a shundo...shit! Again, Kago was next to him, and Negi ducked under his kick, but got caught when the other turned it into an arm drop. Pain...it lanced up from his chest, burned in his eyes, damn, that blow could kill! Yet he knew that the other wasn't even _trying_. _That_...just pissed him off.

**"Come on. You're faster than this Negi. Do it."**

Negi rolled away when Kago spun up, and threw a punch, which Kago easily blocked. He swung out his foot, and once again, his opponent caught him. Kago pulled him close, but Negi jabbed out with his fist, making the other let loose. Yet, Kago was not to be denied as he bent low and swept Negi's feet from under him, and elbowed him to the ground, hard. Negi rolled away from a stomp, jumping to his feet.

**"I'll tell you a secret... Here...as well as out there...the laws of gravity aren't in effect either."**

Kago spun around, kicking Negi into a tree. Negi slowly stood, damn, that had hurt. Assuming a fighting stance, he narrowed his eyes. Kago sized him up. In teen form e had just _this _reach...Kago rushed him, making Negi jump backwards, yet that did not stop Kago, who jumped up and kicked the boy in the face.

On his back, Negi flipped up and twisted from one of Kago's punches, grabbing his arm and trying to toss him, but Kago reeling Negi instead, and threw him into another tree. The boy landed on his feet, only to slip away from another kick. Kago's foot met the tree, but he was ready for this, and he actually ran up the tree, keeping momentum.

Kago came at him from the air and kicked him in the head, knocking him down, and when the boy spun up, he grabbed his head and tossed him again. Kago didn't let him fly far though, for he gave him a hard knee in the gut to send him upwards. He watched Negi fall before rushing at him, making the boy jump up, but the priest spun far too fast for him, kicking him again to skid away in the grass.

**"Boy! This world has no rules that you cannot overcome! Do you think I am stronger than you? Faster? Think, live, ride! You are the genius, don't think outside the box, **_**break**_** it!"**

Kago waited for him to stand again. Waited for him to assume a stance, and this time, Negi closed his eyes. Kago charged at him and stopped short to swing out his foot, but Negi caught it, jerking up his knee, only to have Kago force it away. Negi, turning, used that momentum to swing out his other leg, and when Kago blocked it, he twisted his body, bringing out a punch, but Kago ducked, and shot out his free hand to palm the other in the gut.

**"Good, but not good enough. Faster."**

Negi landed on his feet, for Kago had blasted him back, and braced his feet, kicking off the ground to tackle Kago, who sidestepped, swinging out his foot to plant it in the other's back, yet Negi surprised him, spinning around to grab the offending limb and overbalancing Kago, tossing him. Kago landed on his hands, turning the toss into a clean flip.

His back to Negi, he twisted in time to deflect a flurry of Negi's punches, and Kago literally began to see them speed up, until he could swear they were creating shadow images. Yet, it wasn't enough, for Kago struck out with his foot, and Negi soared backwards. In his flurry, he had forgotten to guard, foolish, or was it simply his attempting to concentrate?

Ayi, Negi was back and this time, with his feet, forcing the priest to use his own. Negi dropped when Kago's foot made an impression on his face, but it was a ploy, for Negi slipped under him and swept his standing foot from under him and punched him in the back, tossing him back up. He jumped up after him, daring himself to go faster, higher, than his opponent, and crashing his elbow into the gut.

Negi landed catlike on the ground, and watched Kago impact on his back, throwing up dirt. Still, there was not rest, for in the next instant, a blur exited the cloud, and Negi threw up his leg to smack against Kago's own. Kago bore in, throwing punches, going faster, faster and faster still, until Negi saw him maintain a speed. At first, it was difficult, but then he realized...

While powerful and strong, Kago couldn't get any faster, or any stronger, than this. He didn't know how to let go of the world around him any more than he already was, could not break any more laws. Negi, while still having trouble keeping up with him, felt like he could go further...he could make himself a separate entity...

It was laughable once he realized, and he sped up, continuing to block and even throw a few of his own punches, stronger, faster, stronger...until he was on par with Kago, their blows, tossing shockwaves about. He was at the level of his vampric strength, he must be, by now, his speed...it was back! Not only that, but he could go further...he knew it! Once of Negi's punches impacted on Kago's face, and the boy could have almost sworn he heard something crack as the other was tossed away with the force of that blow.

Kago landed hunched over, his hand on the ground, yet he used that to rush at Negi, bracing his legs. Negi stood his ground, holding his fists up, yet at the last second, he kicked off to the side, avoiding Kago's mash dash and swinging his foot out to trip the other up, punching him hard in the gut as he fell, double momentum, the body rising with his fist.

Kago went up, up...and then, if you so please, gravity asked for him to come back, in the most prudent manner if you don't mind, thank you! He kicked up more dirt as he impacted with the ground, and Negi stood, waiting...waiting...until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He spun around, but he only met a straight jab into his stomach, throwing him yards.

**"Almost my friend, almost. The mastery over puppetry too, is a trick that comes with the code, but you are progressing nicely...very nicely. You don't quite yet have what I'm looking for to begin teaching however...hmm?" **

Kago spun on the spot, kicking Negi away from behind him. Yet, even as he did so, he jumped away from Negi, who slammed into the ground from above. Teleportation? No, the boy was moving faster now...just from a punch! Kago ducked under Negi's sweeping kick and grabbed the leg he was standing on, flipping him over, but the boy hand sprung away, landing on his feet only to jump right back at him again, he barely missed with that tackle, and he stopped almost instantly to slam his elbow into Kago's back.

Kago stumbled forward, but spun on one foot to plant his other into Negi's face, and then jumped away when the boy fell, sweeping his leg again for the feet. He shot out his foot, catching Negi in the stomach, and jumped up to kick him three times, only Negi blocked each one. He landed in time to duck under a punch, grabbing the arm and tossing him into _another_ tree, however, this time, Negi kicked off it, and Kago took an elbow to the face.

_"Enough! You two move fast enough! He can continue now, he has not lowered his speed for a full minute, and he is only marginally focusing on it."  
_**"Wrong. He is not fast enough, he must best me, move faster than I am, before I allow him to continue. He must be able to hold that speed without thinking about it at all, it must be instinctual. We continue the fight...until he gets it right. Engarde!"**

Far faster than ever before, Kago struck out a palm, and sent literal shockwaves through the grass as Negi became a bullet flying away from its gun. Negi pulverized a boulder with his body, and fell to the ground, shaking, not with fear, but with the effort it was taking for him to make his limbs respond...Kago yelled out to his downed form, and upon hearing his words, the boy slowly rose, determination burning in his eyes.

**"Are you going to tell me all your sacrifices are for nothing, that you, being nothing, are good for nothing? Get up and fight, or are you weak?"**

Negi rushed at him, full bore, and they met in the middle, shockwaves blowing back the grass of the field, shaking the branches of trees...

**+-E-+**

_Another one up and running! Ahh, we are coming, we are coming, and Negi is beginning to learn just what kind of power he can have in this world. Get out your cheat codes ladies and gentleman, because it's about time Negi shows what happens when you break the rules in this video game. Ha ha! Ahh, the next one may seem like a filler to you all, or it may not, but I assure you, it is not...I forgot what I wanted to say, fie! Next time! Finalage, out!_


	54. Chapter LIV:Compound Effects live, heh

All signs point to it. This story has been running for too long, and its beginning chapters are dragging me down. I've lost two favorites again. Ehh...oh well. Fan fiction ate my hits for this month again. It seems to find it funny that, ever since shattering the 5,000 hit mark for a month back in March, it will take a chunk of my hits for a few days straight every month, longer every time. *Sigh*

In other news, I found an "old friend" song of mine, or should I say soundtrack. "Kuon Hikari To Nami No Kioku. A Final Fantasy track I had heard...somewhere, had, and lost, forgotten...until I searched up music from final fantasy out of pure need for something...and found it. Instantly recognized it from the very first note. That first note brought the whole track back, brilliant in my mind. I also found another

The mind is an incredible, thing, once more proven...it doesn't throw _anything_ out, not really...

**_O+-+X_**

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Four: Compound Effects._**

**_+-AAA-+_**

Now, things were getting interesting. Cora found herself standing the middle of a war. One that cut through years of careful planning. A war that had been started years prior, and, with one smooth swipe of a hand across the chess board, had been resurrected to be laid bare upon a civilization bred to ignore the past...

Thus, a civilization too weak to do anything but stare in the face of danger, sheep waiting in line to be slaughtered. The old, the ones who had pulled the metaphorical wool of peace over the youth's eyes, were the ones who had to take a stand, tired as they were.

The days had been passing peacefully, uneventfully even, for the lone Succubae. Dully she wondered, between practices and general fitting in, what her "sensei" was doing out in the magical world. She had taken a liking to traveling around with Chachamaru, for, as dull as the robot was to others, she was the most _normal_.

At least, that was what Cora thought. The others in her class, the ones that she had a chance to converse with at least, were charming in their own right, but she stuck with the robot more, she seemed to be the closest thing to another "outside" the general circle.

Well, that and the fact that everybody else just seemed to have a personality quirk, rather than a physical one. Physical ones could be dealt with, personality ones just plain scared her, especially when it came to such an extreme as it did in Mahora...

Still, life had been peaceful. Until someone insisted on bringing the action home, slamming the world tree up in an array of beautiful light, a magical concentration so intense, the mundane population was in danger of seeing it.

That was one heck of a light show. Somehow, in her infinite wisdom, Cora seemed to have found herself in the middle of this mess. Being one of those who knew of magic, it was her responsibility after all. Ooooh, she hated the rules, responsibilities and regulations that these people followed, and this was one reason why.

"The gate port at the main airport has been destroyed, and now the magical build up is pushing against the old gate port, here, underneath the world tree. We'll need to station guards like we had during the festival. This really pains, for our staffing is low at the moment...

All students on trips will have to be called back; hostile groups have begun looking to take advantage of this situation. Highest priority to the group housing Konoka Konoe must be exercised. Sakurako!"

Her head jerked up at that name. That was her guise, and often, she didn't even think of herself as Cora anymore. This was her "base form" now. In essence, it was the one she adopted, an all purpose form, the one you put on when you went out to hunt without having acquired a specific target... She had never understood what others had meant by their base forms...now she did.

"Yes Sir."  
"How far away can you sense life forces, while being able to ascertain their moods, or their life essence?"

It was like asking her what was like asking her for her cup size, or something similar. You just didn't do it to a person you barely knew, and even then...she knew why he was asking though. It was obvious. He needed someone to scope out the enemy somehow, and with all the magical interference...

"I can't help you there, Dean. My ability only extends about fifty meters around me in any direction, I am useless here in the application you want to use me for."

True, he was hoping for a different answer. Yet he wouldn't call her useless with such a distance. He just needed to use her ability in a different way. Disserting from fifty meters away put her right in the middle. Not a normal Succubae anymore, no, but not worthy of being a higher either...her steady supply of energy was to blame for that one. Takahata however, interrupted his thought.

_"What of Negi-kun and his mission?"  
_

"Magical interference is too great in both this world and the magical world; none of our posted mages can pinpoint his signature. He must be right at the heart of the disturbance, a moth to the flame so to speak. Contacting him is impossible.

He will need to fend for himself he won't know what is going on here, or how to get back, until we can contact him anyway, and he's been doing well so far, I assume. He will just have to hold out..."

This struck a chord in Cora however. If he needed to get out of there, there needed to be an opening on both sides, and this side was closed. Was he saying that the only way to sense him was through his magical aura? That was...stupid.

"Are you trying to tell me you can't tap his energy signature? His life energy? Magical resonance is limited by distance, but energy signatures aren't quite as eager to let go of their signals...they make ripples. Clean up all the noise from the magical signatures and find the ripples...shouldn't be too hard..."

Seeking life energies? They had no such technology to chase that kind of chance right now, especially with all the interference. Besides, Negi should be sitting right put, he had no kind of power to deal with this thing, right? He was just a simple mage, a good solid magister, but nothing else. This required a monster, like Nagi or better yet, Eva, to deal with...although it was true that Eva was with them...still they had not the power to seek him out...yet the succubae snorted.

"What were you just asking me Dean? How far can I sense an individual's life essence. True, I can only go fifty meters, but I'm not trying to find the boy, am I? I'm just trying to sift out his signature from the mess out there. Give me a good sample of the strongest signal you've got from over there. Closest to the action, and sift out as much magical power form it as possible. I'll find him...or at least, I can try..."

Konoemon might have said anything to her had he been allowed, but at the moment, the doors burst open, and who else would walk through them to make this situation ten times worse than Alberio himself. Alberio, a man who was supposed to be bound to Library Island, by way of keeping Asuna's mind under wraps. He looked exhausted, but there was no doubt it was he...so that only meant one thing.

"Oh god. I'm going to have a headache."

No, not that, although the dean truly was going to have a return visit from a migraine whose sinister fingers were reaching for him yet again...It meant, indisputably, that Asuna had broken free from him, and that she was now obviously running around loose, with all of Ala Rubra's secrets, as well as a couple other's little tidbits, stuffed in her head. Free access, she had become a walking crack safe.

Damn. As if this day could not get any worse. Magic running amok, it's existence teetering upon a very delicate edge, discovery and the bliss of ignorance...Student's being called back early, explanations, staff running wily nilly, the brink of a magical war, Asuna on the loose...Negi obviously being right in the middle of the mess, probably taking an earplug to the very geyser that was gushing forth from the dam...ahhh, chaos, in its beauty, our destruction.

The man shook his head as Alberio opened his mouth, he need not speak, he already knew. Cora jumped in again, asserting her plan on locating Negi, but Alberio claimed her already knew where the bugger was...in the heart of the volcano spewing that fire called magic out there. He was right in the middle of the game, and he was not the same boy he had been when he left from earth, that much was true. Power multiplied, he played a strong piece in this game, but he was still too weak to be nothing more than a sideshow, but he was an annoyance to the opposition...at least, that was as much as he was able to get before being shut out.

Negi, after being told what was the real secret to everything, would most likely become the enemy. Then his annoyance would be a final piece of power to blast them all away ever so flawlessly. Asuna had to be stopped, but they needed to contact Negi first...and for that, they needed to get through the magical interference. Again, the succubae came into focus with her assertions...

"Listen to me, goddamnit! Fancy magic or warping fields will only cause you more trouble. Are you afraid I'll betray you or something? You've had me under quarantine long enough, the kid saved my life, and I owe him. Let me out there; give me a chance to show you I'm serious! Damn..."

Fine, she'd get her chance. How did tomorrow sound? They would give her an introduction to the main driving forces of those trying to locate their students and reclaim them, and from there, it was all hers. Good? Good. Having a chance to get off her arse and do something...that was what she wanted more than anything, it was boring here!

**+-1-+**

Back flipping away from the point of a cross, Negi swiftly turned, ducking under the swing of a blade. He dropped to one knee, rolling to the side and springing back up to life in time to deflect another slash from a blade. Twirling, grabbing a whip that came his way, he pulled. Kago jumped up, using Negi's own strength to close the distance between them. Negi struck out with his palm, Kago caught it. Negi snapped out his foot, knocking Kago on the chin, another palm thrust him away. Asuna rushed in, blade raised high, but Negi ducked low, swiping her feet from under her. Kago flew low on the grass, feet wheeling as his shoulder sent Negi back, into Asuna's blade...almost.

_**Almost there, he is almost fast enough. He needed to break my limits!**_

He had curled into a ball, avoiding the large obstacle, and, spinning, kicked it upwards in passing, jarring Asuna's grip. Negi landed on his behind, but he flipped upwards in time to duck Kago's thrust again. He grabbed the whip and jumped over the low slash of his aunt's blade...or should we saw half aunt? He twisted the whip in his grip when Kago pulled, keeping his ground, and swung out the cross at Asuna's sword when she slashed at him again, letting loose.

_What the hell is this white robed fool waiting for, him to kill us? He's already faster than I am, faster than I can perceive... almost! He's just about doing it upon instinct too...the hell, he's ready already!_

Steel upon steel, Negi shot up his heel, catching her blade and making it vibrate. He rushed her, yet when he swung out his arm, Kago lashed his whip, wrapping it about the limb. Negi jerked his arm forwards, pulling the man up into the air and lashing him out as a weapon to blast the pair of them backwards. He came in, quickly, too quickly, kicking them both into a boulder, demolishing it with their bodies.

He ran up to them just as Kago jumped up into the air, impossibly high, but the boy followed his movement, reaching him, up close and personal, in fact, he backslapped him before kicking him back down, so personal it was.

_**Almost boy...although I must admit, free from my bonds, I'll pay you back for that slap...**_

Kago landed lightly on his feet, jumping back up in time to meet Negi coming down, palming him in the gut before grabbing his head and tossing him forwards, only to kick him in the rear end to put him down. The hell, he just kicked his butt! Bracing off air, he shot downwards after him, his foot cracking against that small of Negi's back, making him taste dirt. Still, as soon as Kago jumped off and tried to brace off air again, trying another, Negi rolled away, making Kago toss up dirt. Yet Kago exited the cloud, palm thrusting Negi into a tree, where he coughed.

"...Damn, still not strong enough!"  
**"Oh, you are strong, just not agile minded enough yet...and that kick in the rear was for slapping me, by the way."**  
"I guessed that much, watch your back!"

Negi disappeared from the tree, and wearily Kago spun around to duck under a spin kick. Negi had not teleported, no; he had used sheer speed and a little bit of time bending. This world did not exist; no rules could not be broken.

Negi brought up his knee when Kago ducked, hitting home. Negi spun around to meet Asuna, and seeing her still a distance from him, he rushed at her. To him, she was as slow as a snail now, just like before...only now, he could do so much more to defend himself against the magic canceller...

Gathering his hands together, he thrust them force, literally willing the air to push forwards and blast her away. To him, she moved agonizingly slow, but from her perspective, she was sent flying with an uncanny power.

Kago came in from behind, but Negi spun quickly, chopping right into Kago's middle and sending him airborne with so much speed, he just about literally ripped the air. In fact, in this false realm, Negi could swear he did see that take place...

_All is illusion, this is false, break it free, break all the rules, conquer it, destroy it. Then I will succeed!_

He shot after Kago, and with another blow, he finally ripped both of them from the poorly made soul area, leaving Asuna behind as they entered into darkness...his weight left him, he felt the air leave him, panic until he felt a comforting breath, and a voice.

**"You surprise me. I did not expect you to progress in such a bound. Almost didn't bring up the air in time...You have succeeded in reaching the fifth phase without even grazing the forth..."**

Fifth phase? What did he mean by that one now? This isn't some kind of damn game...yet, the other simply indicated the area around them. An area of nothingness. Pure nothing, no gravity, nada, zip, zilch, zero, nugatory, one could go one all day coming up with words for emptiness.

"Phase five ehh?"  
**"Of the action plan. Your aunt has a different phase five of course...her action plan is different than mine...However, the first four phases are identical...in a way, I am glad you progressed this way...it gives me lee way..."**  
"Mind tell me this plan of yours?"

Kago actually laughed. A curious sound from him, but one that was made even hollower by the fact that, for all the emptiness around them, there was no echo, no real, solid travel of sound. However, the laugh for guileless, and he told Negi, quite simply, that he already knew Asuna's plan in its entirety.

**"Phase one, already complete, entails finding and documenting the locations of all the human population in Mundus Magicus. Already achieved by the government itself, we only needed to take a quick peek at their public records...Phase two is also complete, courtesy of the governor himself, and Fate...**

**Due to evacuation measures, all of the human population documented and tabbed currently resides in Megalo Mesembria or somewhere near it, they all want to get away from New Osita or the Old Ostian lands...**

**Phase three is the interesting part, and it is also the part that has just been completed or halfway bypassed, by yourself. Traveling to the soul world and educating Negi Springfield in the art of fighting without the limitations of a false world. There were other applications I had planned for that step, but you bypassed them when you ripped apart the princess's world...**

**Phase four, you flew over. Learning the Code of the Life maker. Where you are right now, Phase five, is past that, for learning this requires having a near nonexistent connection with any world at all. Your belief that you are nothing must be quite strong if it forced you this far...but for this, I need you to have a bit of self dignity..."**

Self dignity? Really now? He should know that Negi let go of his self dignity a long time ago, and whatever might have been built up or left over was destroyed the moment he rose that cross above his head. That same head shook now, bringing with it a sad smile. He was satisfied he had gone far, but he didn't need someone to tell him how he should view himself.

"So, what step is this?"  
**"This step goes along my plans. You see, Asuna dreams, plans actually, for you to destroy Mundus with the code, and then use the code to rebuild it. That is all very well and proper, but there are several problems to this, one of which you have already discovered…the need of extreme power, but I have an alternative."**

He…had a…what? An "alternative" he says. Oh how pleasant. Wonder what kind of sacrifice was worse than his life to give up. Negi was ready and willing to fail in this grand scheme, but, unlike Asuna, Kago didn't seem too keen on throwing Negi into a pit he knew the boy would not emerge from…yet, like a moth to the flame, Negi was intrigued.

"An alternative hmm? What kind of alternative is this?"  
**"…Don't get me wrong, this still requires an incredible amount of power, Negi. You still will most likely die with my plan…but…I can't help but feel that this one is safer, longer lasting, and perhaps gives you a better chance…and the only thing we are risking is a large chunk of mainly dead rock…**

**My plan entitles you using the code to destroy this world, but destroy it utterly, including the keys…completely demolishing the code and using the power to destroy the very planet underneath…now, don't get me wrong, that wanton destruction serves a purpose. You see, you will then use a different type of…"magic" to rebuild not an illusion, but an actual world, live, **_**real**_**."**

He spanned his arms to show the area around him. It was time to let loose a secret upon him, a secret he himself did not truly understand, but one he knew that Negi would. It took a genius, an insane, a person born with cursed wings upon their back, to understand.

It took a true poet, for, long ago, Poets held power, power more than the greatest of mages, for it was their words that created the spells mages wielded, just as they themselves held them, and more, the power of devotion, the power of innovation, the power to twist whatever they wished to their whim.

Negi was a poet. In truth, one who created spells, one who could draw from so many different plains, understanding them all, those ways of life, the study, and the documenter, visionary in the eye. Springfield was the one the world needed, the one who could learn true magic…

That magic that comes without words.

"…You expect me to believe this takes less power, if it is possible at all? Creating an _actual_ world? Are you mad?"  
**"Believe it or not, it is possible, and it does, indeed, take less power. I don't understand it fully myself however…you are the only one who can, I believe. My grandfather passed these discoveries unto me, and in the small time I have had to look, I have picked up upon that research. What I have learned means nothing to me…they only make sense to the poet.**

**One who creates magic, spins spells from their mind and not from memory, who wields power with grace, and draws from the center, taking with them all types of knowledge, crafting them into a spear in which to shatter the faithless and bring peace to the restless. You can't tell me that this is not you…**

**This type of magic has no words. You use emotion, prime desire, prime thought alone. There is no language where you are, you must create it with just your eyes. Jasnin Akaito controls a piece of this primal magic, you…when I am finished with you, will hold it in full."**

Magic without words, magic free from the very Seal of Gramyre, magic that lived deep in the roots of life, Primal Magic, root magic…but that type of magic was lost, or locked away, inaccessible to those with language, a mage could not use that type of Magic anymore…but Kago came up to Negi, placing his hand upon his chest, palm splayed flat.

"**You made a promise Negi Springfield, you, when you became a magical student, repeated an oath. All students do. A simple promise you gave, before receiving your first wand, before you could even enter the academy. That promise was extended upon once sworn into the school, and you made a ritualistic pledge every morning…all of those together formed a spell of binding Negi, and when you received your diploma, the seal was formed in full…"**

Hand glowing, he probed deep, his own eyes shining with the spell he was searching for. He broke form him, showing hands, arms, the entire body, covered in lines, straps, strings of power. Distorted, clasped all around a body, Negi still recognized it, eyes wide.

The Seal of Gramyre was around them both. Quite suddenly, it fit. All those ceremonies, tradition, the reasons for them long forgotten, oaths, pledges, they all built on itself, and through your family even, the seal was first imprinted. The seal was kept alive by every mage in existence…through family and sworn oaths both…one would think the seal was on magic itself, but then…

How did free magic exist? The seal was upon the mages that used it. Those mages that first created it did not edit all of magic, they edited themselves so that they could use magic safely. Magic itself was too powerful…slick, slick, sneaky bstards...

"**Magic is free, Negi. It is only those who use it that are bound. Now, I seek to release you. This spell however…is forbidden, as you might imagine…and the price to pay is steep…but I am willing to do so. For this world…I am willing to do this. Stay still…" **

Quite suddenly, Negi remembered…his older self. He had entered the tournament under the name Kago Masato, and had claimed to have stopped an attempt to destroy the magical world before…with regret. Perhaps he had not meant Fate…but Kago himself.

**"Gramyre, exsisto haud magis. Ego precor vox , Ego tribuo meus vicis! Ut septem magius sublime, Ego dico Sono Erumpo aestuo lingua , Sono Boris, effrego lacuna, Sono Vestis, infirmo vinculum..." **

Maybe that's why he took his name. In memory. After all, Kago was a battle priest. Yet, whatever the man's reasons, they where his reasons. They mattered little to Negi now, but it was an interesting thing…it was highly likely that Kago could have been brought into his memories and tried to raise his staff to finish that work his grandfather had started, only to get knocked down by Negi…

**"Sono Floris, flatus absentis vereor, Sono Tempero addo votum, Sono Gramyre , concedo. Sentio meus dico, redimio him haud magis..." **

In that other world...that other time…

**"Sunderinas Sacramentum!"**

The light made Negi throw up his hands, even after it faded, they remained for fear of a repeat, so bright it had been. Kago bent over double form the drain it had acted on him, and Negi could almost swear he had faded somewhat. He smiled however, casting away all worries with a wave of will. Still, Negi couldn't help but notice the grit in his teeth…

"**To create a world, you need to use all of your knowledge, Negi. A world had to have a history, it must have a sense of being. Life zooms about it, but that life must be described. I assure you, if you create any species of animal or person, those will be false unless you give a piece of yourself into the mixture, something real to work with…you know how a dragon's blood tastes Negi…**

**You know how the fish and other animals native to the magical world taste and feel too, some of them at least. You must use your experience. For all of the knowledge that it was false, you must, for this world, make it real. Take from what you have and use it, Negi.**

**A poet will take all that is around them and craft it in their own image, to their likening, to their desire. You cannot be simply nothing, boy. You must be everything and nothing at once. You must be, in other words, able to break from the Seal and cast magic as you please, and here, as my power is drained, you shall."**

As he watched, the lines running up his arms, the power flowing around him, faded into darkness, crumbling away as dust would to the wind. The seal was a dry sand castle now, simply breaking away. Yet Kago's seal still stood. The boy didn't feel any different, but somehow, he knew he was. He closed his eyes, almost as if told so by command, which he would have been only a moment later…

"**Form a ball in your hand Negi. A ball not of magic, but of knowledge. Take all you know about the world, any world you wish to create, and form it into a ball, force it into your hand. Gravity, Air pressure, Sea depth, land height, temperature, weather patterns, you don't need constellations… **

**The composition of the sand between your toes, the sharpness of a roses' thorns, draw the very clouds that will flit about the skies… think of the warmth of the sun upon your face, the bite of the bitter winds, the sound of the stream, bubbling brooks, roaring seas…feel the grass in between your toes, experience it all…dream it and it shall be Negi…now, open your eyes, and tell me, what do you see?"**

In front of him, between his fingers, leapt a tiny sphere, energetic and bouncy, brilliant and ever changing in color, it stuck to his left hand, giving him a brief flash of a brilliant sunset. His eyes widened, his mind calling up a dozen others at once, bringing forth the smells and sights of animals flitting about the forest…in his hands, the sphere shivered and spun its colors faster.

He held it tight in his hands, trying to stop it from bouncing about…The way it was carrying on, he feared it would explode…The other in front of him nodded appreciatively, and yet, once Negi took his eyes off the bauble, it shrunk, siphoning back into his hands. Perhaps he was stupid at this point, but the boy looked around to see where the heck the thing had gone.

"**That, Negi…that…was a world. You have just created your first world, and quite a healthy one, what I can tell from study says this. You should never continue to build a world if it is a painful effort on your part, it is a still born effort…your world should be close to what you know, as solid as you can make it…**

**It should be alive, and excitable, full of energy, beauty, grace, horror, an animal that can be called real, for it would be too complex for any other description you toss at it… have once last thing I have to give you, after which, we will go back…my memories. The fastest way to teach you this is what I have done…teach you all you need to know to use what I will instantly give you…"**

Coming at him with speed Negi could barely perceive, he placed his hand upon the boy's forehead, crying out the familiar spell for which Asuna had tortured him with, however, instead of fading to a black he would not be able to discern from the current, Negi simply felt like a flood had opened up, breaking down his dam and pummeling him with the roaring waves, filling his tank far faster than even his wide pipe could take.

A mind that had taken from his older self, from Eva, from Asuna, from his tormentor, his father… and finally Kago…he had so much now, different voices in his head, different stories playing along… ahead.. How much of his own knowledge had Negi never explored? What was lurking in that head, besides hundreds of year's worth of borrowed memories? More importantly…

Was all this knowledge enough to create a world?

The next thing Negi knew, he was back with Asuna, Kago stilling looking pale, but the world around them had been rebuilt nonetheless. Asuna looked from the two of them, her face clearly showing impatience. She wanted an answer, and she wanted it now. Lucky for her, Kago turned, and bowed. He gave her his answer, and it was finally the one she wanted to hear.

**"The morning approaches, but he is ready. Teach him the code of the life maker, Princess Asuna...at least, teach him what he doesn't already know."**

**+-2-+**

In the depth of the night, it was Jasnin's turn to look to the stars, as the sun slowly lightened the sky, pitch black turning into a tell tale dark mauve. She was miserable. That, in all its entirety, summed her life up. Miserable. She had lost, in one fell swoop, everything. Well no, she had not lost everything...just everything that _mattered_. She still had the body, but the soul, ahh the soul, her remaining family member, that soul, had been vanquished.

By who? I will smite thee who dares to defile all that is precious to me! All, she wished she could pick up that blade and scream bloody murder, vengeance, on the one who had done this to her brother, sundering him from his being, making him a shell...but what does one do what the very person who took everything away is none other than oneself?

Do you cry? She'd finished her crying. Do you scream? All of Mundus had probably heard her screaming. None of those worked, for all their appeal, for all their simplicity. Nothing ever seems to have a simple answer anymore, does it? What was she going to do with a brother who followed her around like a lapdog because she had torn his soul nearly in two?

She had convinced him to stop calling her madam, or any other title, finally wrestling him back down to the very title she had adored, '"Jess". With that, he seemed almost normal. Almost. The fact that he could read all of her desires, plain as day, and act upon them, just as plainly, scared her. She had actually woken up one day to see him sitting on the foot of her bed, his back turned to her, completely...well, the thought just made her red in the face, let's just leave it at that.

Said it was an imbedded desire in her dream. Now, while she adamantly denied that fact, unconvincingly to the very tactful "servant" one might add, she couldn't help but wonder what else he might do, compelled by her wants. She couldn't even be safe in her mind anymore, it seemed. It was a tragedy, really. Such power she had over him, and she didn't want it.

She wanted him back, just him. Not a servant in his skin, using his voice. She wanted that very same intelligent, lightly resistant man who spoke when he felt it necessary, swung his blade when thought it not, and had a steadfast trust in her, but knew how to hold her back from the fire.

This guy couldn't do that, he just obeyed whatever she said, or thought. It didn't help her or her case at all. Sometimes she just wished she could tell the guy to off himself and be done with it, but she had already had to stop him from sticking a knife once in the chest, just for that very desire once before.

He was still her brother after all, in all honesty and ways of the word, having his soul destroyed did not change that fact. Family was genetic, not spiritual, it seemed…

After that little mishap, later from which she had gone off silently for a few hours until she could compose herself to the world, she had managed to work upon him a bit more and got him to agree to "disobey her" occasionally if he felt she was doing something unwise…(He would not listen to the word wrong apparently. According to him, she was always right.) She had also worked on him to get him to chose a random algorithm into which he would apparently chose to disobey any command.

Maybe it was the impossible emergence of a wit in a soul shattered being, but he claimed his algorithm was indefinite disobedience on that command. Harr harr. Oh well, at least she managed to get some more normalcy out of him, but at what price? Her sanity?

She had to sit here wondering what the guy might do next to "please" her. Whatever her desire may be…and here it was. Even as she thought it, she stiffened unconsciously. It had become a reflex whenever he came around…to instantly stiffen like a board when Issac's boots were heard.

A hand landed on her shoulder, and she looked up to see him. Same face, same body, different inside, regardless of the same organs and soul…a damaged soul was still different, and it behaved differently too as proof.

"_Tense, again. You shouldn't worry yourself about things like this, Jess…the past is past, you did what you did…you can only move forwards…"_

Then, there were times when she could swear he was still there, or had been miraculously, healed…like right now. He pulled off the Jess perfectly, didn't he? Who cared about the instant knowledge of what was on her mind…

"I can't help it. Besides, we've got a big problem on our hands too."  
_"Fate. Showing off his power, lighting up the gate ports, drawing magic to the center in a brilliant display…trying to reinvent the old war, he is. In bad taste, but it is his plan, and we have ours…are you sure you can handle yourself until then however? I know you'll shake it off once you hit the field, but now it's killing you…isn't it?"_

Again, a tactful touch. He knew it was on her mind, but asking anyway made him seem more human. She shook her head, dismissing his worries with a wave of the hand. No, she was fine, tense before battle maybe, but fine.

This kind of battle needed a tense body anyway.

In front of them both, the magic whispered on…

**+-E-+**

_Short bugger to keep the teeth happy. Ehh? Okay, next chapter...well you can guess. Everything is coming together, even the homeground is trying to scramble together a code plan, ehh? Yikes! You can see I am running many stories now, but don't think I have abandoned you, neh, neh? Anyway, short, short...thank you for reviewing so many times Galerians, you surprised me...My hit count came back and...that's all for now! Next time! Finalage out! _


	55. Chapter LV: Craft

_I still feel that I am..."missing" something. I am missing some skill, some needed, inherent ability. I feel strangled, especially with my mind turning to stone on me for a few days. Last chapter was me forcing it to work through that stone...a pitiful attempt. Yes, I say pitiful, I feel I can do better...far better!_

_I still have that favorite OC poll up, I realize. Next chapter, it comes down, it should at least. Vote if you have not. I feel it is about time I really go looking for something. This chapter is me trying another shift in style, a bit._

_Of course, I still do not own Negima. ~Finalage._

**_O+-+X_**

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Five: Craft_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

Beauty hides in every corner, in every crease. If one only cares to look...sometimes, it is simply rediscovering what one thought they had always seen, yet have never taken the time to _perceive_. All it takes is time. Time we hardly ever have anymore.

The air seemed to sparkle; the wind flowed between the trees. A slight scent, rosemary, perhaps, flitted between them. Petals, scattered as grains of sand, were tossed by the breeze, the same breeze that played with his hair. Off in the distance...gurgling, a merry stream leaping over bedrocks.

Yet, his eyes, his mind, took in none of it. He focused forwards, locked upon the rigid visage of his aunt, hair taken by the breeze just as his. She had a slight smile on her face, dressed for the occasion, royal travel wear. She tossed her head, hand coming to rest upon the hilt of her titan blade.

Silence. In his mind's eye, he saw much. The teachings of the code done not by her, but by him, flitting by at the speed of light. Kagashi, his very own teacher in this language of code, his mind was the Rosetta Stone.

Her eyes, so much like a cat's, the way her gaze fell, fixed upon him. Another toss of the head, a gesture more fit upon a horse. He simply tilted his head to the side, waiting. She took a breath before he felt the pressure.

It thrummed. In the very air, it vibrated as her hand grasped upon her blade. Yet, when she actuated her power, the code, he was unfazed. Her blade struck out, yet he found himself unchained. Helpless before now he simply arched his foot back, out of the way.

His hand held the blade now, shaft still, in his grip. Surprised, but far from thrown, she simply let her blade crumble, as its image appeared, still in the ground, her hand still at rest upon it. A puppet, nothing more. Once more, she smiled a slight smile.

_Of course. Illusion. A prime power of the code. After all, it is a world of illusion one seeks to destroy..._

Simple put... When she struck again, the blade passed through him, drawing blood. Yet he crumbled into dust himself, his adversary performing a pirouette to avoid him from behind. Still, he was not there. Nay, his hand shot from the very ground, grasping her firmly by the ankles, dragging her into the depths of the ground.

She disappeared, and still she stood with her blade in the ground. She had yet to move...but so had he. Finally, her smile broke a smidgen wider over the still face, and she shattered the still silence with a final engagement into words. Negi was proving a more adept student than she had ever hoped to dream for.

"Intelligent and quick, strong, yet subtle. Perfect for controlling the code, but can you best me without it? Illusion is at its core, boy. Tell me true...is mastery possible, over something that is not there?"

A quirk of the lips, and Asuna felt herself slow. Literally, her limbs moved as they would through a sea of typewriters, in essence, very little at all. Negi smiled that small smile, stock still as she struggled, ahh, his eyes, they laughed at her.

_Wait...I have yet to teach him the code...so what is this?_

Oh yes, it was possible to conquer that which was not real. One only needed to see past the fact it was false. Just like winning an imaginary race, the sense of victory is still there. She was effectively trapped...by Hellas.

_Could it be that he had already learned it? That's impossible, he had no time! That priest and he were fighting, and then...they stopped. Kago claimed he was ready. That's it...but no...Something else must have taken place!_

Dozens of them, ringed around her, in gleaming armor. What was she, some kind of trophy wife? Negi's smile kept right on playing, still that same half sized smirk. This was the usage of the code, bringing to life anything one wished. Above the pair, a whisper of wings, Vir, not the actual one, of course not, but a suitable copy, floated down, belching flames.

_Something...I could not perceive!_

Hellas were strong, but Asuna, being half of one herself, and well trained, managed to take advantage of the kamikaze individuals around herself, breaking free from them as they burned and reaching past the false Vir, dousing the flames.

Negi however, was right there to run her through with a knife. Eyes wide, she faced this new threat, one that was buried quite deep into her own torso, the pain lancing up her, through her, so real for all its falsehood.

_Oh god, it burns! Pure fire! Wait...where am I now?_

Indeed, her surroundings had changed. Pure, pitch black, all around. It swirled around her ankles, leaving a wet, slimy feeling. Walking through mud. Negi was drawing upon memories, ones that were not his own, spinning false worlds to ensnare Asuna in. His voice echoed somewhere in the darkness...

"The question is not if I can best you without the code..."

He did not need her to learn the code, oh no, his teacher was Kagashi himself, through the eyes of his grandson, Masato Kago. A brilliant teacher he was, yet, for all his brilliancy, his grandson could not use the code, not without the key...

"...the question is, how can one who is made up of that very code, properly control it? How can _you_ best _me_?"

Negi knew that he himself could not use it either, not like this. Of course knew. All of this would be more difficult in reality...the fact that the magical world was false did not change the fact it housed a myriad of magical power... here, all of his power was instant, gratuitous. Without a key, the only place he could actuate such power was here, in the spiritual world...

"Asuna Kagurazaka, without a key..."

Just like any other. In spirit, the magic was instant, for there was no real draw upon magic, no need for words, simply an interpretation by the soul. The reason he could pull off Enthoalis Complexio was thus...and speaking of such an incredible display of power...

_Brilliant light, encompassing all, Kanka, The forms, Erebia and all. Enthoalis Complexio, Entropy Form._

"...you are nothing to me."

Darkness condensed upon his limbs as he shot forth, invisible until the last minute, when his under fire, ice and lightning broke free, when his power shone through, silver skin winking as she felt herself turn to near stone.

Time frozen, he had control of that too. He could control her completely here, in a spiritual world where the key's power wasn't of consequence. His hand encompassed her forehead, burrowing deep with his power, seeking, searching, digging for memories, turning them up, painfully drawing them out, copying them...

"You now have nothing left for me to gain from you...time goes on...and it think it's time to wake up, don't you?"

Pain shot through her like a bullet from the bottom up. Screaming, she shot up; her head hitting the bedpost, turning her ripping distress into a pitiful mewl. Nursing her head, she yelped again when a tight grip closed upon her wrist, almost unnaturally warm.

Negi grinned at her from his place on the bed an eyebrow raised. The sun streamed through the window behind him, illuminating him in a different light than she had seen him before. He seemed lighter, somehow, almost as if he had stripped himself of something. She reached out and punched him straight in the mouth.

Negi would have laughed, but he let the blow fall, so he bowled over back into bed, howling with mirth. Kago too, had been woken from the magic induced slumber, looking ill. He managed to smile, however weakly, at the antics of the other two though.

The boy however, stopped laughing when he paused to cough, and then, with an incredulous look upon his face, held up a shiny white object. Looking at it with an expression akin to mortification and grim fascination, he rose an eyebrow, and grinning slightly, only there was something weird about that grin…

He was missing his front tooth, and was howling up a storm about it, as if it were the funniest thing on earth. He tossed it up into the air before catching it again, as if it were some kind of demented coin. Kago stiffly rose, a bit flushed from the effort, and left the two of them alone. Yet, when he opened the door, nothing less than a whole brigade barged in.

"Oh hells. About flupping times…shit, can't even shpeak properly. Shit Asuna, you knocked it out! Been fricken loose for ages…crap, I have to fight Fate with a fushing missing toot. How will thish look?"

Negi gave the four people who had barged in a toothy grin. One of whom was a dumbstruck Anya. She had forgotten that he was young enough to still have that problem, falling teeth. In fact, this was his first. At least he was normal in one thing. His teeth fell out just like any other person…thank God for small favors!

However, the good lord can never be too generous, especially when it came to Negi, whom, upon looking at a sheepish Asuna, grinned mischievously. His hand shot out quickly, palming the woman in the face, even as she jerked back, she wasn't quite fast enough. She gagged. Had she swallowed it?

Perhaps it was all coming at her at once, perhaps it was the fact that Negi had finally reached deep enough to shatter her royal hide, or maybe her actions had finally balanced out, but Asuna, the third imperial princess, ungracefully jumped up and shot out of the room, calling for water. All the while, Negi smiled, and with a flick of the wrist, his tooth was in his hand once more.

"Idiot...Idiot to the very ensh. Ha ha! I vonder what kind of dehmented toot fairy would take this shucker? Hah! Fate you ash! I'm coming for yah! Keep the fire warm, 'cause it's about to get hot hot hot!"

**+-1-+**

**"So... now, you are missing a tooth."  
**"Just one more esperihence to put on my plate."

The wind blew in his face, this early morning. It woke him up, all the way, an annoying habit of the human being, needing a second or even third refresher to get them to one hundred percent alert. He watched as the sun began to rise. A bit behind him, Eva stood, yet she came up to him, putting her hand on his face.

**"Smile one for me."  
**"You gots a camera?"  
**"I wanna see how it looks, you idiot."**

Obeying her, he gave her a toothy grin, allowing her to see the plain new blow hole he had now. She grimaced at the sight, tilting her head just a bit to take in the full effect. Damn. Oh well, it wasn't going to last long anyway...none of it was.

**"Damn. It makes you look cute, and you ain't a person whose supposed to look cute."  
**"Oh my, I think I'll just fall ovesh and dies! A shenturies old vampire thinks' I'm cute, oh, oh my hi!"  
**"...If you like, I can give you another missing one to make a pair."  
**"Ho ho, hooo... no thank you!"

Negi held up his hands upon that statement, prompting him to see the backs. Tiny things they were. Incredible how much he had used them for. He thought about his plans, and what he was about to do, looking up into the sky. His fist clenched as he recalled the words that Kago had given him, and the conversation they had indulged in just minutes before...

_**"You know as well as I, the cost of unleashing the seal of Gramyre, Negi. It is meant to bond all; it is what gives magic language. Without it, you can gather the matter needed, use the raw energy needed to create a world, but with a price. You know that I will join you in this battle...but you know I will die, don't you?"**_

_Negi looked off to the side, casting his eyes from the tired face in Kago. He knew the young man had not cast the whole spell in front of him. Much of the unsealing Negi had gone through was unincanted, as the priest did not want Negi to know...to hold that spell. Even in all the memories Kago had given him, he could not find even a hint of where it was inscribed, or a snatch of the verse. The man had simply said the part out loud he knew was untraceable, the part now completely lost, courtesy of his grandfather and a homey fire... Negi knew that he could research for it, and he just might piece it together, despite the damage done by Kagashi and Kago...but he respected the priest's decision...this was one spell he could let die..._

_"You have been robbed of your "time" as far as I can decipher."  
__**"A forbidden spell always comes with a price Negi, you know that. This one is life. I completely unsealed you, I gave you a life of freedom, in exchange, I shall lose mine...in about twenty hours."  
**__"...All of this...for a world. For a boy you know nothing about, for a boy once a vampire. You, the last Vicused, would give your life..."  
__**"You need not worry about the line of Vicused's...the knowledge lives on in you. Once you analyze it and absorb it, you could well enough carry on the line, if you saw fit. As for my life..."**_

_Here he paused, an looked off in the same direction Negi was, into the open, dark sky, an archway in front of them both, a pathway into the future, a portal to the past in time. He was at a loss for words for a moment, just staring, but his eyes said it all._

_His life was never one that was free; it was made to be a sacrifice. His grandfather had once been a good man...but the code had destroyed him, to the point in which he wove his grandson into the mix, making sure that if he failed, the boy would continue the line..._

_He even enslaved Fate to his will, making sure the chaos would continue until what he had first believed was right was achieved. Kagashi was a good man...but his will, his soul, was too weak. It was consumed by his power, and, for all Nagi's arrogance and wrong reasons...was right to destroy him._

_Kago knew that he too, had a soul that would be consumed. He was no poet. His power was no match. Yet, this boy, so young...had so much riding on him too. This boy...was a poet, a true spell weaver, and he was worthy of being free of his bonds, one with magic. He needed this to do what was right, to end the cycle...and if it cost Kago his life..._

_He'd happily give it._

_**"Myself, Asuna, your mother, Nagi, even Fate, we are but magic users. You, however Negi, you...are a PART of it. From the very day you were born, you became a part of it, a catalyst, creating magic. Then, you crafted yourself, gave yourself a wide knowledge base, drew from dozens of sources, you honed your talent, quenched your thirst for knowledge, hammered the staff a poet wields...**_

_**Life gave you adversity, and you used it to hone yourself, gave yourself power, wrapped around you the cloak a master wears. Finally, I gave you the tools. Negi, you need only take the master key from Fate. **_

_**He does not know how to use it. Not truly. No one can simply "find" the grand master...you must use all of the master's together to find the grand master...but a poet need only use one. You can see where the others are, link them together...yet, I think that you won't have to look far...in fact, I think it is right behind Fate's eyes..."**_

_Negi whirled to look at Kago, who was leaning on a staff, still and quiet, eyes upon the darkened horizon, waiting for the sun. He looked incredulous, but his incredulity faded into anger. However, when Negi angrily barked out his statement..._

_"You mean to tell me he knows where the damn thing is already! Is he just stringing us along? That what you suggesting? If so, why the hell are, what the hell are we, fighting for?"_

_Kago simply shook his head, not taking his eyes from the sky._

_**"No. I don't think Fate is even aware of the fact he knows. I believe Kagashi placed the fact in his head; just the same way he placed all those memories in mine. Perhaps he hoped someone like Nagi would defeat him time and time again, unable to stop the cycle until Fate came back the final time, the time after this one supposedly.**_

_**At that point, Kagashi probably believed nothing could stop Fate's drive, as little can stop it now. At that time, I believe the knowledge of where the key is located would be unlocked, and Fate would wreak a final concerto, a terrible havoc, upon this world...**_

_**Yet, you have the power to stop him Negi. Destroy the code, break the cycle. Make this world real; breathe life into that which had none. Only you have the mind capable for it. Only your mind is beautiful enough, only your mind is harsh enough...you will never forget to give the bee its stinger, the rose it's thorn. **_

_**You listen to detail and you take in the expanse. You think thousands of steps ahead, but you still take one at a time...Our parties are assembled, and the plan is set...and as you know, your friend Shiori never left our premises...she's willing to fight on our side..."**_

_Kago threw that one in as a side note, a distraction. Negi knew the girl was still hanging around, he had found her this morning. Ahh well, you couldn't get rid of them all... She claimed ignorance on how to operate "this glass ball thingie."_

_Negi told her the "blasted pretty bauble" could be chucked down her throat, but he said it without any guile. In his mind, he had already placed her on Vir, the rear guard. She, along with Asuna, Chisame, Nodoka, Yue and Eva, would provide a "getaway car" kind of role, but they had the added job of keeping stuff of the other's backs._

_He knew his mother was out doing the stupidest thing in the world, trying to buy a ship. That ship would house Anya, Alma, Jasnin, Issac, Kago, Rakkan and Negi, and this one's job was easy, they were the main party. It was their job to infiltrate, confront and exploit the enemy. _

_Nagi, well, he was a single scout unit. He was plenty strong enough to take care of himself anyway. Besides, if it was not enough, he'd have Arika along with him..._

His thoughts drifted away as He felt a cool presence on his shoulder, and Negi realized, with some shock, that it was Eva's hand. In her free hand, she held a ring. Its inscription winked in the growing light, reading in Latin, something akin to:

"In place of a wand, I will stand as your key to power."

**"I...I know it's impossible, but I feel compelled to give you this...if you'll promise you won't lose it...It's stupid...but...don't leave."**

She wasn't turned to him, she seemed to radiate too much shame...or perhaps it was sadness, vulnerability, even. Negi closed his hand upon the object in her hand, taking the hand with him to enclose it in another. He knew when to be serious about something...but his personality couldn't help but throw in a quirk. He did attempt to speak clearly however…

"You know I don't make promises I know I can't keep. Yet...there is a first time for everything, isn't there? Fine. I'll promise you. I won't lose it... Even if I know it's a pie-crust promise. I won't leave you, so stop looking so... pathetic."

She turned around to look at him quickly, too quickly, but he held up a free hand, and the ring slipped from hers to his. He deftly tucked the ring unto his proper finger, letting it catch the rising light. That same winning smile, damn, it _did_ only increase his appeal, that missing tooth...

_"Please, don't leave me."  
"Don't worry, I won't leave, silly..."_

_They say that history repeats itself. Just like you, sister...you promised me, promised me that you wouldn't leave...but you did. Just like that...just like that time...now, I make a promise I know will be broken...Please don't leave...but you, Nekane, and I, Negi...will leave them... leave them all alone._

_In this rising sun, I wonder...you forbade me from heaven before...will you forbid me now, if I go again? It is a compelling thought... Good night, exit stage right...my dear friend._

He didn't need that ring, of course. With the seal unlocked, he didn't need language, he didn't need wands. Magic could flow freely now. It was unlocked, unbound. That was what the seal did after all, it limited magic, gave it a language and form, forced a user to be restricted to a tool for usage, so only a select few could use it...without it...Negi could cast magic like he could as a vampire, only he didn't need to incant a spell...

He still could, but it was...un-needed, obsolete. The ring was nothing to him...but it still was something. It held...symbolic value. That symbolic value of the first, and last, promise that he would make with the intention of breaking. His last link to this world...shattered into a million pieces. He'd keep it on...until the very end, he'd keep it on. They'd have to pry it from his dead, cold fingers...

That's the way it was supposed to be.

**+-2-+**

_"Master, Captain, we've got an incoming transmission on Channel five."  
_"How many fu*cking times do I have to tell you not to call me captain? This ain't my damn ship!"  
_"...Begging pardon Master, but it is. It is bought with Ostian funds, through which you are rightfully in control of, and in your name. Your mother claims it is payback for all the birthdays she missed...you even had the courtesy of naming it..."_

Grumbling about the fact that he still didn't want any damn kingdom in his name, the boy slammed up a com screen, loading up the telepath link via hybrid electronics and magic. True, he could perform a far more perfect telepathy with his royal magic, but, frankly, he had no time to break down any mental doors and risk mentally destroying whomever the hell was calling him.

Of course, once he saw who it was, he wished he had tried to destroy their brains. It was Godel, in the flesh. Behind of whom was...is that Takahata? How the hell...and yet, it was just a telepathic image, the two weren't actually next to each other, but on two different ships. Both of them looked beaten up as hell though...

"Negi Springfield!"

Oh hell, he didn't want to speak with this fool. The hell did he want anyway? If he didn't have any clearance to be here, he'd deal with that later, he wasn't part of the man's damn army, and he'd like to see him tell Negi to pull over and put his hands up, he'd blast him to kingdom come. Making an effort to smile and show off his teeth, or lack thereof, he answered him.

"Oii. I ran out of cookies a while ago, but another batch is in the oven, you'll have to wait a little while, but I assure you, they're chock full of chocolate, butt whooping chunks…"  
_"Master, life signatures are popping up upon the sensors...it's an army of summoned beings!"_

As if his problems weren't big enough...

Of course, Negi didn't have to worry anything. Arika had spared no expense on this thing he was flying on, registered to one Negi Springfield. Its model was off the market, a legacy make that was stripped down and redesigned by a private company. Godel couldn't trace the damn thing in a million years. Not that Godel might want to, but the fact was comforting...there were also a couple other comforting facts about this ship...

"I'll pass, thank you anyway…I was simply sending this message as a plea for us to work together, as this is now a global crisis, I think. That magical concentration and those beasts..."  
"Besides being enough to wipe out the great wall of china, is enough to quite easily snuff out all of Megalo Mesembria, several million lives, and wreak havoc upon the lands of Old Ostia, stretching as far as the outer reaches of the wilderness and slaying countless cows."  
"What? …I'm sorry….did I just hear you saw cows?"

Like the fact that, even if Godel could, theoretically, trace his signal, it had a zero point one billionth degree pinpointed precision maneuverability, a drastic improvement over its previous model, and a good cut higher than standard military issue. He could outmaneuver them like a ribbon does a rock. Besides that, he could always outrun them too, if he so desired.

"Indeed my good man, cows. You need your milk and beef, don't you? Yet that is besides the point. You want to work with me? I already have my plans laid out, and they do not include you bossing me all higgledy piggledy. You are hovering around the edges, I plan to _go in_. You stay outta my way, and I'll be outta yours."  
"Wait…are you mad! Going in there? The magical condensation is too great, so great in fact that the very ruins of Old Ostia had lifted from the ground! Flying in there would be akin to suicide! You go there and-"

An ion driven photon core that pumped plasma at high speeds through a diamond lens, ramming into pure nitrogen among other things… It gained propulsion through nuclear fission and fusion, harnessing the residual radiation in a second core to use as additional power, a feedback source. All of this technicality boiled down to an air speed which mutilated the mach standards, making military mach seventeen look like a snail, to say nothing of the hyper drive and overdrive capabilities...

"Do I need to make myself even clearer than I already have? _In_. As in, inside, not outside, where the action is, the "not safe" place, the belly of the whole damn beast... The heart of the fu*cking matter. You can't trace me. This thing I'm on is built like a tank, thank god. Look upon the _SS Sanctus Enthoalis_, beotch, for you ain't ever gonna get anything but a visual on this baby, and even then, that's just a shaky dream..."  
"You…_are_ mad."

Of course, with shielding rated at eighty thousand magical pounds per square micrometer, it would take about thirty main military cannons to even make it shiver anyway. If there was one thing Arika knew about her son… it was that he didn't like to be weak…he didn't really care about the innovative square footage, or the full bath and kitchen, and he could care less about the five hundred million pin pointed frequency pickups...but it's speed and defense? Heck yeah.

He also cared very little for the almost perfect cloaking devices, masking heat, bending light in a wicked reflective pattern and keenly bouncing back any sonar in such a way to make it undetectable. Negi could hide the thing in plain sight, and the only way you'd know was if you snubbed your nose against the hull, literally. Yet he wasn't one to hide often...

"Oh yes, I am mad. Stark and raving, but I'm mad enough to commit suicide when I know that's what's gonna solve this whole damn mess. Ever looked at a hammer Kurt Godel? Well, take a good, hard look, 'cause this is the last hammer you'll ever see. Everything looks like a nail to me, and I plan on knocking them all back down where they belong! ...If you want to help, aim you cannons at the top of that damn thing, and fire them at once, you just might break through its ass...Goodbye!"  
"But, wait-!"

Quite audibly, Negi ended the transmission, which was another good thing about this amped up version of the legacy Manta class XS-15A. The unchanged feature of making a definitive slam when disengaging a link with authority, a beautiful sound akin to slamming down an old phone receiver. Smashing. Just…smashing.

"Alma."  
_"Yes Master."_

He didn't need to tell her, she already knew, and with a small smile of her own to match his smirk, she slammed petal to the metal, drawing full power from the engine. Negi yelled out his delightfully short notice warning before the engine kicked in, throwing all the slow ones against a wall as they sped off into the light.

_Hell yes, I am mad. I madder than a march hare, and even madder still, but all that insanity is only a representation of the live I have lived. I turn this insanity to my advantage at every turn, and use it as fuel for my desires, my missions._

Something wicked, this way comes…little did they know, those ahead, what was coming up right on their arse. The ship cut effortlessly through the fog, and Negi shouted that he was going up top. Jumping up out of his seat before most had even acclimatized to the new speeds, he charged up his body as he ran, charging for a spell that would punch their way through that bubble of light... The one that cocooned their destination.

Negi could almost hear Godel curse as he heard from behind him a confirmation by Alma. His ship was picking up the fleet, and by god, they were charging their beams. He had a feeling that it wasn't Kurt who issued that order...but who cared, as long as the damn order got issued. He felt his excitement and his energy build. He was starting a one hundred percent this time...

Finally, at the final battle, he was one hundred percent, and with a full party backing him up, a solid plan under his belt. For once in his life, he was in control, and by the end of this fight, he would lay waste to the demented cycle this world had allowed to exist for too long. I'm coming Fate...I'm coming, and I'm not alone. You are strong, but I...I am no longer weak. Put on your dancing shoes, Grayfield.

It's about to be someone's last dance.

Slamming open the door to the ships top observatory, Negi felt the air about him, forcing it away. Gathering his magic, he focuses upon the area he was looking for and called up a beam, nondescript, simply energy, magic, barreling out as the cannons from the ships fired. Amassed around the bubble, the summoned statues flew, but Negi's beam, combined with the others, punched a hole through the poor things. Negi smiled as he saw the opening, and picking up the winds, used them along with his voice to urge his ship forwards.

"Onwards to the final boss, ladies and gentlemen… onwards!"

Through the milky fog, as he passed through the barrier, Negi swore, if he looked down, he could see him. Amassed with power, and standing erect, pale and constant, unwavering...Fate met his eyes. Even at this distance, he was sure of it. Emotionless and stale, but still...their eyes met. The final confrontation awaits...

For once, and Negi was sure of it as he watched, a flicker of emotion, or zeal, eager energy, lust…it danced in the eyes of the pale one. A final breath of air, a grand furnace opening its doors for just a second, to let loose the heat inside…it was indeed time.

**+-3-+**

"He went in, by god, he went in! Hell if any of us can follow with all this interference, but he got in! That damn dragon is still circling around though, back up? Did you see that Takamitchi? He just up and fired a laser from his own body out there and pummeled that thing!"

_"IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZAR! ...Ahem...yes, I did see. I can't identify the element of it either..."_

Godel looked up, surprised at his companion, whom, miles away on earthen soil, looked a bit sheepish at his comment, yet nonetheless grinning like a helpless fool. Firin' mah lazar indeed...looks like some people were still kids inside. Yet, Takahata managed to continue his grin under fire.

"...Yes, no element identifiable, and it took a frighteningly short amount of time to form. What kind of spell is that, I wonder…"  
"What? What? You have a problem with lasers? You could have simply said beam spell, or mid level whatever, but you left yourself wide upon with laser there, you have to admit…"

Godel still made no comment, refusing to take Takahata's bait. He had just been hung up quite rudely by Negi, and then he sees such a brilliant display. He knew the boy was strong, but to summon a spell so quickly…now he really wondered what this boy had done to himself to reach Fate…what the costs had been…

"That…wasn't a mid level_ anything_ Takamitchi…that was an arch level _something_."

All the while, Godel had been treating this like a game, a great grand political game, but with the boy's hard-headed tact and determination, he had shot through even the strongest of his webs, and yet still remained an unconquerable piece in the game itself. He refused to play, yet he was the key to the whole board.

"What do you estimate his power level is?"  
'I don't imagine I can rate him on energy output."  
"Then use the old way, guess. What would good old Rakkan say?"  
"…That he is near, maybe even over…four thousand. _Without_ his magical enhancements."

Now who was talking nonsense? Negi left here, the real world, hardly two weeks prior, well, for them, it had been longer, about a month or so…but still, the boy had been less than a thousand or a solid grand maybe. How could he possibly quadruple his power output in such a short time?

After already increasing it so much during his time in Mahora, one might think to add? How could he simply gain so much, all for this battle? It was surprise enough to find out that Negi had actually found Nagi, but to hear that he himself had pushed his limits so far…

"What do you think his chances are?"

Honestly Takahata? Did he want an honest answer? The boy had just blatantly told him to his face that he was going in, right in to fight a mad man, a doll made real, Fate Averruncus, an individual who not only had four partners and one crazy swordswoman on his side, but whom had at least three Kansai mages and another mysterious mage on his side. Who knows what other back up he had, but this was what Godel was able to discern…

He also had an army of live statue golems and the master key, which housed all the magical power he had currently gathered, enough to wreak devastation upon this world. Fate himself was an opponent who managed to match Nagi last time, blow for blow, and even overtake him many times…it was only grim luck that Nagi stabbed him through and left.

This time, just like all the others, he had come back stronger, faster, better. What did Negi have? Well, he had a rag tag team. Fifteen counted, approximately. Three Royal Magic users, One formerly of Fate's inner circle, Two members of the disbanded Ala Rubra, Two military special ops, three former mundane, one legendary vampire, one apparent slave girl, illusion user, one battle priest and finally, one delinquent.

He also had a high powered flying manta class ship and a high level dark Dracopyre, along with a cunning mind, a few assorted magical artifacts and plenty of steamy pep to go along with a burning desire. What were his chances? An icicle's in hell.

Still, Godel couldn't help but feel like trusting the boy. He had something up his sleeve, he could feel it somehow. Just like Nagi before him, he had a spark, and a knack for pulling things out from his ass. Only for Negi, it's wasn't so much "shit raffling" as it was an incredible ability to improve.

"Kurt…are you still there?"  
"I'm here Takamitchi…"  
"_What do you think his chances are?_"  
"Do you remember how I used to think about Nagi, pulling stuff he should never had been able to do?"  
"…In other words, you don't think he'll last a minute, but you trust him anyway, just for hope the gene lives on…"  
"It has to Takamitchi…for all our sakes…"

Off in the distance, through the milky fog, a ship snapped downwards, barreling through the mess as one very peeved mage tried to keep control of the reigns. Negi Springfield was not happy as he struggled for control of his ship against the turbulent trailings of magic.

He could, of course, use his skill with the code to control the air here, but he neither his ability nor his reserves to last the trip. He needed his magic at one hundred percent, and he had only been willing to risk that beam to break through the mist, nothing else.

He flipped a control, and snarled when his hand hit a radio dial instead of the throttle, prompting the speakers to begin blaring "Do you think you're better off Alone."…which was a comical addition to his struggle, but an unwelcome one.

He didn't bother taking it off, or turning it down, his main concern was getting this thing to land. There was so much ground, but only one way to bring her down! He heard Alma calmly tell him something about the back thrusters being ready now, which he could barely hear over Alice Deejay, but hear he did, and gladly, he slammed those thrusters up hard.

It really was an impressive ship; especially when you take into account its powerful propulsion system, workable both forwards and _backwards_ in throttle. Most had trouble with the backwards part…not his. When he called those babies up, they shone like gold, slowing his descent and bringing the vibration well under his control.

The last thing he did was turn off the infernal music, just as the song was about to end. How nice. Now, if there was one thing he wanted to fight by, it might be a matrix theme, but not that poor Alice, not now. He turned to the rest of his haphazard crew. Alma, regardless of her brilliant performance on board, looked greener than a pine tree's leaves, so he sent her to the bathroom first.

As for the rest…they had some straightening to do. In other words…

"Get your asses together; we exit ship in five minutes, no exceptions. Now, move your bones!"

They were out of that ship in those five minutes, all of them, even as Negi had marched out four minutes earlier. There was no exterior damage he could discern, but he did notice a tenseness in the air. They all did, even behind the heaviness the magic gave it.

He turned his head forward, and froze. A line of stone golems, dragon statues, stood in their way...and yet, in between them, a line of people, assumed to be of the Hellas race, stood tall. Still, there was another surprise for him, for there was another in front of them all, in familiar clothing...a uniform.

Shit. They say...they say it's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for...indeed, here in this confrontation, it was the case. Zazie...damnit, Zazie Rainyday! Looking very much like the dark specter, the illusionist and performer she sold herself as, she stood...she also looked very, very, very much like a Hellas...

So that's how it was...and yet, even as he took a step forth, Jasnin, Isaac and Rakkan jumped ahead of him, Issac practically palming the young mage backwards. Kago joined them at the front, calmly calling his whip into being.

**"Go, Negi. Go. We shall hold the back line."  
**_"Like he said, go on and kick that albino's ass for me."_  
"We can handle the small fry, besides; if we somehow can't...we have Rakkan here too."  
_**"Negi, you better save me some of the action, or I might have to beat your ass to satisfy this adrenaline! Go on and do what you gotta, kid, I know you don't like getting messy with students."**_

Now, while Negi didn't quite feel like letting the albino comment, ironically coming from Jasnin, slide, but he had no time for quirks, or snide shots. He only nodded, and shot ahead as the four charged towards the fray. Negi and his remaining party shot past, the boy himself kicking a path free, ducking under a well aimed fire arrow sent by way of Anya.

This battle wasn't their concern...they shot past it. Their battle lay ahead, up those ruined stairs...

**+-E-+**

_Darn, you're too fast Akamatsu. I tell you, I was planning so much for Zazie! Gah! Ahh well, looks like he got to drop the quiet one bomb first. Ahh, but now I am play for play with him! Now I have caught up with you, there is no stopping me from formulating my plans into a reality. My poll will go down next chapter, so vote. Oh, some side notes…_

"_IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZAR!" - Is a term that has been around for a while, but I'm not sure when it exactly originated. I would appreciate it if someone would tell me. I am pretty sure it's been around since before 2002 however…if not, oh well, first time I broke the time scale law a bit, mesh, another universe._

"_Pie–crust promise"- A term used in "Mary Poppins" to describe a promise easily made and easily broken. If you have not seen this movie…well, it is a classic, released in 1964. Nice heartwarming little film that shows how life and discipline should always have a balance of work with play._

"_Do you Think You're Better Off Alone"- The first single released by Alice DeeJay, released in 1999._

_Children tend to begin losing their baby teeth around six to seven years of age, and girls normally to lose them earlier than boys. They typically stop falling out by the age of eleven or twelve, but there are cases in both the early loss of teeth and late loss. _

_Finally…the "Manta class XS-15A" was a random collection of numbers and letters I came up with, the design is, of course, a manta, one of those typical in the magical world transportation designs. The "__SS Sanctus Enthoalis__" has no model number however, as it is a stripped and re-worked model of that discontinued legacy model. Price: Approximately 40,500,000 drachma, best black market price. _

_This particular specimen was bought for 200,000, by way of the queen tapping into a favor of the engineer who manufactured this model originally. This model is different than even the mainstream black market sales, as it was custom created by the original designer, and has several flaws improved upon._

_Next chapter, the pent up rage explodes. Battles, battles, battles galore! I told you this was going to be an explosion, and we are going out with a bang!_

_Finalage, out!_


	56. Chapter LVI: Initiate

_At first, I had planned to get this done by June first. Obviously, that plan was an impossible one. Then I planned to finish it by the end of my work period, the middle of August. I'm not sure if I'll make that one, though I should... _

_I was kinda hoping to break 500,000 words, but it was only a pet peeve...I don't think this will go past sixty chapters...yep, all this talk about the story ending, and it's finally approaching like a bullet to the brain. There's not much left to tell, meh? _

_Even if I do plan on continuing with another round, it is still kinda sad. AJ Katon, welcome to the party, I'm glad you enjoy, and that you can handle the crazy ride the beginning of this monster gives. Galerians, Havelock, as always, I appreciate your input. I suppose I've come far in the fluff issue. Omegarules...I have misspellings? Blunder on my part then! Yet I really do make sure...hmmm..._

**_O+-+X_**

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Six: Initiate_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

It happened in a flash of light.

In a flash of light, her world had been taken and twisted into a pretzel… So fast, it was impossible to comprehend, that change, and so too, was her world now impossible to understand. Yet here she stood, looking at a shining tree, thinking back. Thinking back, to a "friend" she had never really paid attention too, one that, with a simple act, had revealed this whole new, confusing world.

It had started when they had been called back by the principal, an emergency that was explained very sparsely. All had come on her very quickly, and she soon found herself back at school, being ushered around by nervous adults, far earlier than she had anticipated...

Then the world tree had shown itself, in all its glory, to be shining...at first, it was thought that they had hooked it up with florescent lights or something...but everybody was tense, and students were limited in curfew, told to travel in groups...the air was rank with fear.

It was the not knowing that had killed her before, but now…now, she wasn't sure if the truth was much better, or any easier, to absorb. The final straw to her reality had been dashed away with the appearance of that...mage. That person who was rushing at her and her party, screaming bloody murder, all for Konoka's head, who wasn't even there one might think to add.

Of course she had stepped forwards. She had not known what she was up against, but as class president...Ayaka had taken on her duty, as class president of course, to find out what was going on from the stranger… She had not expected the light to form in the other's hands, her grin spread wide as she called out strange words.

_"Sagitta Magica, Trignita Spiritus, Ingus!"_

An arrow, brilliant red, had shot forth, dozens of them it seemed, and she was stock still, unable to move, glued. She closed her eyes, unable to see, she didn't want to see, the heat was too intense...better to die blind than to see her fate.

"Oh no yah don't!"

Yet, she felt no pain. Her eyes fluttered open, seeing black, leathery things, whispering away from her vision, revealing her fate to be continued life, in the face of danger. Sakurako, clearly pissed, jumped _over _her.

"I'm sorry class rep...I really am."

Landing gracefully, the lacrosse player showed that it was she who held those brilliant, bat like wings, appendages that spanned at least four or five feet on either side. They had enveloped Ayaka, protected her, and now they served as a source of fear for the opponent.

"...but times of war call for desperate measures. Stay back... Negi-sensei would boil my head if he found out that I didn't try to protect you to the best of my ability..."

They seemed to be real life models of the ones she had worn at the festival, drawing in customers to the haunted house. She turned back to her, apologetic, that's what her face was. Those wings...so dark, and yet, they were majestic. Hands, manicured nails...they extended, those nails, lengthening into near claws.

Her face stayed the same, except, perhaps, a tad bit redder of the lip and eyes. Hissing, the Succubae fanned her wings to her now terror stricken opponent, a lowly mage of the Kansai pact, weaned to the side of Fate's doing. She rushed in, those nails contracted in as she struck out with a hard, clean, punch to the gut, sending her skidding into a tree on the side of the road.

"Eat tree, it's good for you!"

The opponent lay limp, and Sakurako, surprised, looked to the offending limb. Sometimes...she just didn't know her own strength. Especially against a normal human or a fool mage whose low powered magic was no match.

"Ohh crap. I over did it." 

Of course, the mage was so stupid; she had failed to notice that Konoka wasn't even _in_ this group. Pointless. Pointless but for the need now to turn back, grinning sheepishly to Ayaka, Makie, Akira, Yuna...these girls, who had known Sakurako for so long...

Now, Cora had to play cover up. Oh brilliant...

That had been then, and now, Ayaka shivered slightly as she watched the form of Sakurako off in the distance, conversing with Takahata. The distance made it impossible to eavesdrop, only discern whom was speaking with whom.

A society of mages, demons and fairies, just like story books, brought to life and shoved in her face. A girl whom she had known for years was a succubae. Two others where magical princesses, their teachers, both former and present were mages too... In their class roster alone, along with Sakurako, there was a vampire, a robot, a ghost and something called a Hellas.

Of course, none had told her all of this, she had just put her resources to good use and _looked_. None of it was really hidden either. It was all there, in plain sight for all who cared. The existence of magic wasn't something that was hidden, just not told.

If you wanted to find it you went out and looked. The fact that most people sat around waiting to be fed was of no concern; it wasn't their fault if you were ignorant of their existence. The world was indeed deeper than one would ever hope they would see.

Now, the knowledge that they all were on the brink of a war, a war that was a repeat of one years past, a repeat in which the old heroes were in no shape to stop, one in which the new generation was too young to be expected to stop.

It all came back to one name however, over every report, every message, the word was spread. Negi Springfield. Her homeroom teacher. He was spending his winter vacation in the middle o f this war, on the front lines, drinking sweat, blood... She had spent her time at a beach, sipping drinks.

It was rumored that he had enough power to take down three aegis class warships single handedly. According to storybooks, those were ships the size of small towns. His power wasn't what convinced them however, it was his skill.

Well, she could have told them that. The sensei found something in common with every student in the class, and as a result, showed the fact that he had a multitude of skills, all of which were genuine and well exercised.

Not to say the boy could ride a horse like a jockey, but he could ride one conversationally. All of his skills were tastes. Good tastes, but simply sips of the whole wine compared to the mastery any one of his class might show...except for the ones he actively enjoyed of course, in those he excelled, just ask Ku Fei.

Still, to find out that their sensei was indeed a prince in disguise, the son of a scorned queen and a worldwide hero...to discover that he was a mage with a house of power behind him and a mind fit to be cast in gold, to discover, in essence, that the boy was even more impressive up close "than on T.V" so to speak...

Still, that wasn't important. None of it was, the fact was that they all were in the middle of a war. All of them, not just the mages. It was her land too you know...yet she had to sit here and play nice while the mages went out to work. How demeaning was that?

She looked back to the world tree, sparkling in the deepening night. It just wasn't fair. Not at all...

**+-1-+**

_"Hold on, before you go flying... idiot, get a better grip than that! I can assure you, flying without wings ain't fun!"_

Eva's hair streamed back from her head as she yelled out that warning to one screaming Shiori. She had almost been sent tumbling away into the open air below... This...was insane...

No, it was not that she hadn't been out flying before, but she had never taken a flight on one of _these_ things! Every time she saw one, Fate-han found it funny to petrify them. Otherwise, he didn't bother with them...and likewise, no one paid them any mind, besides Tsukuyomi, who laughed at them and "played" with them until their severed limbs littered the ground...

She'd never seen one this big or well cared for before...it was a scary thing to behold! Asuna didn't seem to care as she actually _stood _on the dragon, holding her weapon steady, poised to slash through any other living statue that might dare come close. She held the thing like it was a baseball bat, and aimed it like one too.

No use cutting stone, not really anyway... better to just _smash_ it. That was her excuse, but Shiori, honestly, believed that the princess just thought smashing Fate-han's statues was great fun, end of story. Her blade dispelled them upon touch and her force finished them off.

No wonder Negi had put her here instead of the middle of the fray. Almost as if he knew there would be magical opposition like this here...but then, it obviously made sense there would be, so why not expect it? Sometimes, all you needed to do was think to be called a genius.

_"Damn lizard, why the hell don't you try __**beheading**__ me? It'll be easier to kill me that way, instead of trying a suicide dive into that mess of statues! Didn't Negi teach you any sense, or is that zombie brain of yours incapable of comprehending it...shit, not again! Asuna, where the hell are you!"_  
"...and here I thought vampires had enhanced sight. I am right here Eva..."

The vampire grumbled something almost incoherently as she banked Vir hard to the right, almost making Asuna lose her footing, and definitively rattling the other's cages. Asuna caught the jibe however, and laughed at its petty, just before ducking under the flying form of a living statue, her blade flashing out.

"What am I doing standing around you ask? Why don't we switch places then, hmm? You think you can fight these things without magic or blade? I would love to see you try."_  
__"Sure, as long as you try controlling an over twenty-ton flying steak called Vir. I would die all over again to see that one."_

These people were just so...relaxed. As the two bantered, Asuna spun around, her blade stabbing Shiori's eyes with its reflected light, she only heard the stone shatter, she dare not face that brightness.

Instead, she tried to focus on her job...holding on for dear life. They were the back up, they were supposed to cut a clear path for the ship to exit back out, cut the way for them to make their escape… and in the event of the ship being unable, they were the alternate getaway car.

There was the added job of being emergency backup. If needed, they could charge in and provide a fresh set of warriors for the fray, a solid reinforcement, but Shiori knew her magi's power. Fate-han...could destroy them all with his little finger.

There was, literally, no bragging about it. He had enough magic gathered about him to lift an entire country into the air... and his continued to grow every second, due to the buildup of magic from the closed portal...he had one of the seven master keys in his hands, and with it, the code of the life maker, the ability to bend this world to his will.

Add his own devastating strength to the mix, and he was unstoppable...and while Shiori wasn't to sure anymore, about her original motives for destroying this world, she knew that Fate would fight to the death for them...Negi's death. What did this little boy have to offer against him...?

...and yet...

There were those eyes. Those eyes, burning so bright they consumed. Burned her, took her soul and gouged it out, tossing it to the ground to burst, an unrecognizable mess among the dirt and scum. With those very eyes, he could burn a hole through your skull...but it was his words that did the most damage.

They could make you. They could _break_ you. It was with his words that he took ever delicate hands and reached into the mess of her soul, splattered on the ground, pulling from its remains a whole, new sphere, glowing bright. Your soul, reborn.

She shook her head. The way she had just thought of him, he had been likened to a deity, a god. The boy was no deity, but all around him, those who knew him looked upon him as one. With awe, respect and confidence. He himself just carried on...the weight on him immense.

His power was outside the code. His power was to bring all that was untrue into reality...but was that enough, when the illusion he fought, the illusion he struggled against, was as powerful as this? Could you really destroy that which is false, and yet so real?

She knew her mind was traveling down a well beaten path, and as she ducked under a stray chunk of stone, she knew that hers was not the first mind today, nor the last, that would repeat this subway of thought. By now, it was an act akin to beating a dead horse. It was either the boy did it or died.

_"Unidentified target approaching rapidly due east to intercept us, coming in at about, oh one fifty kilometers an hour. Time until rendezvous... two minutes...Nodoka can't get a lock on who it is, but it's too big to be our scout unit, and Negi-sensei has yet to send word of his success."_

Professional as possible, Chisame dropped a bombshell upon Eva's lap as she grit her teeth, irritably tossing her hair in the high wind. Damn. The closet thing they had to a mage on this thing was Ayase. They were the back-up unit god damnit! All of their members were for scouting/identification or defense.

_Just my luck. I couldn't give a fly a f*ucking cold right now...this just had to happen, huh? I swear, god just loves to torture the undead._

I.E, Asuna was the only real physical fighter, but her powers were best suited for defense. Ayase was the only real magical fighter here, and she wouldn't be able to handle anything near another magister, maybe if she was lucky...but that was a slim chance against hard experience.

Still, they had something. Negi had built this team for high mobility and surveillance ability, and that's what they were going to use. If it came to magic, they had the highest defense possible in Asuna, with a few tricks offensive wise, Ayase was turning out to be a pretty mean slinger of water and ice...

Taking command of the helm, Eva called out behind her as she angled Vir to the west, making the dragon snort just a tiny bit in frustration, but nonetheless obey her. He angled himself higher to provide his own method of help. Easier to drop down on an enemy then to fly up to them after all.

_"Chisame! Send those rodents of yours out to scout for a closer look, try to get a name to a face with research if you can, give it to Nodoka. Nodoka, try to get a read on anyone else's position, if you can get Nagi, tell me where he is so I can at least direct us close...Shiori, if you know what's good for you, stay down. Asuna...do whatever the hell you normally would."_

There was little warning before the first spell zoomed on by. It would have taken off Nodoka's head if it were not for a quick Deflexio by way of Yue. Her hasty shield shattered, but her friend retained the delicate contents behind that pretty face.

She would have thanked Yue, but she was too busy telling her to turn around. Asuna shot in front as she did, taking on a hail of ice arrows with her blade, canceling them neatly. Shiori...well, she simply blinked at the seemingly impossible feat of Asuna running along a flying dragon's back. Try as she might, the laws of gravity just did not seem to allow it, yah know?

It was a great thing to have on your side, the code. Now if only she had a key.

Yue jumped up, her broom being called forth with a quick snap before she swerved in the air to avoid another hail of ice from her opponent. So, they wanted to play that kind of game, huh? A sphere of ice formed In Yue's hands as she chanted, and she sent it barreling forth, the spell for frozen explosives.

She met the other head on, her bomb crashing against the other's arrows. Crystallus Detonus ended up winning out though, making the other throw up a Deflexio to stave off the rest of its effects. They flew over Yue, shooting off a disarment spell at close range, but Yue sent a single ice arrow to clash with it, canceling the attempt.

She shook her head when they swerved back around on their own "broom" to come at her again, chanting for more arrows of ice. Typical mage, only knew three spells max. Negi had said it, but to actually see it displayed so plainly was saddening. She threw up a Deflexio to stave it off, and shot in close, making the other scream.

Well, now she knew the hooded figure was female at least. She couldn't quite hear her chants, but as Yue came in close for another pass, she made sure her own voice was heard. She felt sorry as her hand came in contact with the back of her robe, pressed against a thin back, but hey.

You fight on the other side, and you're just another thing in the way.

_**"Veniant Spiritus Glaciales! Extentantur Aeri! Tundram et Glaciem, Loci Noctis Albae! Crystallizatio Tellustris!"**_

She had just been a magical student, fresh out of the academy and traveling to gain her license. She had been enlisted by the kansai, and placed in the care of Fate for her assignment...now, her body flew downwards, a solid chunk of ice to shatter upon the ground...or would someone catch her?

That isn't our concern now, is it? Felling a bit guilty, Yue managed to get back to Vir, whom was flying quite straight now in an open patch of air, for once, they did not have to swerve about, for there was a lull in their attacker's forces.

Negi had been right. Magic was everywhere, and an integral part of this world. Just like the rest of life, it was beautiful, but it was too, dead ugly. Everything had a consequence, and this was not a game. You won't get a thousand points for defeating a mage in a war... you got their blood on your hands, and the sound of their crying mother's in your ears.

Eva paid her little mind, except for a barely perceptible nod of thanks, simple acknowledgement. There was no ceremony, or "level-up" here. No absurd victory dance, only the grim acknowledgment of another soul to add to your death toll. It wasn't over, and only now did she truly realize the worth behind the line; "Don't thank me yet."

Another living statue met its end as Eva swerved to avoid a floating piece of land. Vir roared as a few of the more stubborn statues tried to get at his face, meeting his breath of fire head on, roasting them to dust. Life continued, and unlike Yue, Vir didn't give a second thought in snapping his jaws out when he thought he saw another mage head his way.

It was only a passing piece of rock, but still, he wasn't ready for his return to that cold grip of death, not just yet anyway. A dragon knew something that Yue seemed to have been bred to forget. Out here, in war and in nature, it was, truly, kill or be killed, and he was pretty sure you didn't see any credits rolling when you died, along with the promise of another gig to do...

_"Evangeline, we've found out where Nagi has parked himself, he's hovering near the top of the magical disturbance, and it looks like he's holding steady...that wasn't part of the plan..."  
__"It's not. The idiot wants' to go in. Tell me where to fly."_

Nagi wasn't going into the action, not without the rest of the team on his ass. He wanted a piece of the pie, but he'd had better make sure there was enough for everyone else too, yeah? Just like Rakkan…Eva didn't want to be left out of the action.

**+-2-+**

_Zazie, really now? How the hell did she get here anywho? Then again…was she here the whole time? What if it's simply an illusion? Hmm? Suppose that would happen…? Then what would you do? Would you raise you blade against an illusion such as this? _

_Would it help you to realize that a Hellas being is an illusion anyway? No? I thought not. Yet, illusions can be summoned, and with the correct power, the right key…of course, they can be where ever you please. Yet, the importance of this is of little value, for we do have a fight to listen in on, don't we?_

_Indeed, we do, see for yourself… _

"**Rakkan-for-the-hell-of-it-right-hand-punch!"  
**_**"Meimei ibuki!"  
**_

Kago ducked low under the swipe of a fiend, his hand coming out to pool with brilliant mist before blasting it outwards, buffeting all those in front of him backwards. Above him, a body launched forwards, swinging a gigantic blade to cleave another beast in two, for it had been coming from the side. The two met eye to eye as an explosion bade them to jump off in opposite directions, another beast smacking down where they had been, a broken mess.

Thank Rakkan for that one.

Yet, these three fighting their arses off against mounds of summoned stone wasn't where the action was…oh no. The action was where Jasnin stood, and her weapon was _sheathed_. She was facing the girl that had stung Negi's continence so badly, the girl whom was supposed to be one of his very own class.

Facing her and moving not an inch. They both were quiet, silent…staring. Zazie had power behind her, incredible power, power that could come without words…in all honesty, the best opponent for her would be Alma, illusion versus what could only be the power rooted in illusion.

Yet, it was not Alma's face that Zazie's eyes were locked on. Fate was cruel to let these two be the ones sparing off. Jasnin had her right hand out, palm flat, a slight amount of magic pooled there, held completely still. Zazie had no outward show of power, only the pressure to show it was there…

"_You are not the one I need to speak to."  
_"No, but I'm pretty sure I could give Negi a message for yah."

Silence. It took a long time for her to answer, but Jasnin, normally a spit fire, was calm in her wait for an answer. She was the one in control here. It didn't matter how powerful you were, not to _her_. It mattered how strong the will. Power was not her concern, she _transcended_ power. Zazie finally did answer her however... after a painful deliberation though, or, at least what _seemed_ to be painful.

_"Please, move. You are not the one I need to convince."  
_"Yah, you said that already. I told you I'd take the message."

Again, that same blank visage, it was like pulling teeth at the dentist, or trying to get a sensible, real human on the line for service on just about anything nowadays. Please hold, please hold, I'm transferring you, press one for English, two for Spanish, three for Japanese... oh, now press one for Japanese, oh you're in the wrong department, nope I don't take the problem, transferring...

Please hold.

_"I don't do messages."  
_"Oh ho! Getting snippy with me are you? I can get snippy too, yah know. Now Negi went all this way, and if you woulda seen what I did on the guts this kid's put into this, you'd know as well as I, he ain't gonna listen to nothing but a message. So give me a message, or get outta here, cause he ain't gonna see you face-tah-face unless you fight wit' him, you got'sa _my _message?

A grip of the blade, a tenseness of the neck. An explosion started it off. In a near split second, Zazie was in her face, an elbow in her gut, a foot in her face. She was fast as heck! Still, her power was worse, crushing, unbearably restricting, but it was the will, the will was her business.

Jasnin was stock still, but her focus was maintained, even when a punch connected with her jaw… She finally grabbed upon a vital part of Zazie's arsenal, and the girl stilled, instantly, poised for attack, but unable to continue her outbreak.

"Ahh, I told you, I can be snippy too! Snip snip, I'll cut you into strips. Don't play with me, I bite."

Still, with a flick of the wrist, Jasnin's grip passed right through her, leaving her wide eyed, staring at nothing, gripping nothing... A voice behind her made her whip, silver hair flying. It was Zazie again...completely free.

_"You have a curious power. Yet, your grasp of it is clumsy. Let me through, or you dance to my tune with limbs that no longer belong to you."_

How...the hell had she done that? Jasnin had gripped her soul, you don't just phase away from that! No way in a million years do you just breeze from that hold...Yet she had just done so, plain as day. It was like learning, after having a car for ten years that it could go in reverse...only the situation wasn't in her favor, like finding out the plane you were on had a bomb in it.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Wary, she reached for her blade again, and this time, when Zazie attacked, she was ready, slashing out and forcing the girl back, nursing an arm. The cut was shallow, but a long stripe of red nonetheless. Zazie narrowed her eyes. Wide, strange eyes.

Another explosion, and a stone claw smacked in between the two, breaking the mood, just as it shattered on the ground. Zazie looked down at it and Jasnin, military training leaping forth, reached out and grabbed her by the tail again. She felt resistance, but she did not hesitate in pulling.

Like a marionette, she flopped loose in Jasnin's hands...but the girl was still free. Turning around again, Zazie was still standing, her head simply tilted to the right, a single slow blink her only indicator of life. Despite herself, Jasnin shivered at the sight, almost imperceptibly.

"You are one _creepy _chick."   
_"Thank-you~...shall we continue then?"  
_"Oh yah. I don't know what the hell I've gotten myself into, but sure, why not? Whoa, hold it there!"

Quickly, she lifted a leg, twisting to the side to avoid a headlong spring by the other, and she barely managed to bring her blade around in time to stave off Zazie's elbow. Zazie's foot had come out too however, so while one hit was deflected, another sent the silver haired girl flying back into the dirt and dust.

"_Shit_! I was_ trying _to keep this coat clean you know!"

She sprang back from the dust just as a low bellow issued from behind her. She ignored it though, keeping focus upon her strike, which missed anyway, Zazie leaping away, a true acrobat, one with the air. Yet her smile wasn't one Jasnin liked, and she was confirmed in this when the girl produced a pactio card.

"Oh _hell_ no."

Rushing in, her blade flashed out, and Zazie had to retract a hand to avoid the slash, yet that did not stop her from actuating her card, not as another low, echoing yell reverberated from the cavern. It was followed by a slightly lighter bellow, this one of effort, and for the first time, Jasnin recognized the low pitched blast as a roar, a roar of some monstrous beast...as Jasnin prepared for her opponent, the other's prepared for theirs...

"I state the obvious, but I feel compelled to say, that thing is huge."  
_**"...Indeed."**_  
**"Who cares? Charge!"**

Really, it was times like these that you wish you could just sit back and look at yourself on a T.V screen, eating popcorn or something as you watch anime some characters sweat drop at their ally charging in against a huge beast, without a care in the world. That was literally the feeling the both of them had at the moment, but, in the next second, Kago leveled his weapon, and wiped the sweat from his brow, ahh well, life was life. Issac joined him in the charge, swooping in on the massive beast in front of them.

They could only assume it was the largest stone dragon either of them had ever seen in their entire lives, and it made Vir, look like an ant. Now that, _that_ was saying something. Rakkan literally bounced off when his fist came in contact with the stone, sent tumbling backwards in an undignified fashion, which made Kago skid to a stop, charging his magic while Issac swung his blade.

Both attacks were failures. The beam splashed harmlessly against the thing's wing joint, and Issac almost chopped off his own head when his blade bounced back off the stone. Rakkan blinked. He had asked Negi to leave him a piece of the action...well, it looks like he did! Sweet! He pulled out his own pactio, grinning at the blank faces of his comrades.

**"Too bad you two haven't puckered up to anyone yet, or you coulda had a trump card to pull too, oh well, looks like he's all mine! Nice! Adeat!"**

His smile was nothing against the brilliant flash his pactio gave. The fight was on!

**+-3-+**

"Igneus Ambitus!"  
_Incendia Laques!_

Jumping over Homura, Anya spun about, her hands glowing a bright fire red as her palm connected solidly with the other girl's face, creating quite a show in making her grow wings. Anya twisted to avoid another flying body, Shirabe's, as the appendages for her cage of fire shot out. Yet, Homura avoided them well, as she too, wielded the gift of fire.

_"You'll need more than that to hit me, kid!"_

Holding it quite well in supple hands, one might add. Yet Anya too, held a firm grasp upon her power, the time spent here with Negi had honed her well...still, she could only use fire save for those fire lightning arrows...but she could cast unincanted now, and focus on two spells at once...

"You want more? It's coming right up! Haaah!"

Anya ducked low as she shot forwards, fists ignited...avoiding Shirabe again as the girl shot off towards Alma I might add, who, with eyes narrowed, simply disappeared from sight, a whip of flame in her place, lashing out. Shirabe twisted at the same time Homura did, both barely avoiding their foes' blows...but while Homura almost caught Anya with a fiery fist of her own...

Alma was smarter. She appeared behind her opponent and rose up arms of water from the ground, ensnaring Shirabe in her web, closing on her mouth. The girl struggled, but Alma was forced to break off when Homura caught sight, running up.

Of course, even as Alma broke off, Homura never made it to Alma, Anya caught her first with a flaming kick to the back of her skull, making her eat the floor. Landing roughly, yet with a tad of grace, Anya barely managed to yell warning to her ally before they both ducked under another flying body.

"Wha-duck!"

That body being Tsukuyomi's, who kicked off the adjacent wall to reclaim the floor, only to have to vacate it, for Negi landed hard next to her, bent, his weapons flashing out to make her play a kind of demented hopscotch game. In her position, she struck out, yet Negi leapt like a frog forwards to avoid her, twisting around to lock blades with her, sparks pending flight.

His eyes went wide for a split second before he twirled around, jumping off to the side to avoid Koyomi, who was having difficulty slowing him down any with her artifact… and was clearly frustrated by that simple fact. If she only knew why, well...no, it _wouldn't_ improve her mood any now that I think about it...

"Deia igneus incendia, commodo mihi vestri spiritus, flamma ut tripudio ut meus terrenus, Verbero Flamma!"_  
Of obscurum quod flamma ... adveho quod vultus mihi a telum et...Haurus...Abyssus mucro! _

Believe it or not, Anya took advantage of Koyomi and her distraction, whipping out with her Valkyrie whip while her sword struck out for Homura's head. Homura ducked easily, rushing in, but she slipped when an arm rose up out of the ground. The girl couldn't help but scream at the dirty, pale thing…and, all the while, Alma smiled.

Anya struck out ruthlessly, _almost_ raking the fallen girl's back with arrows. Yet the key word is almost. Koyomi rolled away, using her very artful power of slowing time down to avoid her attacks...Homura jumped back in with Anya, leaving Alma with Shirabe again...

Negi fended off Tsukuyomi while Tamaki failed to get in edgewise between the two. Damnit, Fate-han said that Negi was _his_...but if anyone of them managed to defeat him, they would be well rewarded...She had started on him first damnit!

Jumping back into the fray to make it a three on one, Negi slipped away from Koyomi and spun like a ballet dancer, slamming a fist into Tamaki's face and lifting her from the ground and into a wall. Tsukuyomi took advantage of his move to slash at his knees, but the boy jumped away, swinging his blades out.

"Sorry girls, but if you all want to gang up on me at once, I'm gonna fight you like I would any man. An enemy is an enemy, not my fault if I wreck your pretty faces!"

He grit his teeth when Koyomi raked his back with her claws. Shoot, why the hell did Fate have to have an animal complex anyway? Every single one of his partners had a theme going on for them...dirty man, all those poor girls all over him! Negi ducked under another slash, and almost caused Koyomi to lose her head, yet she ducked in time too.

Tamaki managed to horn Negi in the side with her hat though, prompting him to hiss and spin faster than any top, his foot blasting a pathway to the sky for her, until a pillar decided it was time to assert its presence that was... Negi called after her as he ducked under Tsukuyomi again and flat-bladed Koyomi out of the way.

"Ayi, my spleen! That was my_ spleen_! Shit…it stings…! Oh...duck."

Taking his own advice, the boy ducked under a sword and his own short one flashed out to block a slim dagger. He twisted a bit to get away from Koyomi and her artifact's power...True, it barely affected him at all, his power over this world, the knowledge of how to make it bend rendering it pretty much pointless, but the pure strain from constantly trying to keep up his speed drained him.

_Damn. I need to end this...fast._

The boy ducked once, twice and then a third time under swipes from Tsukuyomi, each time walking a bit more back until her sidestepped, yelling "goose" as he revealed that Tamaki had been behind him. Almost Negi, almost, but not _quite_.

"Duck, duck, duck...goose! Damn though you missed, I _really_ was killing for some..."

Ahh, that was the disadvantage to teaming up against one person. If you missed him, you could come ever so close to hitting your partners! Negi ducked under another slash and bent low, going under Tamaki, who had made a reappearance...Negi smiled as she flew over him...

He lifted her bodily from the ground with his back by coming up quickly, sending her into Tsukuyomi and _finally_ giving him a break from the glassed girl, enough to twist to Koyomi and slash out ruthlessly with HeartBreaker. She managed to twist just enough so that the flat of his blade caught her in the side, only bruising her, but cutting her none. Yet, the boy didn't want to cut her anyway...

This entire battle was all about conservation. He was trying not to use magic, trying not to use his strength to the fullest, trying to save his power for Fate...but as the fight continued, he realized that three on one like this would only drain him more if he dragged it out...better to let loose one blast on them and then run...

_If I use an elemental form, I can finish this off quick...I need practice with the last one anyway..._

Negi flashed out his foot when Tamaki ran at him, but she jumped over it easily, drawing out her pactio. Time to get serious...Yet, Anya, who had been busy all this time with Homura popped up this time with a well placed incantation.

_"_Aestuo continuo in nox noctis meus flamma incidere per obscurum valde levitas, convenio...ego sum vestri famulatus rip continuo, Abyssus Levitas!"  
_The hell? Anya? Pay attention to your own battle! Holy hell, direct hit!"_

An incredible burning beam of fire and lightning spewed from the brilliant wand tip Anya held. She knew what she was doing this time. She hit her mark dead on, throwing the girl upwards in a spiral to slam against the wall...but the girl landed on her feet, pissed. She rushed at Anya now, but Anya showed tact, hitting the ruined ground with a spell and tossing up a rock to trip her up...

Tamaki managed to keep her balance however, and her pactio item flashed out towards Anya, she was going for its full form, but Negi, ahh, Negi, his eyes were to bright. As soon as Homura closed in on Anya and Tamaki took aim, Negi palmed Tsukuyomi neatly in the gut, using his two blades as a distraction to occupy her arms. He bore into the fray and kicked Anya out of the way.

"Just hold on for a bit! I'll be back with these two asses later!"

She would have been dead against a space/time controlling artisan and a pyromaniac. Eyes wide, she could only yell out to him as he vanished...damn, don't leave her here all alone with...these guys!

Alma was too busy with Shirabe and her remaining partner, one Koyomi, but this meant that Anya had to deal with Tsukuyomi, whose feral smile and sparkling blades were not a good indicator of Anya's chances...

"M-magi? D-don't just..._leave__me_ now!"  
**"Oooh, how cute! I get to play with you while Negi-**_**sensei~**_**, goes out to play with those two. This'll be fun!"**

Fun? Fun! Anya literally "meeped" when Tsukuyomi rushed in, striking down with her blade. She spun around to strike again, and the younger girl only just managed to raise her magical one in time, only to be thrown back by the sheer force behind that strike. Her own spell dissipated when she lost focus. Her whip was gone too, and when she closed her eyes to chant...

**"Oooh, fun, spell work!"**

Needless to say, Tsukuyomi proved too fast to be kind. She elbowed the girl sharply on the nose, bidding her to yelp and drop her magic. This wasn't _fun_! She tried again, but received another snub on the nose, via her blade this time. This one drew blood, and Tsukuyomi held her blade there to catch a drop, Anya dared not move.

_Reprobo inter mihi..._

Tsukuyomi inspected the blood drop like a demented peddler before raising her blade and actually licking it off...was she insane? Yet, no time to think, the swordswoman struck again, and Anya rolled away, only to have the other pounce on her, locking her down...she didn't get far though, for a roar alerted the girl to a quick moving dragon of fire, heading her way. Grinning, she shoved Anya to one side as she met the foe, neatly slicing it in half, canceling demon with technique.

_impendo extrarius, praemium versus meus hostilis ingus!_

She met Alma's eyes, or at least tried to, for the dark haired girl was too busy ducking under one partner and disabling another, sending Shirabe's instrument flying. Tsukuyomi focuses her attention back upon her victim, but...she wasn't there. Oh no. No, no, no, no, _no_...this wouldn't do...she looked up when a tell tale whistle cut through the air, and, seeing a body flying towards her, she elegantly danced out of the way as Anya slammed down where her head had been.

_Nova Contego!  
_"Igneus Ambitus!"  
**"Hmm?...Ahh~! She does know how to play!"**

As she was blasted in the middle with a powerful blow, the magic of Nova Shield forming around Anya before sending Tsukuyomi flying, the girl couldn't help but smile at the attempt. Strong for her age, very strong...

A real student of that one...still, too small, too late...oh well, too bad. She made it convincing at least, as she flew away and slammed into an adjacent wall...but she couldn't help landing on her feet, laughing all the way to Anya's growing horror.

**"Good, good! Nice! I look away and kaboom! Hah hah...but, while that's fun and all, don't you think you need just a bit more ohh... I don't know...omph?"**

With one swipe from the blunt side of her blade, Tsukuyomi sent Anya crashing into the opposite wall, kicking up dust and making her world go black...she laughed as she approached her target. She was a cat playing with her mouse, trying to make it last...it wouldn't do for her to kill off Negi-_sensei's~_ little charge, now would it, oh no, that would be too easy to deny. Besides, he might truly try and kill her, and she didn't want that...she had to be careful which mouse she tried to play with...

Some of them had poison claws...

While the pink loving swords-woman played with Anya, Negi found the hilarity of "fighting these to be a great way to relieve his tension, and he proved it by nearly performing an Irish jig after dodging a stream of fire from Homura, prompting her to try and rush in to attack him with fists, which was even more pathetic, if even an attempt at all.

Yet, in all seriousness, he was fighting on an infinite plain, a plain in which there was no escape unless he could find the one who formed it, which would be Tamaki...oh, of all the day's annoyances, I name these. Negi danced away from Homura again, making her even more upset, but when the girl showed herself being near loss of control and reaching for her true form, he chastised her, knocking her back with a kick to the gut.

No, no, no. That would not do at all. He forced her to tumble when she lunged for him again; almost making her fall off the plain they were on. He was being such a tease, dancing about the way he was, but hey, since when did he get to have so much fun? Besides, it would be easier for her to hit him this way, and once she did, he would drop the act, kapeesh?

"Ahh, missed me, missed me... hey, what the hell are you getting so red for? I ain't gonna let you near me to kiss me, hellll no!" Here, let's play...tag, and _you're_ it!"

Literally, Negi leapt away, bounding across plains in a merry chase away from the girl. Gritting her teeth, Homura had no choice, she had to follow the insane boy, looking for openings to fire off her blazing power all the while... but each time, Negi artfully dodged, tempting Fate...and you don't tempt Fate when it's he you're trying to fight, or his servants...ever heard of the famous saying?

Anything that can go wrong, anything. That is the key word. Negi, for all of his fun, landed upon one plain and felt a pain shoot up from his foot upon impact. He had overextended and now, his foot had seized. Crap. He landed hard on a plain he hadn't meant to, but his pain turned to pure malice as he saw where he had landed...next to Tamaki.

Ahh, indeed, today, the one, true Fate was laughing his celestial head off, and indeed, stirring up a frightful pain in his sides. Tamaki, while her power over this area was complete, had little control once inside the place...and her strength attack and defense wise was kinda... mediocre. But she stood her ground, and when Negi placed the question, she gave him just a solid an answer as she wanted to.

"It's been fun, but I would like out now."  
_"No. It doesn't matter if you knock me out or anything, you are stuck here unless I give permission, and I don't. I have to die, or this place will stay."  
_"Tough luck. I want out. Your friend is tired as hell, and sloppy as f*ck. You, well, I have a lot of ways to convince you...but I'd rather you let me out of your own will, ehh?"  
_"No."  
_"Ahh poo. Fine, have it your way. Oh, before I forget..."

Cool as you please, Negi's hand flashed out, and swiftly punched her dead in the temple, felling her right then and there. Yet, even with its controller knocked out cold, the area still persisted as Homura landed down behind him...Damn.

Negi sighed as he pulled out his own pactio card, turning to face the other girl, who was looking at her ally in shock. You mean to tell me that all he needed to do was knock her on the temple? Negi fought a smile as he shook his head.

"Classic weak spot, you should take note girl. You could use it later. Also, besides the jewels, which is a place all girls seemed to have a built in targeting device for, the soft spots on the collarbone and the area just below your ear channel are sensitive as hell, and you could wreak one hell of a damage and control a person's movement by hitting those. Not like you're gonna have a _use_ for my advice anyway..."

By the time he had said "anyway" he was already behind her, and his hands gripped her head, twisting it sharply. Not so hard as to snap her neck mind you, but hard enough that the pain made her see stars, eating up her vision in a haze of darkness and color.

He gave her a single kick to the head when she fell, making her roll...yet, she proved tougher than he thought, for when he turned around, she slowly rose, shaking the cobwebs...He gathered his power about him as he felt the other reach for hers. He turned around, ever so gracefully, smiling at her as her fire surrounded her, glowing bright. He was a bit surprised...

Not disappointed though, quite the contrary...if time wasn't against him...ahh but it was.

He had to conserve magic...but he had to end this too. Shit, shit, shit...fine. Reaching deep, he realized he didn't need to chant anymore, such was the way of his body now, the way his magic flowed. The seal was no more, at least for him...he chanted the spell in his mind anyway though, just for kicks...

_Τ__ὸ__ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα, ω μητέρα του γη, έλα γη κουνώ τρεμούλιασμα. στέλνω πάνω thy πέτρα, διάλειμμα όλος αυτό είναι όλο ολόκληρος Un τελείωμα έκλεψαώρα!  
(Heed the contract and serve me, oh Mother of Earth, Come, earth shaking tremors. Send up thy stone, break all that is whole, Undying Petrification!)_

Of course, Negi did not send his power barreling forth, or even rising from the ground in this case. He took it into himself, prompting a change in his body, an emulation of form, recreating himself into the earth itself, it surrounded him, and he opened his eyes into the world, reborn, just like all the times before.

This form was different than the others...this one did not increase his strength, not directly. It increased the power of his barrier instead, until it was practically solid...and that was proven when the girl rushed at him, looking almost like a mini version of himself in Primal Prominence...

Only to find herself unable to get past his barrier at _all_. Negi smiled. Ahh, the true wonders of magic. He explained himself to her in full as he teleported to her back once more, catching her around the neck in a hold he knew she wasn't getting out off any time soon.

"The form of earth increases the power of my barrier until it is an almost literal obstruction equal to the power I put into it. It also nullifies any attacks with a base in the power of earth completely, as long as they are below its defensive strength. Consider it the ultimate in defense...it can work in reverse too, becoming the greatest prison...wanna see?"

She however, never got to see. For Negi placed his hand on her back, and with no indication at all, lit her up like a Christmas tree with his power, shocking her until she fell into blissful unconsciousness. This just was not his day, was it?

Calling his pactio, he gathered his strength again once more, this time seeking for the way out of here...obediently, as it should when he called out its name, it came. The key, easily into his hands, like an old friend he had not seen in a while.

Closing his eyes, he began feeling for the seam. A poet need not yell, a creator need not wave around his weapon brashly. His work was a quiet one, and with a simple opening of his eyes, he found it. Raising his key, he tore the world from his eyes, this illusion, this false hood, the eternal entrapment space...was nothing to him.

He found what he was looking for, and with a simple push, he slipped in between it all, swinging out his key to shatter the false world like so much glass. He pounded his way free, and saw the grim battle below, and his eyes narrowed upon the scene…

Alma called up a shield of fire to stave off Shirabe. Fire was insubstantial, but her magic was strong, strong enough to deal with destructive force, at least for the most part… the girl still had to duck under some residual waves. She could feel them more than see them, after all, it was but wind and sound…

The girl turned on the spot, appearing behind Shirabe and blasting her in the back with some of her dark fires, pitching her forwards, but the girl rolled, her item coming to bear. Her strike never hit Alma of course, the girl faded from sight, appearing behind her again and wrapping her in slippery arms of gel.

She struggled, but her magic did her more good than her movement, for Alma was distracted when Anya almost bowled her over in flight. Tsukuyomi had sent her with the postage stamp slapped on her bum, headed for the moon…

Ayi…they don't have enough gas though, sorry Tsukuyomi. Fate pulled a return to sender on her, for the girl rose in the air, ever so high, before coming right back down, almost crashing into Tsukuyomi, had she not moved. Ahh well, just look at it this way, the ground isn't much harder than the pink clothed girl…especially with those blades…

"GUMBY!"

Even more so, did she harden, with something akin to fear this time, when that roar made her spin. Her blade met another, the strike carrying so much force it sent her skidding away. Negi Springfield, with eyes livid and a body encased in what seemed to be a skin of stone, stood in front of her.

From one battle to another, there was no difference to him here...they were all in his way, they were all just pieces he had to face before he could fight Fate. He smiled at Tsukuyomi as two bodies fell into being behind her, the forms of Tamaki and Homura. She paid them no mind, so neither did he let his mind dwell on them any further...

"You won't lay another finger on Anya, b*tch. You're next on my hit list."  
**"...Ahh, **_**sensei~**_**, you've come back to finish playing..."  
**"Cut the crap. You're in my way, and the air is polluted enough."

She struck out, but her blade met a solid force, bouncing off. The hell? Wait…no! His barrier! It glowed…all around him. It was that barrier that had stopped her attack…his natural barrier, increased dozens fold! How could she hit him through that?

Any sane swords person would have backed away at this point, but Tsukuyomi…ehhhh…she's far from the normal sane swords-woman. She, well, she smiled, her hands tightening along the hilts of her blades. This would be fun…if she couldn't crack the egg playing human, she'd crack it playing demon!

"**Fu fu fu fu~. Negi sensei~…this, ahh! This is what I have been waiting for~. Let's play!"  
**"Sure. We'll play. I'll so you how I went back in time and invented the whole damn game!"

As Anya watched and Alma allowed Shirabe to fall, finally having captured her for long enough to knock her out, Negi grinned, while Tsukuyomi, teeth showing, sharp and straight, snapped to swallow him whole, blades bared.

_Tick, tick…goes the clock. I need to end this…I have no idea how much time I've got left! _

**+-E-+**

_This chapter was put together like a homemade Halloween costume. In other words, in bits and pieces, and there were parts I changed, parts I expanded…as a result, I have no idea how this patchwork quilt here __**flows**__. I can imagine it's very painful to read. It's also a bit lengthy, no? _

_Speaking of which...a bit off topic, but about your challenge Galerians... the problem is not writing it...it's cutting it down! I find the meshing of Negi into K-ON as a teen without magic incredibly drawing, so much so it's hard to make it just a single chapter challenge..._

_Anywho, I can promise the next one will be solid, mainly because it has less switching going on. The one after that should have even less. Meaning more solid writing... I'm also thinking of trying one last thing again…oh, one last note before ya'll go. Poll results! There were only eleven original voters._

_Alma Yoshi, with twenty seven percent of voters, claims first place. (Three voters.)  
Jasnin Akaito, Cora and the "Do I have to chose" option are tied for second place. (Two votes each.)  
Issac Akaito and Kago Masato are tied for third. (One vote each.)  
Gunther and the other choices got nada! (Literally, zero votes.)_

_Looks like Alma took the cake. Next time my friends, next time…_

_~Finalage out!_


	57. Chapter LVII: Waiting

_You all are not going to be happy hearing this, but I was not satisfied with my last chapter at all. I looked at one paragraph when I uploaded it, and I saw a dreadful typo. I fixed it, but it ruined my mood. If that was the first thing I saw, just from a random look, how does the rest of it look?_

_I am missing things in that chapter... and I've no time for editing. What I can do is do better this time around. I don't enjoy seeing myself slip backwards every time I take a few steps forward. I believe I finally have a face to put to this madness, the kind of style I want to aim for. _

_You ready to see me make an __attempt__ at it? Well...I can only try. As always, I enjoy reviews. They motivate me to get out there and type. Of course, I do not own Negima...I have a new poll. (Again, I know.)_

_Personally speaking, the action begins with Negi and Tusukuyomi...and that's the end._

**_O+-+X_**

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Seven: Waiting..._**

**_+-AAA-+_**

_"Status Report."_

Theodora spoke quietly as she stood in front of the screen, a stock still figure of what some would call perfection, calm, yet; her word was law. Upon her simple request, information was provided by way of an officer at the helm, his voice was confident, yet the princess saw past his guise to the worry within.

"Our fleet stands at eighty five percent in terms of our original numbers. We've taken a beating from those summoned beasts, but our generals have pulled back and reworked our strategy, we are now as solid as can be. The numbers of beasts is still indeterminate, but we've obviously dented them, your Highness...there has been a recent lull in their persistence."

Crisp, firm, professional, he was a good cadet, but not much in the ways of being a proper man. Her smile disarmed him completely. A chime took her eyes from him however, bidding them to focus upon the screen in front of her once more as Kurt Godel appeared upon the screen, looking even worse for wear than before.

It was obvious he had been sweating bullets, but he had attempted to wipe the moisture away before he called her...It was no good, that effort, as the nervous sweat was still there, reforming along the line of his hair, and to wipe it now would be to admit it's presence. Poor man, he was so hopelessly enslaved in his own game, his quest for power. He couldn't admit human weakness, not even for the heat of war.

"Theodora. My forces aren't faring well... The summoned beasts are getting tougher, and there are a few larger ones out here now that look ready to swallow some ships whole...My scouts tell me that Negi and his party have stationed two scouts out here to help, and one of them is confirmed to be Nagi...but I can't reach him..."

_I still remember Kurt...I still remember those days...those beautiful days when you were so kind, caring... those that you had still called me Thea..._

In other words, he wanted, needed, her to reach him. Kurt could never say anything straight out. Not anymore...not since then...she shook her head, looking around at her bridge. This was her central command station on her ship, an aegis class behemoth of modern technology. According to the information Godel was relaying, Nagi was closer to her, and she had a backup he didn't have...royal magic.

Arika was supposed to be with Nagi. Just like old times...It had been so long since Theodora had spoken to her...she had thought her dead for too long, Nagi too, for that matter. She tuned out Kurt as he came back on the screen, continuing his version of a helpless plea. Reaching…it was so far. It had been so long since she had done this...she touched upon a mind, one that grabbed her and held her tight in fingers so cold.

_Who the hell is this?_

Wrong mind. Theodora had reached for a royal presence, and she had caught one, but it was not the one she had hoped for. Her long "lost" friend Arika was not the one who held her in such a cold, powerful grip... No, this was her half sister, Asuna. Theodora managed to yank herself away, pulling free from the clutches of the other, only so feel her lunge outwards, trying to recapture her. She failed, but Theodora kept the connection on.

_Theodora. Your sister. It's...nice to see you again, Asuna..._

The link strengthened, So much so that the darkness became a reality, a field filled with grass, the wind blowing, soft, feather touching, upon a face. A whisper of running water, the air hinted at a stream, beds of flowers...empty promises. This was but a representation, a meeting plain for the soul.

Theodora looked to the side, feeling the rays of a nonexistent sun. The rays played upon her, but a sound from behind her bade her to turn. The clearing of a throat, coming from none other than Asuna herself, who stood, battle ready, in the royal's finest. She gave a twisted smile.

_You never were a good liar, Theodora...You'd rather see a flaming snake tied to a bomb than me right now.  
__...This is supposed to be a bad thing?  
__Not particularly, no...but in this case, we both know that answer... You're terrified of what I can do to you, aren't you?_

Asuna turned he head to view that same sun that Theodora had been taken by. She looked upon her visage sidelong while that smirk still played upon her face. The other was composed, however delicately, in the face of her though, and made no comment. In that sun, Asuna, a woman who might be viewed as promiscuous in her current attire...

_...Am I?_

That sun made those clothes show what their true purpose was for. A show of superiority, of strength... In battle, one who wore that knew what they were, and reveled in it, thus striking fear in the hearts of ordinary men. The king entering into battle. Neither of them had actually opened their mouths as of yet, but Asuna was the first, breaking her smirk into a tooth filled, feral grin, looking upon Theodora full on.

_Of course you are Thea. ...I have royal abilities just like any other, dear sister. Or did you forget that I can feel your emotions?_

A shiver then, a final break in that strong, practiced visage. Every member of a royal family was born with an inert royal power, and an ability. For Asuna, that power was magical cancelation, and her ability...it was in her eyes. One is said that they can see into your soul through those windows, your very eyes...she could tell exactly what you were feeling with just a glance, Asuna could...if she so wished...she could also expand certain emotions in you, driving you the way she wished you, a carrot to dangle in front of the horse...

Theodora had a more practical "ability", hers stemming from the heart. She could tell a person's affinity, their alignment. Her power...was magical dilution. With enough focus, she could do the same thing Asuna did, but her power didn't simply cancel the magic, it spread it out, made it ideal for absorption, or mixing...that was Arika's power actually. Magical manipulation.

She could change the composition of a spell, essentially change its entire purpose, but keeping the same amount of energy there...it could be a simple as changing a magical arrow of fire into one of wind, or perhaps, ultimately, an end of the world class into a grand healing.

No one knew Arika's ability however...the only time that she had come close to controlling it, she had gasped, and ran out from her practice room, crying, or at least, that was what Theodora had been told. She had just been a little girl…as for Negi…she could only guess from reports…and he was the opposite of his mother.

His ability was known, but not his royal power….and this was mainly due to Arika's failure to train him…she had him believing that his "power" was the same as all royals, the ability to telepathically communicate…was she afraid, perhaps, of what it was? Indeed, a boy like Negi would most likely house a useful strength…just like Asuna with magical cancellation…

Yet, Theodora was pulled back to reality by Asuna's voice, and she took a hasty step back, for the other had come close enough to fill her vision with those piercing eyes. She gave her simple smile, that disarming yet disturbing, quirk of the lips.

_Heh. You and your innocence… My dear older sister, you never knew how to hide anything from me, did you? Father did…Mother…well, I never got to know, didn't I? Even Arika does better than you…pathetically better, but better.  
__What of Negi? What do you read from him?_

It was instinctual, a simple question, yet Asuna took it as a return fire, a jibe. She actually hissed mentally, eyes burning a fierce fire. How dare her! This was her stage, her platform! The sheep to the lion, had spat in her commanding face! Yet, she had turned away, showed submission, Theodora had stung her.

_I get…nothing. Unless he lets me through…unless he is too vulnerable to help it... When he does, I can see…pain. Nothing but pain. No matter what he feels, everything is approached with the care a wounded animal approaches the next shadow. Besides pain…anger. So much anger. He is the second one to make me shiver when reading them…the second who tore me through with the sheer strength of feeling…_

She couldn't help it. Slowly, her robe brushed by the grass as she took a single step, her hand outstretched to touch the other's face. Asuna felt to slap it away, but it was glued there, and she, frozen. One had trouble enough, feeling their own pain. Why was she the one gifted with the power to feel another's?

Another voice broke the stretching silence, one that was strangled, far away and weak. The two broke apart, watching and reaching together to bring the figure Theodora had been searching for, one that was warm and alive, wary, tired, but far better off than Thea had originally given her credit for…

_Arika…  
__Ahh, the sister who's actually FUN to play with…_

Back again. Perhaps, just perhaps, She had an excuse for the way she acted, the life she had lived, the memories she had seen…but Asuna over stepped her excuse for her actions a bit too much…perhaps that was just her genetics. Negi too, after all, went far enough. Unlike the two of them, she actually spoke.

"I can understand Thea, but you Asuna, I can't. To what do I owe the visit? I was busy…"  
_Busy with your husband, above the clouds no doubt. You have hardly moved since you were left in the spot you were, save for flying a little closer to the action…but that's not the only action, is there?_

Ignoring the jibe, but none the less getting red, despite her innocence I might add, she turned to focus her attention on the other, one Theodora. Yet Asuna would not be denied, pushing in between her two sisters like the little one she was.

_Best not to ignore me, __**dear sister**.__ I am the one providing the platform here, and I can just as easily take it away…I'm the bridge between you two in this high magical interference. Remember that. Why haven't you and your husband been doing your job? If you had been, this conversation would not be necessary…Nagi would have been able to eliminate the threat these larger summoned demons pose, no?  
_"Nagi…Nagi wants to-"  
_Fight in the main spotlight, doesn't he? He wants to be the one to fight this battle, for so many reasons I can't even begin to number. One of which being his son's safety, no?_

True, this was Nagi's excuse… Still, Arika felt there was more to his adamancy… such as the fact that he did not agree with how Negi planned on fighting this battle, what he planned to do. Arika understood why Negi had to do what he was, but Nagi…it was as said.

The man did not understand the need; only saw the loss of life. He did not understand that the loss was nonexistent, that all would be rebuilt. Destroying the world was sin number one in his book, no exceptions, not even for his son. That was the reason they did not move around…

Arika had been restraining him. That was the reason she looked so harried, so stress, _disheveled_. It was from the effort it took to keep him in one place…and this conversation would only take away from her ability to do that…she had to make it quick… already, she felt her grip loosen.

"I am trying to keep Nagi out of the fight best I can…he does not agree with Negi's participation…but the boy is the only one who can fight Fate now. Nagi would be killed. This…this isn't a battle of pure strength or magical power anymore…it's about skill, cunning."  
_So, you finally admit that your hubby is an idiot, acceptance is half the battle.  
_"Asuna, putting aside the fact that you are a sister for a moment, please…shut the hell up."  
_Oh ho ho…okay then…_

Regardless of her tone, Asuna knew she had overstepped a boundary this time, regardless of her claim to be telling; "nothing but the truth", she took a few steps back from near Arika's face, where she had pushed herself earlier. Folding her arms, she took a backseat to the conversation.

_Can you convince Nagi to help Kurt and his forces? The appearance of these larger demons has really put a damper upon our ability, and they are slowly crushing Kurt's forces into a pulp…  
_"Ahh, Thea…it's been a while…but I'm sorry. Nagi can't focus on those things right now…he's tough enough as it is…shit!"  
_What? Arika? Where are you going?_

Asuna however, smiled as the scorned queen disappeared from view, and when Theodora whirled to her, she smiled a sinister smile. Of course, when Thea opened her mouth to begin berating her, Asuna held up her hands, shaking her head. This time, she decided word of mouth was better in this body of soul.

"_I did nothing, dear sister. Nagi has broken free. He is now rushing into the sphere, no doubt going to stop his son from saving the world, not because he wants to save him from death, but because he wants' to do it himself…the wrong way."_

Asuna laughed brilliantly, the sound akin to the knell of a bell, as she turned sharply around. Theodora was about to ask her what she meant by the wrong way, but the young woman disappeared, taking her spiritual assertion with her, and leaving Theodora to open her eyes, once again aboard her ship.

Just as in spirit, she opened her mouth, but this time, it wasn't hands that stopped her, but force. Her ship suddenly lurched to one side, racked by a powerful force as lights began springing up instantly with the sound of alarms.

"We've been hit! Due south-east, a large summoned beast has taken out a side of our tail! It's leaking auxiliary fuel, but no injuries reported…shielding in that area has been brought down by the blow…we're wide open!"  
**"Shit! New readings, three more from south-west, coming in fast, it's like they can smell the fact we're bleeding! Frontal engines online, moving on full impulse…three hundred fifty kilometers and climbing, but they are still gaining!"**  
_**"Someone check on her highness, she was knocked down from the initial impact..."  
**_"I'm fine! Bring her up as fast as you can, move this bucket before it gets kicked! Get someone working on those shields, Kingsley, you know the drill, gather some soldiers and man those cannons, send out one man fighters! Move!"

The man who had spoken first, a tall and sturdy Hellas officer, jumped up at her call and looked around, nodding at a few choice individuals, who shot out of their seats and bolted from the main bridge down an access hallway. He himself looked around at who was left before remembering his highnesses orders to them. He roared before turning his own tail to scramble from the bridge.

"You heard the princess, move your asses!"

**+-1-+**

_In the damp cavern, very little noise could be heard. Or at least, one should say that little noise could escape. Yet there was plenty of a mighty ruckus going on in there, and of it, Rakkan played about fifty percent. Sure, Issac swung around his blade like a windmill, but, save for the times he almost killed himself when his blade bounced off his opponent's limbs, he was silent._

_So too, was Kago, although he was far more forth coming with his blows, even if he was less successful. He might have magic, and his blows might be more powerful, but he was slower on the attack than a spinning blade, it was just a law of physics._

_A single drop of water fell into the priest's eyes, but he paid it no mind as he shot in front, swerving to avoid Issac and his own prep charge. He came in deep territory, avoiding a long, heavily muscled limb when it struck down upon the ground, throwing up rocks…_

_He took that as an advantage, jumping up on top of one as Rakkan came into sight, slashing out his long blade to slice at the limb in front of him. It was close, but he missed, it retracted too quickly, but not before Kago managed to jump on top of it, clinging to it as it ripped through the upwards._

_It was too fast, and he was ripped off, flying upwards, towards its head, but that was just fine for him, for he took aim at its eyes, his hands forming the shape for his blade, which, after a quick call, shot out, but the beast, the…overgrown dragon…whatever it was, dragon seemed close…swatted him and his attack met it's skin, useless._

_He landed hard on the ground, coughing up was look suspiciously like blood...Issac jumped over him to charge in again and this time the weapon master's strike was fueled by more than need. It didn't bounce this time, but instead his blade stuck, not really making a dent, but staying there against the unyielding skin._

_Rakkan however, used the beast's distraction to the mediocre sting as his opening and slammed down his blade on the beast's claw, which was, essentially where Issac had hit. The blade sliced through, almost completely, neat. The beast threw them off with a swipe to nurse the digit that had almost been cut off._

_Oh come on, it's just a pinky you big baby! Yet that "pinky" was an appendage about five feet wide and extending maybe twenty feet in length. It was, indeed, one big pinky. Tough as nails, Issac could only assume its skin was harder than well crafted steel, and it's speed was unnatural…it was obviously a summoned beast…but…how did it even fit in here amongst other things?_

_Something so big, with proportionate toughness, was a real botheration for the two young men, but for Rakkan, he was in love. He almost could be imagined jumping up and down like a little boy that had been given a puppy…almost._

"**It didn't even go all the way through! Impressive! It's just like fighting a dream! Fast, strong **_**and**_** durable, it's perfect, boys!"  
**_**"I hope you don't mind when I say that, personally, I beg to differ with you on that point, my friend."**_

_Kago was back up, shakily, but back up. He eyed the red skinned beast in front of them as it filled up the cave in front of them, licking its claws again. At least it never attacked until they did. That was a saving grace. He looked to Issac, who had his blade in the ground, using it as a place to rest his hands and head, and to Rakkan, who was practically sparkling all over with joy and eager to charge forth again._

"_**We seriously need a plan before we try that again sire Rakkan…"  
**_**"Screw plans, charge!"**

_Issac wasn't vocal, but his face spoke for him, his ideas and thoughts of such a plan plain as day. Kago however, tried a more verbal approach, for he knew that behind all the legend and rumor of the man in front him; there was an actual sensible person there. Just because he was called the immortal fool didn't mean he actually was one. He just acted like it, he had a carefree approach that worked on brute strength, but there was tactics there…somewhere._

"_**Rakkan, my good sir, **__**you**__** might be able to charge into such a situation without a plan, but we need to formulate one. I am sure that even you would have extreme difficulty unless you help us in this one."**_

Like it or not, the man had to agree with him there. He would get his ass kicked if he went in alone...but it would be just so invigorating...no. He needed to get himself up and out. He put his blade down, staking it next to him to focus on Kago. If he was so intelligent, he'd have an idea of his own then, right? Lucky, for the priest nodded at the look, his eyes sparking with a glimmer, the beginnings of an idea...

Jasnin set herself down upon a dark plain. The ground was non-descript, a simple plain of darkness, a gelatinous goop that drew her in slightly, yet held enough resistance to keep her up. The sky above was dark, a deep, cloudy dusk. The sun shone brilliantly, what was visible above the horizon that was. Time didn't seem to exist here...the only thing on this endless plain was a tent. A tent that captivated her attention, for lack of anything to distract.

"You have got to be kidding me...a fricken _circus_ in the middle of nowhere? That's the pactio? Of all the stupidity...whoa!"

The ground, ever so compliant before, now grabbed unto her ankles, completely covering her feet, eclipsing her shoes. Struggling was no use; the ground seemed to grow eyes and a mouth to smile at her with. Quickly, it dragged her away, or should one say zipped? She practically flew with the speed.

It was inside the ominous tent for her, its size seemed to double once inside, the space here was vast, expansive. The big top, so high, it was almost impossible to see the end, and indeed, it was made even more so by the sheer darkness, pinpoints of light only managing to knife through it at key times.

The light was focused on only one figure, and that figure was not Jasnin, oh no. It's focus was, of course, Zazie. Her smile was wide, but her eyes were ever wider, in this dim light, indeed, she looked to be the epiphany of the ever elusive, Cheshire cat.

Darkness pooled about her, and that darkness too, had piercing eyes. Laughter echoed from no mouth Jasnin could see, and what was worse, it was Zazie's own cackle. Eyes, all over the place...Jasnin had never been comfortable when all eyes were on her...now the effect was redoubled.

_"My pact allows me control over the darkness. Shadow puppetry. I take it further with my own personal villa... This is my stage, and you...you are on it."_

Jumping down, she soared, and it was only when she had already fallen halfway did Jasnin realize that the "mime's" aim was not on the ground, but at her own silver head. She spun quickly away, just as the other's feet hit the dirt.

Zazie spun, her hands dancing out, tendrils of darkness dancing from them, making Jasnin duck, yet the darkness stuck to the air, growing, becoming shadowy forms. Eyes wide, the girl spun away from their outstretched limbs, cutting them apart at the joints...

Useless, they were shadows, cutting those arms only allowed them to grow back. She spun, striking out at Zazie, and when she ducked, Jasnin's knee struck out into her face, making the other reel away.

Her friends, minions of darkness, grabbed on Jasnin's hair, prompting her to let out an angry squawk. It was long, that hair, long enough to allow her to spin on the spot and slice her captors apart, diluting them into the slithers of darkness they were.

Still, they could only reform. Jasnin refocused on Zazie, ducking under a high kick and sweeping her blade at Zazie's feet, but she launched herself up, jumping over Jasnin and palmed her in the back, making her stumble to the ground. Even the ground grabbed her!

It tried to hold her down, but she ripped herself from it, rolling away from Zazie as her foot came down and grabbing her ankle, making her overbalance and fall on her face. Jasnin spun her blade as she shot up, striking it down, impale style, but she missed, getting a foot in the mouth for trying.

Taking the kick at face value, she grabbed the other's foot before she could retract it, and tried to twist it, but Zazie spun her body with it, and grabbed Jasnin's own ankle, taking her off her feet. Still, the silver head had not come into this without a plan...her blade hand swung out, and sliced the other from shoulder to mid-back.

Zazie made no sound, but she let Jasnin loose, landing softly a few feet away. Her hand twisted to feel the blood drip from that long stripe. Her opponent's eyes were cold as she watched. There was no sorrow in her face when she spoke.

"It hurts, doesn't it?"

Her eyes came up, brown meeting a kind of colorless silver. She shot forward, wordlessly bringing out her hand, which became ringed with the shadowy darkness that seemed to permeate everything here. Jasnin waited...

Her blade came out to meet the others, solid darkness. Jasnin was stronger here, pushing the other off, and when Zazie stabbed in, she twisted away, pushing up her blade to offset the others and kicking her in the gut.

Skidding away, eyes burning, she held out her hands, that same darkness liquefying, striking out to wrap her opponent up in a cage, assaulting her with those same eyes, smiles, snickers. She shrunk back...damn, she hated mind games! Slowly, the other approached, her own smile eclipsing all others.

_"...Still just a child. Your power...pathetic."_

Closer still, she came, she was slandering her, shooting her down, her abilities, all this power...but, power didn't matter to _her_! This should be a piece of cake! What was she missing, what skill had she overlooked? Was there actually something more to her art that it's dreadful ability to crush and control a soul?

_...You have a curious power. Yet, your grasp of it is clumsy..._

Zazie watched her, a mildly interesting pet trapped in its cage. Her fingers danced out, and Jasnin felt her hand jerk. Staring down, she could only watch as her very own limb reached out and grabbed her blade, tossing it outside the cage.

_"Puppets. A circus has many acts...illusion, magic, acrobatics...all these dance to the turn of the ringmaster, he is the master, the one who pulls the strings...your strings."_

Eyes burning, she could only watch, unable to move...not even a single centimeter! Zazie watched her hand as it pivoted slowly upon it's wrist, moving to her will. She felt anger from the other, understandable anger...but she had to be careful.

That power of hers was deep. She held her abilities in contempt, and so she held them clumsily, like one would hold a gun in a game of roulette. If she ever decided to grasp it like she should, as a part of herself...Zazie would hold no chance...

Her race was famed for having grace, anger hammered into a cool, cold tool, one that was swung with frightening precision. A...a beautiful monster. She stepped closer, feeling the other's anger radiate stronger. Snow-walkers...they were like dragons. Dangerous things. The knowledge of the entire species lay in the mind of every specimen.

This being the sole and final specimen. The execution of one needed to be done carefully, lest control was lost. It took only a single second, a simple slip of control...Her hands danced out, capturing both of Jasnin's now.

_...Let me through, or you dance to my tune, with limbs that no longer belong to you..._

She couldn't move, her own hands coming up to clasp around her throat. Hardly able to speak, inwardly, she screamed. Screaming, feverishly reaching for something, anything to strike back with. Now, now she knew fear. Intimidation...one who thought themselves a god now saw that power could touch them...

She was _fallible_. Able to be destroyed, her anger could not always save her...that terrible power that she feared so much...had _limits_. This was fear, this was silence, and as her own nails dug into her skin, she knew pain...

_Outside, another power found that, they too, were fallible. This power, thankfully, did not come from the same side. Rakkan swung his blade down upon the sinewy joints of their opponent, those that were vital to hold its leathery wings. Roaring, it tossed the man off, only to see a streak of white, and a voice bellow out impending doom._

_**"Balore kobushi!"**_

_Glowing brilliant white, Kago landed hard upon the collar of the beast and his fist struck out, the power from the punch practically eclipsing his entire body as he zeroed in on the cavity between throat and collar. The power was enough to make it take a step back, sending dust from the ceiling cascading down, but Kago jumped off._

_In mid air, he met Issac, who had been sent up by Rakkan when the beast shook him off, by way of his blade like a baseball. Kago provided the platform, and Issac took it, jumping off his hands and swinging his blade high._

_Magic-less he may be, but chi was still the force that beat through his veins. It glowed along his blade now as he landed on the beast's face, and he impaled one of the beast's eyes. Roaring painfully, the blood fell, medicine ball sized drops from the sky. _

_Rakkan and Kago both jumped forwards to take the feet as Issac leapt off, using his blade to direct the air and landing hear the ear, or at least what he thought was an ear. He darted away from a swipe the beast gave, it's claws digging into its own skin._

_Behind the ear, he stabbed his blade out again, catching another cavity and prompting another earsplitting roar. Rakkan swung his blade with all his might down below, and just when it might have bounced off the thing's ankle, Kago darted forth with another one of his Balore Fist's, adding more power to the thrust and digging deep._

_So much red, just like its iridescent skin in the dim light. Yet still, all three jumped away when it roared once more. They had done some damage, but still, they were only flies to it. The three landed together after retreating some and Kago nodded._

_Kanka flowed around him still, Rakkan still had his pactio blade, along with some odd armor...Issac was silent, but the priest knew he could call up a shine upon his blade when needed...together._

_The area at the base of the neck, that cavity he had punched earlier...it was a direct channel to the heart on a dragon. Direct enough force, together, they could breach it and literally break this monster's heart...if it even was a dragon..._

_They could only assume, it was too big to tell, literally. Kago shot off first, making one heck of a din with his mouth, if only to draw attention to himself, while Rakkan sent Issac flying up to where he was supposed to with a well placed slap of his blade._

_As for the man himself, well, he was famous for gravity defying feats, among other things...he leapt up, and kicked off a jointed knee to get where he had to go. Kago did a similar movement, but he had to avoid swipes and used the crook of the thing's arm as extra leverage along the way._

**"San kan ken!"  
**_**"Kigen Ten!"  
**__"Pendulum Shaft."_

_Rakkan may have formed a dozy with his incredible blade, it's purely...well, there was no word for it besides huge, blade, but the other two would not be outdone, even by a legendary hero. Kago took it upon himself to bring his training out to run along Issac's blade, combining his holy beam with his most powerful attack, the genesis. _

_Together with Issac's chi, the blade struck forth into the power Rakkan put forth, all into that single cavity along their opponent's neck, an explosion that rocked the whole cavern, knocking chunks of it loose to crash upon the floor._

_Their opponent did not move. A squawk might be the best approximation of the sound it made, but it did not even blink otherwise. It seemed that it had turned back into the stone it had originated form, and it was only when the color began to fade from it did they realize the truth of that growing thought._

_Issac however, had no time for celebration, as he felt an extreme heat pierce his heart. Fire licked along his neck, and he hissed, grabbing that burning area, delicate lines, the shape of familiar fingers. His sister...where was she?_

_She was about to die..._

_A finely tuned sensor, as only one who shared a soul could act as, the boy scanned the area, and locked unto a patch of darkness. There, there was the unrest, and the opponent. He had ignored the distress before, but now...he could no longer stay still, not as the screams echoed in his head._

_He jumped, regardless of the consequences, he jumped, yelling to his comrades the next battle cry, now for the sake of an ally._

Fear, anger, desperation... these were the keys. The keys to unlocking the depth of one's heart. One is not judged by their actions in everyday life, not so much as they are in times of strife. What makes a hero is not what brand of coffee they buy at a store. It is not even how early they submit their taxes...no.

What makes a hero is the ability not to ignore, or feel, any fear… but to do what they believe is right, _regardless_ of that fear, regardless of their anger, their sorrow, regardless of even their hurt. When one overcomes their fear, even if that fear is of themselves, you take the step, the step out of your very own way.

Zazie made that one mistake. She paused at a crucial moment, she showed weakness when nothing but strength should have radiated. She gasped as the point of an incredible blade threatened to rip her apart.

She was forced to break off, growling as shadow formed about her, an attempt to cover the wounds. The combined voices of priest and gladiator echoed in the darkness, bringing earth shaking light to the darkness.

**_"Se Dissolvant Circumstantia, Falsa!"_**

Through that light, the shadow of a man stepped through, blade glistening to match a pair of burning eyes...it was true, in that battle light, that the plain brown hue could show to be pure gold...

Zazie wasted no time in striking at him, wrapping him in her web, tangling him with literal strands of darkness, it didn't matter how many he tried to cut, only more would spill from their wounds...she began to reach her hands out, tendrils drawing upon his own throat, but a literal roar made her spin around.

Never take your eyes off the lion, even if it _is_ to step on the fire ant. The statement is always recited opposite that form...but it should be noted that it works both ways...Zazie had taken the last wrong step in attacking the magic-less brother...hands outstretched, her captive had eyes of literal red, a single hand outstretched beyond the boundaries of her cage.

She made no real sound, but her voice still permeated her mind. A single, soft call, like the siren calling to the fishermen to jump into the seas...the sound was above language, a lilt that captivated the soul.

It was the soul she wanted after all. The knowledge was simple, and it rose in her...you don't need to rip a soul from someone. You don't need to force yourself into another's mind to control them...you could make them come to you...

A snow-walker was a truly conniving species, dealing in tricks. Their magic went beyond words, as they were born, and had fallen, long before the seal of Gramyre had even been _thought_ of. They could make lightning strike upon the ground, sticking there, fire dance an unearthly jig, convince a man to kill his brother...

Their ability was even enough to make an entire village join them in the soul world... convincing them to leave their bodies and dance among the clouds, never to return. They were the one species that was said to be able to create life with their spells...if a crude, rudimentary version of life...

Jasnin's face was blank, her smile slack, almost as if she were a sinister doll, eyes aglow. Her arm was still outstretched, reaching, drawing the other closer, bidding Zazie to come and dance with her, bidding her to void herself of the soul...she crooned.

A nameless call, a tune you wished you could put a name too, the song you would search the ends of the earth to find... A sound that made you complete. Yet, in this complete alien, there was control. Jasnin could practically see the other's body fail, shrink back...but Issac stopped it…stopped _her_, from going any further.

With one sound thwack form his blade to her skull, the girl crumpled, and Jasnin let loose her power, with difficulty of course, but she managed to let go. Zazie would keep her soul today...but she, Jasnin, was exhausted. Yet, unlike the other times, she managed to stay awake and able, if only to give a weak smile.

"...You disobeyed my will...I wanted...I wanted so badly to crush her..."

A smile, knowing, yet not without that tell tale sparkle, that flicker of a trapped soul held tight. He shook his head. Did he really defy her will? Or was he simply obeying a higher order, her conscious? He didn't even know. All he knew was that he had done what he knew was right. The girl should not die...

"...Are you so sure that it was your will I was disobeying...?"

**+-2-+**

Among the ruined pillars, in the open air, the sound of two warriors, crossing blades, echoed in the open skies. On this level of the ruins, the air was clear, dancing with magic, apparent in every breath. Negi could feel it in his bones...and he knew that soon, he would face this power, this overwhelming, giddy power.

All of it would stem from one being, and as he ducked under the sharp swing of a blade, he shouted out order to his comrades, for Alma had risen her hands. He wanted this to be for him, and him alone. Canceling his earth form, he berated Alma.

"Alma, take care of Anya! You've done your piece, leave the Gumby to me! Get outta here, retreat to the ship, await further orders! Don't let that girl out of your sight, take care of her in my absence!"  
**"Fu fu fu~ Sensei cares about his girls. How nice..."**

He didn't wait for Alma to answer, and he, frankly, had no time to. Tsukuyomi was upon him, her hair a sheet in front of his eyes. He jumped backwards, his short sword coming out to block her dagger, Altra coming in close to clash against her main blade.

_**Stronger than before, oh joy. He will know this day, no mercy… I'll eat him whole~…!**_

Devilishly, she grinned at him behind her spectacles. He knew that to try and knock those off this time would mean certain doom for him, and honestly, he wasn't focused on those overlarge things. Tsukuyomi swung out her leg and he ducked under it, grabbed her other foot and ripped it from the ground.

**"Ahh! Head over heels, sensei~!" **

She smiled, her blades flashing out at his exposed back as she curled up, but momentum won out, sending her away to land on her hands and feet, where she jumped to the side, just in time to avoid Negi's charge.

She ducked under a swing and stabbed her blade out, but he shot up his short sword to stave it off and ducked under her dagger when she decided to swing. He swept his foot to catch hers, but she danced away, flashing out her blades. Both of his came up in a similar dance, once more making steel meet steel.

_**Delicious…let's see if he can handle techniques now!**_

They broke off, striking again, but when Tsukuyomi smiled, Negi wisely broke, off, and just in time too, for the girl struck out with her blade, aiming for his head, it had been a feint, but it was double played as her foot caught his, upsetting him and tossing him into the air. Her own sword came out again, now aiming to slice him in half.

**"Zankūsen!"**  
"Deflixio!"

It was said out of habit, but the magic had already come to him before the words ever left his lips. Her attack cut through his shield flawlessly, but it was slowed, slowed enough and weakened enough that his short sword could clash against it. The blow forced him to the ground with its force.

This only served his will however, for he shot into Tsukuyomi's middle with a handspring, his blades only barely staved off by her skill. She was sent skidding backwards, but she kept her composure, and met his next charge eagerly.

"Check."  
**"Ahh, so sensei wants to play **_**that~**_** game! I suppose that makes me the queen?"**

She broke off from the confrontation quickly, and aimed at Negi's feet, and when he jumped over it, she released her pent up energy upon that very ground, upsetting him and throwing him skywards. He landed on his feet, but she kept near him, striking out again.

**"Shin R****aikōken!"**

Negi ducked quickly, and the pillar behind him took the damage, exploding into an actual mist, throwing sparks everywhere, seeking ground… His foot swept out, tripping her up and bringing her face close and allowing him to viciously punch her in the face. He jumped with the punch, sending her soaring upwards, but behind that very attack, she could only smile.

_**Caught you ~.**_

Flipping over in the air, she pushed him down, so that she was over him, and grabbed his head with her legs. Her smile only widened as she forced him downwards, flipping him backwards in the air. Negi braced himself for impact as the girl had the gall to reveal it was a technique.

**"Ukigumo - Sakura Sanka!"**

Landing in an undignified fashion, Negi brutally hit his head upon the hard stone of his current arena, but he still rolled away from Tsukuyomi as she landed and jumped off the ground quickly to meet her blades again in the air. She jumped away from him, calling out another attack, one that made him gain distance on the other side of the platform from.

**"Sensei's without a gun! Zankūshō - San!"**

Gun...holy crap, he had forgotten he even owned one of those things...it seemed so obsolete now, didn't it? The gun, the ninja stars, the knives...but the training was still there, and he grinned as he shot in, just as Tsukuyomi jumped forwards.

They met in the middle of the platform again, both sets of weapons crashing against each other, and throwing sparks against their eyes. Tsukuyomi slid her blade across his, and he shot up his short sword to meet it. He broke off his main blade and stabbed at her, but she twisted away, slashing her dagger up to break its path.

_**Ahh, it's like battling with sempai…hmm, let's get faster then~, shall we?**_

Palm out, Negi rushed in past her guard and caught her middle with a powerful blast of condensed ki, but she held on, keeping close, and her own palm came out. Negi only had time to bring up his short sword to block.

_**"Sorry,**_** sensei~... Ōrō Gekka!"**

It hit dead on upon his blade, and Negi watched in apparent slow motion as his short sword, his faithful short sword..._shattered_ in his hands from the blow. That blade...had killed the murderer of his village...that blade had saved him countless times from demons, from mages...

Sometimes, just simply from the grim hands of death. Most would look at it as a simple piece of steel, but not him...no. To Negi, it meant far, far more than that. It was an old friend, something he could always rely on, even when everything else failed...and now...with a single blow, Tsukuyomi had shattered it...

**"Oopsie~, looks like I **_**broke **_**it...hmm?"  
**"Yeah, look at that, yeah? You broke it...yeah...that's it...broke it..."

He was shaking. With anger, with sorrow, with pain, with effort, the boy was shaking as he stood there, and Tsukuyomi was oblivious to the obvious warning signals flying in the air. The girl was air headed yes, but this would be the final time...her love of battle would kill her here...he was laughing now, his maniacal side shining through for just a second...

"Ahhh, yes! Yes! You _broke_ it you b*tch! You wanna play, right? Well..._now_ we're gonna _PLAY_!"  
**"Ohh, whee…now I can play? You've got more for me? Ohh, naughty boy!"**

Negi was upon her already, palming her in the middle. It wasn't strong enough to send her back, yet, as he swung out his foot into her kidney, and sprung up off his one foot to slam his skull into her chin, it became apparent that this was only what he wanted.

_**Oh my~! He's faster now! Maybe I can give him a good Ougi!**_

He jumped back when she recovered and shot back in past her guard to elbow her dagger away, his blade taking a bit of her sleeve as a souvenir, but he didn't care for that, it was the blood he cared for, and it flowed free from the shallow cut he had made. She struck out at him, but he shifted away as mist upon a river, impossible; yet true.

"**Zantetsusen!"**

The distance between them made the spiral release of power all the more difficult to dodge, but Negi had his smaller size to bank on, and he jumped at her, slimming himself into a near arrow shape in the air, going right into the "eye" of her attack. She met him head on with another technique when he came close however, fist meeting sword.

"**Gurenken! …Ehh? Ahh!"  
**"Take this, Gumby!"

Negi had used the moment in which she had dropped her spiral attack to swing out her fist as time to ground himself, shooting his feet to make contact. His blade met hers, but his body had been flying over her with his jump and now he was behind her, his blade swung viciously out upon her back, infused with Chi.

_**Ahh! He…he… **__**caught**__** me?**_

She twisted, but he still managed to swipe her there, drawing a thin line of blood and a hiss from her. Coolly, she stood face to face with him, her hold upon her blades no less confident, but perhaps a tad more wary. She was moving faster than ever before, but he still matched her, and more.

His reflexes and prowess were inhuman…just like hers. For once, the ever prevalent smile, the playful dance, fell from her face, replaced by narrowed eyes. His form was perfect…his timing was impeccable…was it possible that he could match her sempai in full form?

_**No, no, no! Sempai is the only opponent worthy of…no, he can't be this fast...I've gotten lazy. Bad girl. Lazy…slow and sloth, not good!**_

No. After all, he was still only human. Only…human. As long as he was human, he would not defeat her…human meant weak, and weak meant useless. Her sword shone, the condensation of ki increasing, and she stabbed it forwards, an accusative finger to the boy's air.

"**I am sorry sensei…but playtime's over~… Messatsu… Messatsu Zankū Zanmasen!"**

She shot forth, her blade striking out, but Negi sidestepped her quickly, too quickly, his fist coming out to break her glasses with the force he used to punch her face. Blood flew from her; this time her nose took the bruise. Her attack hit another pillar, decimating it like a cannonball would a film of glass.

_**He… he dodged the ougi… **_

"Oh no, Tsukuyomi. I told you I'd show you how I _invented_ this game. It isn't over…"

Negi shot up his knee, sending her upwards as he jumped up after her, his fist ringed with chi, he shot it upwards into her gut just as her hands, came out, blades crossed in an attempt to block. It did no good though, she was to slow to respond, and his fist hit bone, sending a wet _crack_ through the air.

"…until _**I**_ say it is!"

Lucky for Tsukuyomi, he let her land on her own; a crash that the boy could have sworn reverberated throughout the whole area. Still, even if his back had been turned to her undignified landing, he spun about now, for he knew her…

_**He can't be a worthy opponent, no one is worthy…no one matches me; my very name speaks my power!**_

Knew her better than he thought anyone else did. He knew that her guile, her lovely, beautiful act of strength and play, was a guise. Negi read people. He always had. Sometimes he forgot the gift, but others he used it to such a deadly edge, he could easily slip and cut himself.

Through the dust, she came, slowly, more of a march than anything else. She was a mess. Yet she held her head high. Regardless of the torn dress, the missing sleeve, the long stripe that laid fire upon her back, making her feel alive…she would fight him until she could move no more.

"**Ahh, sensei…that was good…better than I had hoped, sensei…ahh…he he…I never expected you wanted to play so **_**rough**_**~."  
**"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were one _screwball_ of a girl. Nothing's broken on you, isn't it?"  
**"Hah…ha...you give yourself too much credit sensei."**  
"Then we continue to play."

Negi spared no more words on that bout, just shot at her, and she likewise kicked off the ground, meeting him in the middle again, blades clashing against the now dying sun. She smiled as she watched his eyes focus not only on her, but that sun behind her. The time…he was running out of time god damnit!

"**Focus on me sensei, or you just might get burned… Kakusan Zankōsen!"**

Spinning, the boy landed the ground before jumping backwards; gaining distance on the swordswoman as she practically became a Christmas tree, shooting off energy in all different directions. He had to brave it however, and shot through the mess of energy to slice her right along the neck, making her shrink and drop her attack.

Her hand came up to massage her neck, pulling away blood. Yet that same red only made her more ecstatic, even if Negi could sense the inner worry, that small part of her that held concern. He could only shake his head at that small part of her…why did she have to put up such a guise…?

"**He heh…shallow. Nice try **_**sensei**_**, but you missed me…wanna try my lips instead?"**

He didn't answer, just kicked off the ground, attacking her, attacking her inner worry. He met her blade and ducked under her dagger, shooting up his foot to kick her between the legs. Now, most would only due this to a male, but regardless of what, a kick is still a kick, and it still can hurt you know, and it produced a similar effect, namely, the attempt to block that area.

This brought her face closer, and loosened her grip on those blades. He crashed his elbow into her face, the still bloody face gaining another spurt from a renewed injury. His fist shot out too, punching her in the gut hard enough to make her skid, coughing.

"Tsukuyomi. I am willing to stop here. Of course, I know you. Better than you know yourself maybe. You won't go quietly like those other girls will you? …I can't just knock you out. I even know what will happen if I say this, but frankly, I don't care. Stop fighting me. You continue, and you'll die…that's all."

Eyes burning, she looked up at him, meeting those pools of fire he held. From her position on the ground, she watched as her hands shook, holding her blades tight. She could see the tendons move under that skin…such was her anger, she fancies she could trace the veins all the way to the heart.

How dare he…_baby_ her! She was the master here! She stood up quickly. He hadn't finished her yet, not even close to it! A grim snarl played upon her face now, a true contrast to her normal banter, and indeed, it was a scary one, that change.

Rushing at him, she swung out both her blades in an "x" fashion, aiming to take off his head, but he stepped back, raising his single blade and forcing her to break off, or have her blades trapped between the two of them.

He shot in when she broke her blades off, and quickly sent her in the air with an upwards palm thrust, slashing his blade out to slice her thigh, she blocked the attempt, but Negi withdrew his blade quickly, stabbing it back out under her block to stab the muscle instead.

She landed awkwardly, her back towards him, allowing her eyes to settle upon Alma, who was bent over Anya, who seemed to be out cold. She smiled. Ahh, here was the weakness! She could attack them! Kicking off the ground, she rushed at them, but she was stopped short when something entered her field of vision form the side, slamming into her and sending her flying.

His voice permeated her _vision_, so close he was. It that was even remotely possible…but to her, right now, it was. He had tackled her into a wall and now, he lifted her from it, holding tight, his hand around her neck. He burned. Now she knew fear, finally, her disbelief faded into that well known fear.

"What…"

He let her go and punched her hard in the middle, his fist like stone and making her cough blood this time. She dropped to her hands and knees, and grabbed his ankles, pulling him down, but his fist struck her in the back this time as he fell, knocking her face first into the ruined ground.

"…the _hell_…"

He used the fist that was in her back as a means to get up, pushing her back into the ground when she tried to stand, and kicked her to roll over. She shot up with that kick, her blade, slack in her hands, flashing out, but he met them head on, and with the force her held his one, he knocked the dagger free to skid away, spinning.

"…did I say…"

Bearing in now, he stabbed continuously, forcing Tsukuyomi back, away from her dagger, forcing her to block with only one blade. His sword finally caught her shoulder joint, making her yelp, but she refused to drop her blade. She shot past him and grabbed her dagger before he could stop her, swinging to slash at his back, but he twisted, blocking the attack before it could even truly start.

"…about laying a finger on Anya?"

He shot forwards and his blade flashed out, faster than ever before, as he finally decided to show just what his style of fighting was. He had given Asuna some of the art, but no one ever said his techniques stopped with the Aerial Disc or the Leaf Shield, no. What kind of sword style would it be if it did not have more?

"Bestial Atrophy…good bye, my Gumby."

The technique was almost like a half completed second strike of the stone cutter, the ability to cut an object behind the person in front. Negi's blade passed right through her front, but it's tip solidified, practically liquefying the nerves along her spine as it ripped through them, so much confetti…the entire attack would leave a person permanently paralyzed, completely immobile…but he started it low and ended it short.

Tsukuyomi fell, her blade finally falling from her numbed hand. She could only stare at him, her head and eyes…they were the only things that seemed to obey her will…he shook his head as he saw her, the growing terror as she tried and failed, to move her own legs, a prisoner in her own flesh…

"Ahh…your arms should begin to respond to you in about five minutes or so…but your legs…that's your own fault. You'll never move those again, and believe me, that technique completely obliterated them. You're not healing _those_ in…ohh, I'd say…_ever_. Alma, please look after her, see if you can move her before she throws a fit. To the ship might be nice if you can manage…"

Alma looked up at his statement, but she couldn't meet his eyes. He was too kind to do that…bring them to their ship…he could simply just leave her here…but Negi wasn't one to simply leave people hanging…even though he did not say it, she knew he also meant to put the other girls in his ship too, if only to provide them some kind of…dignity.

Yet that wasn't her real problem. Her real problem was how he stood, wiping his forehead and staring at the steps that would lead him to the top, the very "cathedral" of this place…where Fate lie in wait…he was tired, and Fate would be fresh…fresh and deadly.

Negi didn't even take a glance back as his first foot connected with the case. It wasn't his job to look back. He had to move forward…no matter what, he had to move forwards…his final battle awaited him behind these stairs, and he would not shrink from it…

He never had.

**+-E-+**

_My, it looks like I over did it again…this one is exactly sixty kilobytes...yikes. It is almost as if this story __**wants**__ to break that mark I set for it, the mark I thought impossible, that five hundred thousand…anywho, no matter. I am impressed and the extreme jump in reviews… __Arct1cfox, I thank you for your reviews, glad you enjoy the story. I now have, incredibly, more favorites for this story than I have reviews for the other version._

_How's this chapter for yah?_

_Anyway, I've nothing to say anymore…I don't think I need to put to many notes, but…_

_Pendulum Shaft – A move in which the user swings their blade high before pointing it straight out at an angle, forcing their strength into it before striving it forwards, similar to a pendulum swinging and falling from its hold._

_Kigen Ten! – A combination of Kago's Genesis upwards strike and his ripping beam, currently his most powerful singular beam._

_Bestial Atrophy – Blade technique in which the entire blade becomes insubstantial, slashing into the body and then losing its power along the tip, causing the metal to rip upwards and damage internal organs, liquefying the spine in many cases and leaving the opponent permanently paralyzed and possibly bleeding internally. This move can also be used to burst open the heart or puncture the lungs. _

_~Finalage out!_


	58. Chapter LVIII: Fate

_You know, I was wondering when someone might try and call me out on the snail mail issue. I realize I've worked kinda…__**too**__ hard on the __**development**__ of a story...I've forgotten how a __**simple **__approach can work just as well. Fine. Let's try. I'll give you the story, and the interaction, that you all seek…it's gonna be hard trying to undo it all... Perhaps if I do it this way..._

_You'll have to deal with the regular building up for just a few moment though…_

_I did tell you I was going to make things explode though…didn't I? Welll…in all seriousness…_

_BOOOOOOOOM!~Finalage._

Of course, I do not own Negima.

**_O+-+X_**

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Eight: Fate_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

The wind was strong up here. Yet the breeze was refreshing. It slapped at his face, waking him up in full. The magic mist swirled all around him, around them. He said nothing as he stepped upon the same plain as his silver haired foe, a being that simply floated there, his key in hand. This place...it seemed to absorb sound...their own private dead room.

There were no walls; this was the top, the pinnacle. He was just a step from the edge, an edge that could send him plummeting down to his doom...but it would be the wrong doom, wouldn't it? His doom was in front of him, and he faced it, forcing the air from his lungs. He was...nervous. Actually nervous, and he could also feel that undeniable, impossible fear.

He was human after all, Negi was. There was the focal point...finally. After all of this...the ninety percent crud had been shifted through...this was the ten percent he had been looking for... Fate locked eyes with him, and Negi silently called his magic. The lightning came first, condensing along his body as he felt the fire burn in his soul, his body touched by ice. The earth, always slow and sure, came last...yet still, there was no sound.

_"Negi Springfield. You have...come. You are just in time to witness this world's... judgment."__  
_"Really...I suppose that makes you the executioner then... doesn't it?"  
_"Why...of course. I am judge, jury and executioner, and I deem this world sinful, guilty of treason, punishable by death."_

It was pure nonsense, but the boy stood his ground, feeling for the magic about him, trying to draw into himself, replenishing his lost stores, feeding upon energy to boost himself. The world itself, guilty of treason? Treason from what exactly? He didn't bother himself with that...only allowed his power to flow, and focuses on merging it together, drawing into himself...

"Well then...what happens if I submit an appeal to this decision then, oh great judge?"

A smile, no a smirk.

_"...The decision is not up for appeal. My word is final."_

Fate said this with his small smile; one would almost call it benevolent. He watched with pure amusement was Negi gathered his power. Amusement, for the boy had fought so hard and come so far, all for naught. His fight was done, the battle decided ages past...so let him gather his power...he'd give him a show, make him believe...it would only make the taste of defeat... that much more… bitter.

"Oh, so you've set yourself up as a god? A friggin tyrant?"  
_"If the shoe fits Springfield, one must wear it. If only a god can destroy a world, then I am he."__  
_"Blasphemy; you'll meet an untimely end that way, my friend..."

At Negi's words, Fate quirked an eyebrow, almost allowing himself to laugh...

_"Then, are you the agent of god; the one sent to come and punish me?"__  
_"I don't even claim to be the agent of a f*cking foot fungus, Fate. I'm here for one reason, that's to stop you. God damn me for saying it, but I don't care what you got, I'm gonna do it!"

Ahh, he loved it when they were so young and restless. He allowed himself to land on the ground, his white shoes touching blackened stone. The magical concentration was great, so great, it would choke the normal mortal...stop him, would he? We shall see about that one...wouldn't we?

_"...Amusing. You are an interesting specimen, Springfield...but do you really want to continue this folly? We both know what the result will be, should you raise your hands against me..."__  
_"...Do we? I challenge that prediction you make, Fate. I can sense the turning of events, and all that my clouded veil into that which lies ahead has only told me one thing; ain't nothing set in stone."

Around him, the power exploded outwards, covering him in a veil as he grit his teeth...so much power flowing through him, at once! He had never...ever...felt this before! The guise of fire and lightning flitting around a body made of ice, encased in stone...his eyes were squeezed shut with the force it executed upon his soul.

"I'm sorry, Fate."  
_"Sorry for your death?"_

This was a true dream brought into reality...the fact he no longer had to chant made it so much easier to achieve this...but he knew that at his current state...it would be murder to try the Enthoalis Complexio...for the magic raging around him had a will of its own...and he wasn't quite fresh...

"No…for yours. You really are nothing but a puppet after all…"  
_"…__You are the puppet. I am the one who shall cut your strings. You will dance for me first though!"  
_"…As you wish. I'll play. I'm still sorry though."

His will overcame it though; finally he beat down the rage into a shaft of power, a tool to be used, not to be used by. Fate's smirk still played. Ahh, the boy had skill, and power, but on this plane, the monster, the hunter...would become the prey...

Negi was in his face, and his kick was caught in both of Fate's hands. He twisted Negi's leg, making him spin in the air with the force and land on his hands and feet. Negi launched himself forwards to grab Fate's feet, but the other was too fast, stepping back and stomping down on Negi's form. Humph! Rude! To begin the attack, without even acknowledging him in full...!

Negi was gone; teleporting to Fate's back, slashing out with his blade. Yet, Fate was quick, turning around and elbowing Negi in the face, his palm flat against the body to pump him with magic, but Negi disappeared again. Fate simply sidestepped this time, catching the boy's arm. He could...feel the disturbance in the air. The boy was ringed with magic, fire and lightning cracking along with ice, even stone...

Fate's hand closed upon air and he turned around in time to receive a punch in the face. He had been...distracted. He braced his feet and took the blow stiff, not moving an inch; he was a pillar against his strength, strength that failed to move him. The silver headed doll would have laughed, but instead his face simply conveyed... sorrow.

_"Ahh, teleportation, a beautiful gift, isn't it? Still…it does you no justice, all of this...is the testament to all of your hard work? Disgraceful."_

Fate's arm shot out with a blow of his own. Negi would have flown far, but Fate shundoed to catch him with a knee to his spine, making him fall, grasping for presence upon the ashen stone. No...way...not in hell or earth… You could not tell him that his enhanced strength, his increased speed, his defense; even his barrier...you could not tell him that after all of this training...you just _can't_ tell him that he was still useless, miles away. He pushed himself up, but Fate stomped on him calmly, making his face press against the stone again.

_"You are admirable, Negi Springfield, but do not flatter yourself. Stay down. Your magical pressure...it's nothing compared to mine...hmm?"_

He watched as the boy pushed himself off the ground disdainfully; watched as he stood erect, and wiped a bit of dirt from his eye, tossing it aside. Eyes narrowed, Negi returned the favor, watching Fate as he watched him… watching him and slowly smiling. He was...doing this wrong. Just doing it all wrong, wasn't he? He rushed at Fate again, but this time, magic pooled in his hands. He almost began chanting a spell again...but this time, he managed to stop. There was...simply no need.

_"...Fool."_

His fist met Negi's own, but the boy used his momentum to draw in close, his magic lancing up along his elbow, adding to the power from his form and decking Fate in the face. This time, he skid. Not much, but enough to make his eyes widen a trifle. He ducked under a high kick and leapt forwards when Negi jumped on that hind leg, bringing his hands down to shoot off a storm spell. Back to back, Fate could hear the boy breathe...they turned as one, and met again in a flurry of punches.

...Only to be broken when Negi shot out his foot to catch Fate's hand, his palm striking the other in the gut, releasing the power for his burning circumference. Fate slipped just a bit, but his knee shot up into Negi's neck, snapping his head back, bowling him over. He watched the other fall, and didn't bother trying to continue the attack, just watched him get up.

_"Must you continue this? I have a world that needs my attention, Springfield..."__  
_"...Do I...really need to...that... gahh! My throat...hurts goddamnit!"  
_"...You speak as if that fact surprises you..."_  
"Shut it...no one asked you!"

Again, Negi stood ready, and this time, Fate really did shake his head. This boy...was truly his father's son...wasn't he? He didn't give up...once more, he was close to him, and this time, his feet were the ones doing the talking, as he began using Fate as a kind of training post.

Humoring him, the other simply staved off the blows. He had all the time in the world after all. Every second that passed only would strengthen him...why not spend them with some entertainment? His elbow blocked the latest one, and he struck out with a jab, which Negi ducked under, his own right jab landing in the chest.

The blow had little effect, if any at all…yet that was just the way he liked it. Fate began pressing his attack now, moving more quickly; trying to outperform Negi…but he had the speed of lightning itself on his side, the strength of pure fire.

_"Physical battle is obviously your strong point. Your elemental forms grant you incredible ability, but just how fast can you be? Only as the lightning flows? Then you shall be sorely disappointed..."_

Fate began to move even faster, impossibly fast, pushing past Negi and slamming his fist into the side of his skull, flinging him aside. Negi stopped his flight short with a foot though, and punched Fate in the back with all he could muster, hooking the closest foot with his own. He tripped Fate up, but again, not much damage got by his natural barrier.

The red headed wonder didn't pause to think, he jumped on Fate's back, wrapping his arms around his waist and pushing all of his magical power through him, like Nagi had done with his lightning...that lightning bear hug now becoming a grand elemental scheme of energy...and this close it was safe to say that, yes, it hurt.

Fate shook the boy off gruffly, but he held on tight.

"Oh hell no, I ain't letting you go boyo! Oh no..."  
_"...Swine. Be cooked!"_

Fate's own energy shot out in all directions as he brought his own magic forwards to pump along his skin. He forced it into the body behind him, blasting Negi clear off. he boy skidded when he landed, and he barely managed to stop himself from going over the edge...but his opponent did it for him, rushing up and kicking him clear off into the sky...

Yet, even that wasn't going to get rid of Negi so easily...he could have teleported, but...he wanted to do it the fancy way. Sue him. He gathered his power and shot it downwards into the walls of the ruin below as he passed, forcing the energy to channel along him and push him back up.

"You...won't get rid of me...that easily!"

He hadn't flown far, so the effect was similar to the one he had achieved... oh, so long ago, when he had blasted himself off a building, loosening himself from Chachamaru...flag pole, anyone? He spun in the air, turning his position around and then, instinctively, kicked off the air right into Fate's silver head.

"Surprise, I'm baaaack yah b*st*rd!"

It was Kago...no, it was he, himself. He had just used, instinctually, knowledge he didn't even remember he had. Fate got up a bit slowly, eyeing Negi and thoughtfully rubbing the side of his face, where Negi had left a slight red mark.

_"That..."_

It was as if gravity didn't apply to him, he shot at Negi with a single step, a perfect shundo into his face, his fist almost connecting with Negi's face, but the boy had a surprise for him, another instinctual move, a backwards dash, one quick enough to leave after images.

_"...hurt...hmm?"_

Negi appeared behind him again, but his fist was caught by the other...yet Negi let loose his spell work anyway, a sheer barrage of magical arrows of light, hitting Fate dead in the face, and making him break off, covering his visage.

"Serves you right, who the hell said to grab my spell hand? ...Shit!"

Silver hair, flowing right in front of his face...he was too fast...the spell work was too fast...

_"Cocatrice ocululem Accusative, adveho unto mihi, trado vestri obtutus, levo vultus orbis terrarum skewer meus inimicus, Ortus Phasmatis!"_

Shit, you can launch that thing off your _fist_? B*tch!

He might have had the earth form to held him here, but even that wasn't enough, Fate shattered his barrier this time, leaving him completely open to take the blow full on...right through him. Fate retracted his fist to allow Negi peace in falling to his knees, clutching that area of him. Smiling, he tossed his hand once to rid it of the blood.

_"Ahh, you see Springfield...? What did I tell you? As skilled as you are, you are still far from powerful enough to defeat me...even your father lacks the power...ahh well...you shall now die, like the dog of a child you were born to be...ohh…?"_

Turning around, he was met with the sight of Negi slowly getting up, his magical form still held tight in his grasp as healing power circled him...Fate's smile dropped like a scalding potato from nervous hands. He rushed at Negi again, and jabbed out his fist, but Negi twisted away, grabbing it to push more of his magic into the other again...but Fate swung out his foot and blasted him away.

_"Don't you ever quit, Negi? Or is the word "quit" too big of a concept for your muddled brain? I suppose you did not hear me the first time..."_

"I...heard you. I just choose not to listen to you. You called me Negi by the way, slip of the tongue perhaps?"

_"...A measure of respect for your consistency in being an insane, suicidal fool...nothing more."_

"Ohh, wow… you're _slow_. It took you _this_ long to realize that I'm a genuine kamikaze?"

He smiled before launching at Fate again, and the other had no choice but to meet him halfway there. The shockwave form that hit...well, it blasted any of the remaining debris from the platform, not that there was much left...their fighting had knocked the place clean.

_"You shall die an unsung hero, the scum upon my boots, no banners will be raised in your honor for fighting and failing against me!"_

They broke off, and Negi jumped backwards from Fate, calling out for his magic to serve him again before landing on the ground to rush back in, hands glowing to match the rest of him.

"Action thy duty, reward…not thy concern. Buster Ruin, Balstonrand!"

Around them all, a rumbling began, not from Negi's spell, he knew that...it was from Fate...his power was reaching a climax that he didn't like... and the tower around them wasn't taking to it well...or was it simply more fighting going on? The mist intensified, and for once, Fate grit his teeth.

Now it was his turn to need that rush, the urging want for hurry. He only had a master key...he could still do what he needed too, essentially destroy this world, lay it to waste...but right now, the power intensity was reaching a point that it would very soon become difficult to control...

He brought up a barrier around him to take on the multicolored assault of magical spheres, and Negi's relentless shots from his magical ballista, but the barrier didn't block it all, and he found his clothes became singed...the boy...was drawing magic from his surroundings!

Catalyst be damned! Negi saw his face and gave a sweet smile.

"Ahh shit. The cat's outta the bag, ain't it? You're not the only one who can gain power from this place. Big deal. Grow up and take it like a man...oh, there we go!"

Negi ducked under a swing from Fate and got a face full of his knee. Fate punched him in his exposed back too, hammering him in place for a bit of magical shock therapy...and he didn't stop…

_Among the dust and shattered shards of stone, the air shivered, vibrating before being ripped apart, giving birth to a completely different world, fading from view before the very eyes. From its depths, four figures stepped, one carrying a girl in his arms._

_Rakkan carried the girl to the ship, grim as he set her down. Sure, he had enjoyed his battle with the dragon, but this was one of Negi's student's here, his holy grail. You don't mess with them, they were his responsibility...but for this girl to have such power in her..._

_Still, it wasn't time for all of that. He had come to realize that this generation had some real players in the game when it came to power, and he was beginning to believe that all that scientific bull about power distribution and deteriorating magic was all simply a load of, well, bull._

_Hell, he had a girl who could rip your soul out and crush it, let alone the ability to enslave you completely to her will. There was another one who, with a simple look, could enslave you in a multilayered illusion, one so complete not even his pure will and power could completely get rid of it, and with detail so gripping, you would swear it were a pactio…_

_Negi…well, he was some kind of literal superman, there was no question. He was Nagi with Arika's brains added on as a full upgrade, and then pumped with a bit of steroids to boot. Only thing he was missing was raw power…_

_He shook his head, looking next to him to see the "priest dude" as he had come to call him, standing there. He was gripping the side of the room door's frame, trying to look casual about it…but that hand was shivering slightly, and he looked slightly pale. Yet, as always seems to happen, it was the sick man who asked the healthy if they were alright, and Rakkan chose to ignore his condition out of respect._

"_**You were staring out into space there…are you alright?"  
**_**"I could ask you the same question there, but yeah…I'm fine. Everybody's waitin' for me, yeah?"  
**_**"Yes."  
**_**"Well, we'd better get going then. I told that kid that if he don't leave me some of the action, I'll kick his ass."  
_"…Indeed."_**

_Kago moves out of the way to allow Rakkan through, and looks around the empty room, his eyes finally laying upon Zazie. He takes a breath before turning around, but he manages to allow his voice to fall upon deaf ears._

_"**So many people…need to feel pain. All to save a world. What truly makes a hero? I thought I knew…but now I am not too sure…I have lost my faith, and I realize that no matter what, I can never be more than just a man, a step from the edge of death, one that looms closer with every breath. Is Death… the true hero here?"**_

_Walking away, his hand comes along to slide along the ship wall with him, feeling the smooth metal slip past._

_"…**Who will fight for the weak, who…makes them believe? …Closer with every breath…"**_

_Back outside, the others reunite with Kago, who takes his time exiting the ship, prompting others to tell him to hurry up, or they'll "leave him behind". That was fine with hi however, and he told them. He had this time to reflect, and this time was…the last he would have…_

_As predicted, they rushed ahead of him, climbing the steps two at a time, but he caught up with them eventually…the case was long, and their headway charge only slowed to a crawl to be matched with his calm approach. _

"How fricken long is this thing? Can you imagine walking up this thing only to fight? This ain't some video game where the staircase is to build suspense yah know!"

"_Jess…it's only a few steps…I can see the end anyway…that, and...fire."_

"_**Fire?"**_

_Indeed, fire. Anya and Alma were having an…altercation. One that the others fell smack into._

**"I am not carrying that…that…thing with horns!"****  
**

_Anya held her magic steady nonetheless however, tight ropes of fire binding all five of their opponents to the ground, neatly keeping them complaint, not that they had much of a choice…those who were conscious anyway. Alma had them in an equally tight magical grip, suspending them from the air and paying them little attention at all._

"_Master says we must carry them to the ship…"  
_**"Then Magi-sensei has lost his mind! They are enemies! E-n-e-m…oh forget it, they're just bad guys!"**_  
"…You can't spell…Master would find that…cute."  
_**"W-what? I-I…I can spell it, I just don't want to!"**

_It was at this time that the others came up, just when Anya had loosened her hold on her captives and charged at Alma full bore, bringing out her whip of flame to lash out at the other, yet, without even moving, Anya bounced back, as if she ran headlong into a wall._

"_Anya. We have no time for battle games. Must I enslave you to a land of illusion? Do not question the will of the master…unless you want to feel my wrath…they go. to the. ship."  
_

_A simple clearing of the throat. It wasn't all that loud, but it alerted the two girls to the presence of the rest of their party. Issac was the culprit, but anyone could see that his sister next to him would have burst out sooner or later with ironic laughter. She'd never seen Alma talk so much._

"_Oh. It's you. Could you please inform my associate that these girls must go to the ship, as Master said they would?"_

_Alma, Alma, Alma…don't you ever give up? _

**+-1-+**

_Asuna came back into being with a crash on deck, or should I say on spike. She was thrown back when Vir took and unexpected swerve, and her back arched as it was caught upon one of his razor spines, making her yelp and fight against centrifugal force. Her blade swung out from her thrashing, almost taking off Eva's head._

"_**What the hell-… Control your blade princess! That was my head you almost took off!**__  
__"Nagi!"__**  
**_

_That name always caused trouble, and indeed, this time it caused a literal cacophony as a famous staff flew overhead. They had caught up with the famed hero in her mental absence, and the man was on the move, Arika barely holding on to him. He looked mad as hell, and was headed straight for the sphere of magic, swerving upwards on gilded wings. _

_**"The hell is he doing? The statues are that way! Friggin idiot, his own damn son told him to stay out of it!"  
**__"He wants to stop him, not help him!"_

_Stop him? Why the frick would he still want to stop him? Didn't he get it through his thick skull already? You have to destroy the world to save it this time you dolt! Don't go saving lives all half assed like that!_

"_**Baka! Always the small detail guy! Look at the big picture for once! Vir, if your worth anything in that air filled skull of yours, you'd move! Catch up to Nagi!"**_

_Oh, Vir had plenty in that skull of his…plenty. He surged forwards, smelling the tension upon the air…and the anger, the betrayal. The man felt betrayed by his own family. He felt that they did not understand, did not see the hurt they were causing, the pain that would be wrought…_

_He only saw people dying; he did not see that they would be reborn. Only the pain A man who could only take the world a step at a time, a man who saw the immediate task ahead, not the ones that followed. Any Hellas would be reborn; no human would notice a difference…the only one who would suffer in truth…_

…_was his son._

_Perhaps that was what he wanted to stop. He wanted to save his son. Maybe he felt that he should be the hero this time, this one last time. Self sacrifice? Fool. This time for fame was up. His time for being the hero was done. This story…this chapter in life wasn't for him to steal. He wasn't equipped for the job._

_Nagi however, whatever his motives, wasn't going to give up without a fight. Vir was gaining, and Eva was able to see that, as tight as Arika was holding on…she wasn't conscious. Asuna noticed that fact too, and blood took over sense as she yelled to the wind._

"The b*st*rd knocked her out! She lost control of him and he knocked her out! Must have been mental shock…arrgh! Only I'M allowed to knock her out you d*ck! Can't this thing go faster!"

_Oh sure, Vir could go faster alright…not that his other passengers, the ones still clinging to sanity like they now clung for dear life, particularly enjoyed his further increase of speed upon Asuna's bidding, but then again, Asuna and Eva were super-human, what did they care about a little wind…?_

_Nagi was too far ahead. Not even at their incredible speed, they couldn't stop him from raising a hand to call out a spell. Thousand thunder bolts might have done fine…but Nagi had been studying after all…and reading a few things he should not have…like Negi's famed journal…_

_Bastard still owed him its weight in blood, that thing did…but it taught him one important thing, one spell Negi dared not touch…well, actually, a whole list of them, but Nagi only saw one in his eyes. One spell_

_"Fulmination Fusillade" is what Negi called it, but he had penned in a simpler name, Blitzkrieg's Fury. It was something called an "Alpha Class, Primal Destruction.", spell. Apparently, it was more powerful than the end of the world classes…more powerful than the Thousand Thunder bolts…_

_That was all he needed to know. He didn't care about the rest; just give him the power he needed. He rose his hand and recited from memory…you could never forget a spell like this…_

"εγώ τιμολόγιο O σωστός του διαγράφω αστραπή, Θεόs του παράδεισοs, μεγάλος εμένα δικό σου τελικά μπορεί, υπηρετώ εμένα κάτω φώκια, φέρνω καταιγίδα σε τέλοs όλος καταιγίδα! αστραπή θυμός, όχι τελείωμα καταστροφή, τελικά καταστροφή!"  
_I invoke the rights of striking lightning, god of the heavens, grant me your ultimate might, serve me under the seal, bring the storm to end all storms! Thor's Wrath to call, unending destruction, Fulmination Fusillade!_

_Nagi felt his power leave him, incredibly, his grand power, his always bolstering strength, had suddenly taken flight from him, and he still felt his energy drain more. He felt his staff shiver underneath him, and eyes wide, he felt the power from it disappear._

_The world swam, as if he were drunk. Time seemed to stop for him, heart beating slower and slower…the pull on his body was incredible, the air smelled of sweat and emptiness…the ultimate power…was this the price to be paid...?_

_Around him, he felt the air compress, the sheer vibration from it shocking him still, stopping his forwards charge dead. Half way between life and limbo, that's what he felt like as he struggled to even hear…it seemed like an eternity, but then, quite suddenly…_

_He was let loose._

_With a crash, the sound came rushing back, accompanied by lances of thunder, the clouds gathering, incredibly, impossibly fast…Nagi felt the drainage exhaust his body, killing his reserves in one fell swoop as his staff arrowed down, no longer under his control, but in the snatches of gravity…_

_What…the hell was that…I'm…powerless..? Drained…dead? Nothing even happened-_

_Above him, a thunder clap shook the heavens; the clouds themselves seemed to give way, parting for the forking thunder, bolts larger than life itself piercing stone statues, animated beasts, anything that got in its way, touching upon the mass of magic around the ruins, the empire estate…and shattering it with its pure force._

_One hundred, one thousand…Nagi lost count as one lance broke through near him, allowing him to fall into the rapidly closing hole, a dragon not too far behind…so sudden…he closed his eyes, they pained him so much…the light stabbed them._

_Weak…so everyone is weak in the end…the boy was right…no one should even touch this spell…_

_Arika's hands slipped from him, and he lunged forwards, grabbing his staff with one hand as he fell. Even he felt the tug of the deep, dark sleep, pulling upon his mind. He wrapped an arm around his personal queen…_

_Only then did he let the dreamless sleep overtake him, falling, an angel from the sky, lightning chasing after him…_

"_Oh…my…god…did you-"  
_"I saw Shiori, I saw…Evangeline-san, what kind of spell was that…?"_  
__**"You idiots think I have the answer to everything? I'm as surprised as you are at the man's stupidity! He's falling like a dead fly after that thing! Shit! Lightning, duck!"**_

_It was true. Around them…the lightning lanced from the clouds, stirring storms, sounding off earsplitting thunder, a promise of rain that wouldn't be fulfilled. The storm was awesome, and anyone looking at it directly would clearly go blind…it was __**everywhere**__ around them._

_It seemed to increase with intensity over time too, creating a proper tycoon of sorts, a monopoly on lightning that most certainly would drain the resource for a few good __**years**__. _

_They shot through the opening created by Nagi, seeking purchase in the mist as the bruise, the veritable cut along the surface, was healed behind them…they didn't fall quite as uncontrolled as Nagi did, but instead rushed ahead, trying to find a balance, fall faster than the rock, the feather must.  
_

_Vir was gaining, and gaining…falling from the sky until his claws shot out of their own master's will, grabbing unto Nagi as he fell, and grasping his staff tight with Arika in hold. He closed his talons around them all, but continued to fall._

_"Pull up…pull it up! Eva!"__  
__**"What does it look like I'm trying to do! It's too…thick! We're going down too fast! Brace yourselves!"**_

_The air was heavy here…too heavy. His momentum was too great too…he began to fall in earnest, the falling angel becoming a flaming spear, a meteorite headed straight for the impending doom, the tower of shredded dreams, all the while, down below, the fight down below raged on…_

**+-2-+**

The ringing in his ears, Negi felt his strength leave him in that never ending pressure, that eternal shock…but his magic flowed around him, and using a herculean effort, he tried to break away…but that was not what stopped Fate.

A yell and one powerful blast from a magical arrow, knocking him in the side. Above him, holy lances shot down as a man yelled his battle cry, running up to Fate, holding his blade high. Another shot level with him, and then past, his own blade spinning, flashing in the dying sun.

Rakkan, Issac…behind them, Jasnin and Kago. Fate smiled, letting Negi loose, the boy fell to the ground, coughing. He shook his head. The fools. Did they honestly think they had a chance? A false being and a magic-less foe…he held out his hand, and blasted them back just as they reached him, sending them tumbling back.

Now was_ his_ time. Finally, Fate brought his power forth, allowing his hair to be caught in its current, lightly flowing along with his burning eyes. Jasnin and Kago both tried to pool their powers, but while Jasnin's hit nothing but air, Kago's didn't come out at all.

_**My time…no…it can't possibly be done!**_

Fate smiled at the attempt, and clenched his hand, raising both of them from the ground and sending them crashing into the staircase they had come from…the structure shattered upon the impact of their bodies, blocking the way back down…

Magic swirling around him, he laughed at the sight, magic coming to him quickly in his palm. A sound from the sky gave him no pause, not even as a familiar dragon barreled towards them. He shot off his bullet of energy at Issac, who was approaching his sister, oblivious…but Kago saw. The sound, it burned him, even encompassed his eyes.

…_**What makes a hero? I thought I knew...I am weak, in pain…one fights to live another day…but what happens if they know they have no more? A hero…would they fight anyway? What is right? Whose side…do you fight for the right, for the weak…I can't use magic…my time is done…**_

Yet, his eyes burned as he snapped to the sphere coming on, unstoppable, and Issac, unaware…he could not speak…but he could still act…he stood, as quickly as possible, a kind of sideways lurch of the rubble underneath, and he ran as he never had before, dust flying from him.

…_**Those who come from dust must eventually be returned to it. Grandfather…I shamed you, wrongfully, for so many years…**_

He skid, stopping dead center, in the path of that shot, just as Issac turned around, his eyes wide as he watched the man look back, arms spread wide. He too found himself silent, even as he heard a mouth yell the other's name…

Yet he was smiling.

_**Life…does not flash before your eyes. Only hope, peace. I have found the answer…finally. I'll see you soon…Kagashi.**_

The blast engulfed him full on, taking him and trying to move forwards, but the body refused to fly. It stuck, and so there was no choice but to go through and be used up. Fate rose an eyebrow to that one. So…there was another self sacrificing fool amongst this hornet's nest…but an angry roar from the magic-less one prompted him to snap to him…

He had already crossed half the land! Impressive! Rakkan approached from another angle too, brilliant, but not enough! He sent them all flying backwards, and spared Jasnin only a token glance as her magic bounced off his barrier; harmless…he turned around disdainfully…

…and felt a spear slide home into his gut, a burning face inches from his.

"Cut him apart, my lance of light! Explode into a brilliant flash; I combine thee, Nova Contego, Igneus Abitus! Brilliant Nova Lance, Effrego!"

His magical lance extended out, exploding in a brilliant, blazing display, but as a crash sounded along the whole platform, the form of a dragon crashing onto the stage, Fate had had enough, his hand flat on Negi's body and a single, deadly, stone spear broke apart the boy's chest, sending him flying towards his party.

He landed hard, the elemental form fading from him and leaving his body, broken and bleeding, on the ruined stone. From his mouth and seeping past the stone, more red stained his torn and singed clothes…the shirt was in shreds, and half the legs on the pants were gone, as if he now had shorts…residual magic sparked along the pool of his own fluid he leaked…

He did not get up. Fate breathed heavily, looking at the others with a hungry look in his eyes, the magic swirling madly about him now...it almost looked like he was on drugs…and he was nearing his crash time, the highest of highs…laughter rang from his mouth as Shiori and the others slid down to meet Fate in a line.

_"Heh, oh he he…you are funny. Your greatest asset is dead! Look upon him, see his body! See the blood flow crimson, from him…the dog now dies a dog's death! His heart is broken, his body nearly in two…and now you want to join him? Fine…meet your match!_

Nagi slowly awoke, feeling the magic about him practically bang on his body for admittance…in a place like this…a mage was almost never out of power…an explosion on the stair case caused all eyes to shift there, and the building underneath them groaned…Fate's laughter prompted them to turn back to him.

Rakkan was…shaking. All over, he was shaking as Fate rose his pactio cards, calling his partners to him in a haze of magic, replenishing the fallen bodies as only one with his power could. Rakkan roared as Zazie herself appeared, and just as Nagi was about to speak…

The man got that look in his eyes…a look that made Nagi shut up. Arika was by her son, screaming at him her husband, to help…to _do something_…and for once…he was lost. He was no…healer. None of them really were. Negi… Negi was the closest thing they had, ironically.

_"Don't fight me Rakkan. I am your god, your creator and destroyer. Your alpha is I. Rise and serve me. Zazie! Don't disappoint me this time…my partners...to my side! As for you Shiori…"_

He had risen four pactios, and now he rose one more. Nagi had never seen it happen before…he thought it wasn't possible…but the mage rose the card to his lips, and kissed it, allowing all eyes to see as he took it down, and quite firmly… ripped it in half.

_"I break the contract thus for one as disgusting as you, feel my wrath… Sim Mae Pars, Nullus Dissolvant, Effrego!"_

It was perhaps the cruelest thing to do to a person. Breaking a pactio was like breaking one's heart. The girl stumbled, a sudden icy cold flash stabbing through her chest. The sheer accuracy, the cold hearted strike, had rendered her completely immobile.

Like when a partner dies. That same coldness plagued her, made her fall to her knees. The others pushed forwards, Nagi eyeing Rakkan as Arika slowly, shakily, stood. She couldn't feel it…his heart had been pierced, broken, just like hers…for once, Nagi was more composed than she.

Hell hath no fury…

"You motherless dog…you son of a true b*tch…that was my son…my_ son_ you uncaring f*ck!"

Alma crawled close, putting her hand upon his forehead. She was the only one who sat next to him now, dragging Anya next to her, who sat, stunned at the huge spear that had impaled the boy. Death…was a funny thing.

"_Still warm…"  
_**"Alma…he's…"_  
_**_"Just asleep."  
_**"Huh?"**

"_Master is sleeping. Just sleeping…aren't you master?"_

Was she…nuts? Anya had heard of denial…heck, she so badly wanted to believe the girl, to say he was sleeping…but he wasn't moving…he wasn't breathing, his heart _wasn't beating_. You don't call that _sleeping_. You called that _dead_. Alma's hands came out to brace along the boy's ruined body.

"_Come on, wake up."_

Behind Anya, the din increased as the fighting came back into focus. Nagi ducked under Rakkan's swing, the normally vocal, carefree fighter becoming a silent sentry as he leapt up, a large sword forming in his hand. Oh no…Nagi knew that thing…he jumped to the side just as the famous San kan ken ripped through the ground underneath them like butter...

Jasnin found herself in a close quarter battle with Zazie again as Issac tried to fend off two of Fate's partners. Eva and Yue found themselves each trying against another of them, and Shiori had recovered enough to help Eva…but Arika…she and Asuna both rushed in at the main character here, and Fate only smirked as he jerked his hand, making Asuna gag and fall.

Not her sister too!

_"Ahh, so even the master can be caught off guard. Did you forget in your anger…? You are half Hellas…therefore, you do not exist. You are under my control too…now my dog…bark."_

Asuna grit her teeth. Damn him! He was too powerful! Arika was sent flying back on her behind when she tried to continue her charge…she ended up behind a shivering Asuna…

"_Bark my dog, bark!"__  
_**"Go to hell!"**  
_"Not before you, my dear plaything…now…do as you are told…_

She felt him finally tug upon her, and her control slipped from her numbed fingers. She pivoted slowly on the spot, her blade glinting in the light. Arika's heart fell at the sight.

**"Sister…let's play…"**

_Shit, not her too!_

Arika ducked under a reckless swing, her hands shooting forwards to blast Asuna in the middle with magic, knocking her over, but the girl landed on her feet and jumped back at her, making Arika jump away into a roll to avoid the blade this time.

She only came back up in time to dodge and strike out with her magic again. This…was pointless! That b*st*rd had killed her son…and now he was using her own sister against her! She had to…get at him!

"Asuna…snap out of it!"  
**"…You don't want to play? Come on…don't be a spoil~sport!"**

Barely ducking under another swing, she planted her foot in Asuna's middle, making her double over and gag, but the royal only smiled and stabbed out with her blade, taking a lock of Arika's hair as she jerked away.

**"Careful sister, I almost got you there!"**

Meanwhile, Issac's blade became a literal disc of light as he spun it to deflect the oncoming assault of fire and sound. That violin was annoying…or was it a viola? What did he care? It was spouting sound waves that destroyed stuff; he didn't have time to wonder the finer points of its instrumental identity!

It seemed that Fate was pumping a lot of power into the girls too, his current level affecting their speed and ability, putting the boy through his paces. He ducked under what he assumed was a flaming kick and slammed his blade into the ground so he could jump over the jarring waves of sound the other girl put forth. He closed in and swung the flat of his blade out, catching her in the face.

She went down, but the other pounced on his back, raking him with claws. Those things burned like fire, but he shook her off, grimacing as his blade flashed out again to knock her out too. Straight to the temple, these girls just didn't learn.

He stood up just in time to receive a face full of Shiori, who had been sent his way by one of her former friends and pactio allies. She quickly got off him, murmuring an apology, but Issac didn't answer except to blink, shaking the cobwebs from his head. Did he just see… what he thought he had…?

Better not to think about that, there's no time after all. He nodded to the other before rushing in to help his sister as Shiori made her way back to Eva, who was having difficulty holding her own against her part of the harem.

Nagi however, was where the action was.

"Κενότητος ἀστράπσατω δὲ τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος! Sgitta Magica, Undecim Spiritus Fulgurans!"

Rearing back, he swung his axe, but Rakkan shot under it, pulling back his fist and throwing a punch, which Negi ducked under, grabbing the massive arm. He allowed his magic to flow, pumping the other full of lightning like had had done to Negi in a hug, but Rakkan was tougher than that, and shook him off like a fly.

Nagi skidded back on the ground, but he jumped right back at Rakkan, no way was he letting this old guy get the best of him! He punched Rakkan in the chest with piercing lightning, throwing him on his back so he could jump him, punching everywhere he could reach with his fists.

Rakkan slugged him hard in the face, making his neck crack as he was pushed off. Holy hell, that hurt! Nagi practically growled as he lunged back at the other, pounding him with a flurry of furious kicks to the midsection, which Rakkan stopped short when he managed to grab his foot, lifting him from the ground, but Nagi just smiled.

_Trias Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans!_

"Rakkan you knuckle head, I always wanted to give you a sandwich!"

Nagi shot out his fist right into Rakkan's nose, his magic exploding out into the other's face and throwing him away to skid…he kept his footing however, and jumped back at Nagi, yet he had already called up his lightning axe, and was wielding it like a bat!

"Why so quiet man? I did something wrong? Let's play some ball then!"

He swung his axe out, charged with as much lightning as he dared, and beaned Rakkan square in the chest, knocking him away to crash into Zazie, giving Jasnin just the break she needed to snatch her and pound them both into the ground…was that gravity magic? Nice!

Looking around for Arika, he almost literally felt some sweat accumulate along the back of his head when he saw Asuna swing, almost taking off his wife's head. Okay, so Rakkan wasn't the only one who had gone whacky then…shit…!

**+-3-+**

Fate smiled as he watched Nagi rush to the aid of his wife, neglecting to see Rakkan groggily get back up to his feet and zero in on him. He was…being ignored. The fools. You don't _ignore _him. He was the boss.

Ahh well. He looked to Alma, Anya and Negi. Hmm. Negi was the only one who had been worth his salt here, and now he was gone…cold by now maybe, but what was that girl doing with her hands glowing on his chest, hmm?

Was she actually hoping to heal him? Ha! His hand reached out and grabbed his key, spiraling with the magic needed to destroy a world. He'd put them in their place…he had the power and the time for it after all…as he slowly approached, he picked up on their voices.

**"Alma…stop! He's dead! He's…gone…"**_**  
**__"Not dead Anya, how many times do I have to say? Not dead, just asleep…I…I…I know I can do this! I just need…more time…come on master, wake up!"_

Cute…cute beyond words…ahh too bad, he'd finish them quick, no pain. He gathered his magic as the two continued to argue, and he noticed the other girl redouble her efforts, the magic glowing in her eyes now, encompassing her body…she shivered with the effort…the fool would kill herself.

No one could revive the dead.

"_Master is just asleep! I know it! One as he had a job to do, and he cannot die until then! He is asleep I tell you…ASLEEP!"  
_

Anya finally managed to pull her away, shaking her roughly, making her head loll back and forth like a dolls, she made no sound, didn't even blink as she was handled this way...

**"Snap out of it! He's gone! He's…ahh!"**

Alma broke free from Anya's frozen grip, and turned to meet the gaze of Fate, cooly, calmly. Her hands closed back down upon Negi's form, her eyes burning now brighter than ever, her hair flying upwards in the magical wind.

"_Halt."_

_"I…hope you do not speak to me."__  
__"But I do. Halt, demon. I am a witch, born of the old days, the old power is mine to control. Do not test my strength."__**  
**__"Ahh, now you reveal yourself to be powerful, do you? You claim I should not test you. Ahh, but I have taken another step forth, see me take another…"_  
_"I SAID HALT!"_

Her magic was wild by now, and one could almost see…a shadow of herself. Her dark hair flowing, the red eyes burning, the mirror image to herself seemed to be straining for release. Her power reached a climax as Fate extended his hand on her forehead…

Anya found herself powerless to move. Fate had bound her, just as he now sealed Alma's fate. The girl locked eyes with him, defiant to the end.

"_Master…is not…DEAD!"_

Her magic reached out and exploded outwards unto Negi, and one could almost see her mirror self fly free. Fate's blast of power lifted both bodies from the ground and slammed them into the remaining rubble of the staircase…he laughed as he watched the girl flop over Negi, dead like.

The spear had been dislodged from him in the flight, and now, turning his back, Fate watched it fall to the ground and shatter next to a frozen Anya. So…cute. It was a shame he had to kill her. He charged up his hand for another blast, placing it on her head now…but a voice stopped him.

"_Master…is not…dead…"_

He spun around quickly. Was this even possible? The girl…was still sitting there, wiping blood from her mouth…but…his eyes were wide. She was changing, in front of his eyes. Her hair was lightening, from the root outwards, turning a brilliant dirty blonde, almost brown, eyes…changing from blood red to clear pools of deep water blue…the skin darkening slightly…

He was staring at Alma the girl, not Alma the illusionist…Alma…the witch. Her power over herself had been…broken. Her power to bring the dead back to life…that was what had been keeping her alive, all these years, preventing her from aging, wrapping a cocoon around her to protect her from harm.

Negi had taken the first step in breaking that shield, and, little by little, it had cracked…now, she was free…for one last blast, for her power was within him now…for one last time...her hand caressed a cold cheek.

"_Master…is just sleeping...aren't you? Show him now, wake up...wake up, Negi Springfield!"_

Fate wasn't focused on Negi, even as his wounds slowly healed; he was focused on the stubborn, defiant girl. His magic in his hand swung forth, growing in intensity until it became a literal mini sun. He meant to get rid of them all as he tossed Anya forth into the path of his impending blaze.

_"I have had enough of this defiance! My word is final! I say unto you in the ultimate power, wipe from my sight, the face of this planet…erase!"_

_Ugh. Goddamn. My head hurt's like hell…_

His power blazed in front of him, exploding unto them all, destroying everything…or so he thought, so it would have…but a voice…a shaky, hoarse…a cracking voice, yelled it's defiance once more…a voice he thought he had silenced.

"Adeat, b*tch! Erase right back at you; eradicate this filth from my sight!"

Solius Corpus.

The magic faded, and Negi…Negi! By gods, it was the man himself! He smiled. His own hand brushed his cheek as he looked back…Alma was out cold, fallen back into the rubble. He'd have to thank her one day…but... his key spun in his hands, and he struck at Fate, key meeting key, sparks flying into his eyes.

The time for thank you's was not yet here.

"My face is as cold as the rockies, holy hell! Fate, how yah been dude! Long time no see! Ha ha! Anya, look after Alma, carry her down to the ship if you can! I got this one!"

Anya though, barely moved. She blinked. Once, twice…three times…nope, she wasn't movin', not any time soon anyway…he had just…died…and now he was walking around and fighting again…this broke all laws of reality she knew, and shattered her world.

Would she still be alive if she jumped off a building? She wasn't so sure of the answer anymore, if people pulled stunts like Negi just had…could Kago come back too? No…she was getting ahead of herself…she looked to Alma in amazement as the girl, now looking all a little girl should, slept on.

**"Just asleep, huh…" **

**+-4-+**

"Show a little respect will yah? I only got one head yah know!"

Negi ducked under Fate's key, which had grown a long appendage to serve as a blade. He met it with Altra, his pactio item stabbing at Fate in its sword form, something that Fate met head on with a swat of his hand. He kicked Negi in the middle to break away, but Negi twisted and locked the foot in the crook of his arm, and went for the neck with his pactio.

Fate had to use a shundo to get away, but even as he spun to face Negi again, Negi was already tackling him to the ground with magical arrows oozing from his body. He had lost his elemental form in his…well; one can't really call it death now, can they?

The boy shot in close to him, his hands pooled with magic still burning away in his body. He ducked under Fate's thrust with his key and stabbed his own blades, making Fate shundo away again. He was fast...and getting faster all the time.

Yet, there was a limit to his strength...there had to be. One bound by this world could only go as far as physics would allow...but Negi...he could go further...but not yet. It wasn't time yet… He ducked under a kick and grabbed his foot, pulling the other to him and decking him in the face with a good ol' punch.

He got a blast of magical power in the gut for it though, but it was _so_ worth it to see Fate's head snap back, some precious blood spurting from him, the fury dancing in his eyes. Fate was just...such a beautiful person to bait after all.

"Ahh, pretty boys mad, I wrecked his face! Oooh…! What's this? Rakkan old buddy…! Whoa, easy there you big bear, you'll break me!"

Fate had brought his pactio partners back into the fray, and now he directed Asuna and Rakkan to pounce upon Negi, doting Zazie behind them. This gave Arika, who was seething still, a chance at charging in at Fate, but before she could even try, Nagi ran past, grabbing her.

He was headed for Fate too. Needless to say, they hadn't managed to see Negi's brilliant reappearance yet, they had been...busy. Who wouldn't have been? The place was in chaos, bodies literally flying everywhere at any given point. They thought he had sent those three to take care of someone else…

Who had time to watch a big ball of destructive energy get dissolved, when it would have otherwise mutilated them, in _this_ mess? Jasnin almost took off her brother's head when she swung for her opponent and she deftly ducked, and Issac returned the favor by occupying the space she had only just left with his blade, taking with him a token of a fire spirit's hair.

Eva was flying… not by her own power though, mind you. She grabbed unto Shiori's hair of all things as she was tossed away, jerking the girl back and inadvertently saving her from the blunt end of a dangerous claw...

Going back, Negi roared in literal pain as Asuna's blade met its mark on his skin, but the boy smiled as he shot out his hands, putting them on both his opponent's heads and jumping over them, pulling them together into a near embrace...invading their minds. Fate had been smiling at Negi's pain before, but his smile dropped now...

"Pain, pain baby! Pain is not evil, until it conquers you!"

His will lanced out and struck Fate hard, sending him reeling as his own skill in the art Fate was employing clenched tight upon the strings Fate held upon his captives...he literally invaded their minds, took their memories for his own and used them to break them free...just as his mother and father arrived on the scene to get blown away.

Rakkan and Asuna both had turned around, ready to strike his parents, but Negi grabbed them too quickly, broke them too quickly, his control literally jerking them backwards from his parent's attacks as he leapt over them, grinning.

_"...You always make an entrance, Negi-kun, don't you? Always with something clever to say..."_  
"Kun now? Eww, get away, get awaaay! Next you'll be nuzzling my arm! Besides, that one I actually stole from a shirt. I can't be brilliant all the time, you know!"

Ha ha, the faces his parents managed to spin were priceless as he axed Fate in the face; right in front of their eyes.

Did they just saw what they thought they had? Negi had just been...dead. On the floor, a spear through his heart, his body shocked and ravaged beyond repair…so tell me how he was still standing now? Tell them how he looked beat up as hell, but undeniably whole? What was he, some kind of regenerative freak? A monster like they said he was…?

What the hell had they missed? Was it an illusion? Or had Negi finally did the impossible and stepped onto the platform with them, those who were called unconquerable, those who were...

Legends. Heroes...The Martyrs.

Only those kinds of people seemed to irrationally come back, again and again, even when they should have long been dead, at least, that was how it worked in stories, fabricated tales...it was times like these that parents would look at each other and wonder…what the hell did we make?

Asuna and Rakkan both collapsed against each other, and if it were not for the current situation, Negi would have allowed mirth to flow from him at the sight. Rakkan looked like he could be naughty even when he was unconscious… They were drained…it was his turn now. He charged at Fate once more, passing his folks with a warning glare and a feinted kick to his father's gut.

This was his battle, and they should stay put. Not that the man got the message, but Arika grabbed his arm. No. Nagi looked back at her questioningly, but her face said it all…there were some things that, no matter what, a boy had to do himself. Nagi could only watch as the magic continued to grow around them all…it was reaching a climax by now…

Negi hooked his foot behind Fate's own and punched at Fate, his blades still in his hands. Fate jumped over his attack, but Negi twisted his wrists, slashing his blades up and stabbing at Fate's shoe as he passed, ripping the soles out.

Landing awkwardly, the silver haired foe fixed Negi with a glare. His feet were almost bare on the ground, save for a sliver of rubber remaining.

_"Those…are more expensive than everything you have in your entire wardrobe... I will extract their price in blood from you…"_

Negi just laughed as Fate lunged at him though, eyes bright as his key staved off the other's slash. He absolutely loved this. His opponent was strong and yet the perfect mix of power crazed insanity and cold fury. Delectable to play with, and Negi had long forgotten the joys of playing!

"Ohh! Maybe I should rip those trousers from you to, see your tidyies laced with gold! Oopsie, I made him mad!"

To hell with common respect, Negi was having too much fun….he ducked under a swipe from a literal claw Fate sent his way and twisted from his key, dancing about like a ballet on stage as he twirled his weapons in time with the beat, magic dancing along him, bolstering him.

Fate launched at him again, and this time Negi grew serious in an instant, meeting him on firm grounds, both of their weapons, key against sword, shivering with the effort both of them used to keep them locked. Negi stabbed out with his other blade, forcing the other to break off.

Fate didn't break; he shifted, and jumped up in the air, alternating feet as he tried to get at Negi's face. Grinning, Negi held him off for a few seconds before he braced and jumped up, butting heads with Fate's middle, knocking him to the ground on his back roughly.

While Fate flipped back up, Negi landed, laughing, pissing Fate off even more.

"Kid, you gotta teach me that move, I ain't never seen it anywhere but in old martial arts movies…oh yeah…it goes like this!"

They both jumped in the air at once, but Negi aimed and kicked Fate in the face, once, twice…three times! His grappled Fate and tossed him down, landing on him hard with a hard foot to the back. He jumped off just as Fate shot up, failing to grab his ankle.

"Payback, fly boy! That was a postcard from my good man Kago! Wanna say hi again?"

Fate shundoed in close to Negi, his key right in place to run him through, but the boy shot backwards as if riding on air, leaving after images as he jumped up and axe kicked Fate in the neck this time, making him cough and stumble back.

"I told you he wanted to say hi again! You didn't listen!"  
_"This…enough."__  
_"I can't quite hear you…"  
_"I SAID… ENOUGH!"_

Perhaps it was just the power overtaking his mind, but Fate was in crazy mode again, dashing at the boy, punching, stabbing and kicking anywhere he could, going faster and faster all the time. He seemed to have forgotten everything else, focusing only on him, damaging him…

Feeling his body crunch underneath his fists became his sole desire. He hit Negi in the gut and the boy pulled in, allowing Fate to slash at his face. He missed, but caught Negi's chin with a sharp knee and hooked his foot before the boy could use distance to recover.

He punched the open midsection harshly, Negi using his key and magic whenever he could, but he was finding it difficult to keep up when caught in such an onslaught, Negi felt his nose impact with one hard jab, making his blood run free.

Man to man, there was no overdoing it. Fate continued impounding on his nose until he felt he had mutilated the facial feature tossing Negi away. The boy still hand-sprung off the ground however, landing neatly and pooling healing magic to stop the bleeding, still smiling, a bloody face making him look garish.

_"You…never do know when to quit, Negi…do you? Die already you parasite!"_  
"Hmmm…nope! I haven't had a fight like this since I went all out on Gumby girl in Kyoto for hours on end! I'd forgotten how fun this could be!"  
_"…You are literally insane. I am fighting an insane eyesore who knows not the meaning of laying down to die!"_

Negi shook his head and just jumped back in, pooling for his magic…but it didn't come. He was so surprised, he barely managed to duck a slash from Fate's key. He looked about himself. Ruined land, people, everywhere, beaten, or struggling to revive. Tired, defeated…among them, only three figures were his audience.

His mother, father, and Anya. He felt a punch connect with his face and he was sent flying. He landed hard on his hand and knees. His left was still clutching his key, but he put away Altra thoughtfully, staring at Fate.

He had never been in such a magically exhaustive battle. Now his magic wouldn't come to him anymore…yet he knew it was there. He paled slightly, a fact that Fate noticed, a smile pulling along his lips.

_"You are magically overdrawn, Negi Springfield. It's like having high blood pressure for years. Your magical passage ways are stiff, unresponsive. You have blood, but the heart refuses to beat. Give up now. Maybe you'll live to fight another day…you do entertain me after all…"_

B*st*rd. What was that dude's name again? Anything that can go wrong, will? Who said it again? He had forgotten, but damn him anyway. He tried again, making Fate be the one to laugh at his face, walking closer, kicking him to fall on his knees.

_"You really don't know…when to quit. A mage…a warrior…should know their limits. They should know when to retreat, Springfield."_

Again, Nagi took a step forwards, but Arika still held his arm tight. He looked at her as if she were mad. He was out of power now, he had no chance alone…why the hell would she still stop him? Yet, she was looking at Negi's eyes, which were still dancing.

One last time. The finale is here. Clutching his key, he stood up slowly, defiantly, and out of pure respect, Fate stepped back.

"A warrior should know when he had reached his limits…yes. Yet, this is not my best, this is not the end. I shall recognize my best, my limit…when I **see** it. Now…_shut up and dance_."

**+-5-+**

Negi skidded back when Fate punched him dead center, almost bowling over Nagi, stopping inches short. He charged back at Fate and was sent skidding again, although not quite so far this time. Each time he was sent skidding, he was sent back a smaller and smaller distance, becoming a kind of inwards spiral.

Soon, Fate wasn't able to send him flying anymore, but was once more throwing punches and kicking with the same integrity as he…and he was even slowly beginning to push his speed to the limits. It was impossible, and Fate could only widen his eyes as a punch nearly caught him off guard.

Breaking off, he stared at Negi. Magic less, charred, bloody and tired Negi. It was true, he was damaged too…but Negi was far worse off…but how…how could a simply human overcome his speed? He was the key holder, he had the power to control this worlds very laws!

_"You…still match me."_

"Ding dong! Anybody home? I thought that was obvious, dingbat!"  
_"…You are without magic to aid you."__  
_"Doi."  
_"Yet you still match-"_  
"Raak! Polly wanna cracker, Polly wanna cracker! You're a parrot Fate. Stop saying the same thing over and over dude, it's annoying."

He jabbed the other in the jaw, snapping his head back and pummeling him in the chest with furious kicks. Fate swung out with his key, but Negi was the one slapping weapons away now, and he elbowed Fate in the neck, making him gag, falling back.

_"This…this is preposterous! You have nothing, nothing! What kind of foolishness is this-mpfh!"_

Eyes burning, he glared at Negi's hand, which was slapped over his mouth. He grabbed Fate's fist too when it swung out, and redirected the momentum on Fate, teasing him, chanting;

"Stop hitting yourself Fate! Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting…oooh!"

Fate pushed him off disdainfully, snarling at him purely, his anger making him pounce. Yet Negi still held off the formidable foe, ducking and blocking hits with his pactio item against the other. Fate swung out his foot to trip Negi up and caught him with a stiff fist, but the boy rolled with it…

His very skin had become rock hard! He did not bleed! This was insane! Fate broke off as he watched Negi spin back up, slowly, _too slowly_, coming back to the ground after his leap. Eyes wide, he took a step back…he was defying gravity…without magic. Negi smiled.

'This world is an _illusion_ Fate. You know this. So why can't you break the rules? In a real world…this isn't possible. Yet…in here…_anything_ is possible…remember? I told you Fate. I will recognize my best when I see it…well guess what…?"

Negi practically appeared next to him, his foot already in the other's gut sending him tumbling back. It can't have been a teleport, not without magic! The boy wiped some dirt from his mouth as he watched Fate get up.

"…this ain't it."

He grabbed Fate now, trapping both of his arms behind his back and holding them steady as he drew his pactio close, glowing. The other broke off, but Negi kept close, swinging his weapon out.

"Tell me where the Grand Master key is you sick fool!"  
_"I…I know no such thing!"_

Fate landed a hit right in Negi's gut, making him double over so Fate could send his elbow and knee to pincer him again, putting all of his effort into crushing the boy with his magical power…but the boy tapped him on the back, his blade on Fate's throat…teleportation?

No.

"Yes you do. It's locked in that head of yours. Give it to me, the knowledge, before I _take _it from you!"

Fate broke free, elbowing Negi in the ribs and turning around to blast him in the face, but the boy ducked, drawing in close to stab out with his blade, his hand coming to slap on the other's forehead. Fate tried to break away again, but Negi attack his mind this time…his pactio blade slid in to the gut as Negi dove deep into the mind.

_"Gah! This, this…wha…no!"_

Negi ignored his cliché sputtering as he drove deeper into the mind he had come to fight so hard against. Memories, lost loves, thoughts of battle, excitement, the twisting of his nature from his very power, all of it was laid to bear, and…even the secrets the man himself could not see.

Grim realization hit Negi as he broke through these, unleashing hell upon the mind he held captive, shattering its visage whole. He had been right. He had seen…right…through to him. Fate was nothing but a _puppet _goddamnit! The reason he had been revived so many times, stronger and stronger….the reason he had become more human like each time…

He didn't know where the key was...he _was_ the key! A soul, like Asuna's, wrapped with the power of the key, so deep that removing it would kill him, shrouded in spells of protection, spells that would break off…one by one, each time he was defeated.

More human each time as more of the soul ran free, but more power, more memories, all meant to torture him into insanity, until he would be nothing but an instrument…and instrument for destruction. He shattered the spells whole with his invasion, and now, his own key formed in his hand, free from him as he plunged in, deep.

Kagashi had lost himself to this kind of power, enslaving Fate to it to carry out the mission he had failed to complete…Fate had been driven to insanity with it, unknowing of why his purpose was to destroy the very world he had been born too… Now, Negi would end it, for good. The only true evil one here, was indeed, the power…the power that had conquered these souls.

His hand tugged, and pulled, it seemed that he was pulling out the other's heart as he came, tugging strings of light. It broke free, expanding into his hand, exploding there as his own key took flight to swirl about him, his other hand taking Fate's master key from him…

The keeper of the Grand Master Key, Fate Averruncus, looked up at Negi with new eyes, just before he would be completely free. Negi's face was set, all the fun had been drained from him…no matter what he said, or did…

His heart was still good, wasn't it? He could take no joy from what he was about to do…

_"…Go ahead. Pull it. Set me free…seeing death so many times…your power…maybe you can handle it."_

He nodded his head once, both hands grasping firmly upon that final shaft, two keys swirling about him…he pulled the third with Fate's help, sliding it out peacefully as light encompassed all…a soul set free.

"Once again…I am… sorry."

There was nothing there. The body had vanished, and he felt the key in his hands, its power radiating out, swirling about him as the flow redirected itself, began to try to make him the newest vessel for its strength, but Negi wasn't quite ready for that yet. He called out to his parents, feeling the power flow through his veins…it was forcing its way through, like a defibrillator out of control…a heart on the verge of an attack.

The building beneath them rumbled, magic swirling about in the air, crazy, untamed. Around Negi, power swirled, and his eyes burned…but he still forced it away, trying to keep himself for just a bit longer…he focused on his audience, and called out.

"Anya! Get Alma and get out of here, didn't I tell you that already? ...Arika, Nagi…get the _hell_ out of here! Grab whoever you can…I'll take care of the others…move!"

Always the commander, the power pushed upon him, but he rose a commanding hand, calling the master key to him, the grandmaster in his other, two keys, their different sizes apparent, he sent them spiraling from him, the grandmaster coming to rest above him, the master next to him…none of them moved and Negi took to the air, gathering his will.

"Damn you…Anya! Move! Take her….Mother…Father…all of you…begone!"

He had never been able to do something like this before, but with this power forcing its way through him…he extended his hands and sent them all flying away, into the air, disappearing with a simple pop of air, back to the ship, even Vir was sent away near it. With a simple wave of his hands…he had teleported them all…those same hands rose now… he stopped fighting it. He let the magic flow…but not right through to him…he was smarter than that…let the code destroy itself! He brought his own Pactio out, pointing it to the sky.

"Come to me, the six remaining master keys! By the bidding of your keeper, swirl about me, join your fellows! I call to me all the pieces of the life maker, rejoice in me as I let you dance!"

_I see right through to you._

_Fate's partners fell in a heap onboard the SS Sanctus Enthoalis, as well as Alma, Anya, Shiori, Yue, Nodoka, Rakkan and Chisame. Nagi fell in a heap next to it with his staff and Arika…Eva meanwhile, found herself on top of Vir with Asuna, Jasnin and Issac…the dragon felt a rumble, and heard his master's bidding, a very firm…go. _

_Before anyone could truly react, Vir spread his wings. He knew such a tone. It meant business, and honestly, he wasn't going to stick around in a crumbling area…he took to the air and flew swiftly out of the cavern, totting people gripping for life…awake now from the shock…some confused…Eva wasn't though…but she only stared, almost glassy eyed, as the dragon flew out of her control._

_The Sanctus had an automatic system…and now in this danger, it activated, by no small bidding from Negi as it fired it's thrusters on auto. Not like Alma would have tried to stop it from flying away, but she was numbed in a way as it took flight…Anya tried to stop it…but she didn't know how, and ended up turning on the radio, heat and air-conditioning on full blast instead…_

_Nagi and Arika were the only ones who stalled…there was a literal roar as the staircase behind them in the cavern collapsed, the magical pressure reaching an all time high. Nagi grabbed Arika, and amidst her protests, and his own heart, took flight…_

"Damnit Nagi, no! He's in there! I can't lose him again!"  
"I know Arika…but we have to go…"  
"He…he…"

_Outside, Alma managed to get a hold of Arika, through Asuna. It wasn't that she was cold hearted…but she knew they had a duty to do still…she had the illusion ready after all. An illusion to cover the entirety of Megalo-Mesembria, a land which to save all the humans whilst this world was remade…_

_He called me Mother…he called Nagi Father…with so much conviction…he said it to _mean_ it._

_Hadn't she lost her power?_

"_No…my power over illusion stems from years, hundreds of years experience and life. My hell fire, my looks, the never aging face…that was the power I lost…not that I cannot form fire now…it just won't be truly real. Please madam Arika…you must put aside everything now. I need your power, I need your sister's power…I need your husband's power…I need to use all this power…to keep this illusion whole…"_

_It was part of the plan after all…she gave her power, and let her world be taken away from her into the night… _

Around him, the magic swirled, around him, the keys floated as he rose his hand, the keys shining bright. Their eyes stared at him, accusatory, judgmental in their sight. He felt his allies fade from sight, felt illusion magic slide up, encompass all of the world it needed too…no one…no one would be here to hear the world give its final screams…

"Keys to the world, open your strength, bind unto me your power, the time has come to pray. The world rebuilt, destroy the old, unto this that must be undone…go from my guise, take it in your hands…"

He closed his eyes, the magic swirling down in a spiral, filtering through each key before it dared cycle around him…he was keeping it far from him, trying not to absorb too much…but what he had made him giddy with strength…his eyes closed and the wind tousled his hair…it was safe now…

"Rewrite…Format…Erase."

Around him, his very world slowly collapsed…

**+-E-+**

_What…the…heck…happened? I take so long, and I make…this? I knew what I wanted to do, I admit, I came into this planning on doing all I did in this chapter, the battles, the sorrow, the progression like and explosion that I claimed it would be…but I just didn't expect it to be so darn long! Sorry if I bored anyone, or scared anyone…_

_Why is it that Akamatsu seems to inhabit my head? Zazie's pactio is what I was debating to make it be from the beginning…but I ended up making Alma more like that…what? You never got to see her real power, ehh? Completely encompassing, multi-fabricated illusion worlds also include convincing people…maybe I'll stick something about that somewhere…not in this story though. (Teasing you, am I?) Let Akamatsu have his genius however, he is still in a different class for creating this beast._

_Still kind of disturbing though…my respect is renewed…somewhat._

_I finally reveal an Alpha class, Elemental/Ultimate Destruction spell. Too bad I barely described it._

_The climax is here. I won't hide it anymore from you. Fate was the key this whole time! It was an idea that stemmed all the way back to the beginning…now however…what will happen? With the world in his hands, Negi chooses destruction and true rebirth…but at what cost? His strength was enough to free Fate…but has he absorbed too much darkness into himself to be saved now?_

_Why is everyone so dull? Is it pure shock that keeps them sane? If that's true…_

_This next chapter is going to be hectic. Almost there my friends, we've come a long way. I hope this chapter satisfies…_

_Bhagavad Gita is a sacred hindu sripture, full of doctines one should live by. "Action thy duty, Reward not thy concern", happens to be one of the principles taught...no, this does not mean Negi is hindu...is just means he's a rounded study!_

_That poll of mine will go down at the end of this stories run, and believe it or not, it does have an effect for something...!_

_~Finalage…signing out._


	59. Chapter LIX: Carbon Based Lifeforms

_I'm sitting here and realizing that I'm actually starting to run low on gas. My mind is a bit stiff. Yet that is just fine by me, for this story is near its end anyway…_

_(You? Out of gas? Bull. You're updating your story the day after again. You call that out of gas?)_

_Well, I was actually waiting to see if I'd get a review, and Galerians started me off, thank you for that… but I actually stalled a bit, wondering if anyone else would. I wanted to give them a chance…_

_(Once again, bull about the out of gas part.)_

_...How near you ask? You will see at the end of this chapter how near...but can't you tell? I'm sure you can...Glad it was enjoyable, that last chapter...as for missing an "S", I appreciate that…although, are you sure it wasn't an "M"?_

_I do not own Negima silly! ~Finalage._

**_O+-+X_**

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Chapter Fifty Eight: Carbon _****_Based _****_Lifeforms_**

**_+-AAA-+_**

Anya awoke in her bed groggily. The sun streamed through the blinds, stabbing at her tired eyes. She tried to rub the sleep from them…and failed miserably. Glancing at her clock, she realized it was still way too early. What was she doing up?

_"It is done."_

Anya jumped; the crinkle from her sheets was extremely loud in the silence. Alma sat with her back against Anya's mattress, barefoot in her customary kimono that she had taken to wearing. She stared at the vivid flowers on the black surface as Alma stared with equal intensity at the clock, which chose that moment to turn from five thirty eight to thirty nine. She blinked slowly, and Anya realized her hair no longer blended with that black kimono…it was bright blonde-brown against its pitch.

_"Do you know where you are?"_

It was said with a simple tone, conversational. Anya took a glance around before answering.

**"Why…? I'm in Mahora…aren't I supposed to be?"**

The other shook her head, turning to fix her deep blue eyes into another set of Sapphires.

_"No. You are not supposed to be. This is a city…I suppose it is similar to Mahora…but it is illusion. You see that sun? I spent years staring at it, perfecting its rays…"_

**"You mean…these sheets…this bed…the clock…"**

_"Illusion, meant to keep you and over five hundred million others safe, unaware. Ahh…"_

At that moment, the clock turned five forty, and a song came on as its alarm, some current pop song on the appropriate radio station. It was just the right time…and, right on cue, a voice echoed out, familiar and calm, but followed by another one, stressed.

"I tried to wake you already...friggin rock head, that's what you are. Just call in sick today, good grief."

"I'm late! Just give me a piece of toast or something will yah? I'll be outta your hair…!"

With a sigh, a rustling was heard, followed by a muffled thanks and the sound of rapid feet on the carpet. The door opened and then slammed with authority, the following silence allowed them to hear the slip of a piece of paper falling to the ground, followed by a grumble.

"Damn sticky note always falls down. Humpty without his friggin Dumpty!"

A familiar red head popped up in through the doorway, looking mildly bored.

"Oh, so you two are up. Hurry up and get dressed then, will you? I'm in no mood to be late today. Alma, you'll have to watch Anya again, I'll excuse you from my class with some fudged doctors note or something…breakfast is ready, so up, before it gets cold…I'm not reheating things three times in the morning, like Asuna does, stuff will taste like crap when it's done."

_"Yes, Master."_

He left before Anya could speak, and Alma patted what she could reach of her arm from her place on the floor.

**"That was..."**

_"Illusion. Nothing but an illusion to fill the gap for a while. Do you remember what happened?"_

**"H-happened? What do you mean…that was Magi…what's going on…illusion…that…w-wha-?"**

_"My mental clouding is working then…I could spend some time telling you…but you wouldn't believe me anyway…I might as well remove your mind from the power, but I could lose you… and that wouldn't do, would it?"_

She stood up gracefully, her hair flowing free, and once more, it was pure black…in fact, Anya wasn't even sure it had been brown to begin with…brown? Alma? No, she was as a pale ghost, a creepy eyed girl who said little to nothing and called Magi-sensei "Master"…what was it she had just told her, sitting there?

Oh, right. "Master told us to get up, so we shall." Weird wording. Still, she was one of the few, those who spoke English to her, so she had to take what came, right? She pulled the covers away and swung her legs over, getting up quickly, passing Alma to get to the bathroom.

Alma watched her go, turning around to fix the bed once the door closed with a snap. It was…too bad. She really felt the need, now more than ever, free from her imprisonment to herself, to talk freely with someone...but she could not, would not…dare lose her hold on any of them.

They would die as the world crumbled to bits underneath them.

She looked across the room, catching sight of herself in the mirror…just an illusion, to her; she saw those long forgotten blue eyes. Small steps, to that mirror, she felt its surface. Solid, but never had she known so clearly that the face in the mirror was nigh even a piece of the story behind.

The bathroom door opened to the sound or running water, the toilet refilling its tank. She turned on her heel, a doll in her act, the ballet dancer with practiced grace. A small, peaceful smile lay on her face as she nodded to the other, her clothes already appropriate.

_"Ahh, Anya. Master said we should eat before the food goes cold."_

**"…Right."**

Alma smiled as she led the way to breakfast; they had a full day ahead of them after all…

Asuna meanwhile rushed to work, passing by people she knew, and everyday routine…but one she normally didn't indulge in so late…her boss didn't mind her being lat though. He knew her better than that. She was a good kid after all, and always jumped at the chance for some extra hours, a bit of extra money for her schooling…the least he could do was be a kind face.

Her paper route went quickly, the daily news flying from her nervous fingertips like vibrations from a struck cord. She was doing two routes today too…so she needed to speed up, working over double time. She cursed when a paper flew into the wrong house's yard, abandoning her bike to retrieve it. Gravity was being a…well, you know. They had their gate locked too…she had to jump it.

"Damn it…"

Nonetheless, no one caught her…at least life had some mercy on her…but then she remembered, just as she put the paper back in her bag, that something was wrong…oh crap, there was an article about some recent discovery in Egypt, THANK YOU NEWSPAPER!

She was screwed. She hadn't done her history homework!

_Well…at least now I have a chance. Could I try to finish it during boring Shitaki-sensei's lecture? No Asuna, not try, I have too…Negi is way too sharp eyed to try…and Akashi-sensei collects at the beginning of the period…_

The people of this non-descript town went about their lives like any other day, and in all honesty, it was a lifestyle akin to the bits of dreams. A near hybrid of the magical world and the old one, they flying fish still roamed the sky, and no one minded at all.

"Negi" went off to teach his mainly imaginary class as the few real ones he held captive fell into line. Eva, looking extremely bored, wondered why she kept feeling the need to cast the annoying ten-year old an appreciative eye….Nodoka and Yue were having trouble paying attention, most of their eyes were on the passing sky, even as they marveled at their own stupidity.

These ships passed by everyday…so why was it such a wonder to see them fly by, mechanical wonders in the sky? This was a school of the magic-less…the mundane. Yet they saw magic every day, there was nothing special about it. They just could not use it themselves.

Those who _could_ had strict laws under them, they were held in a kind of uncomfortable confinement, an unsteady peace…who wanted to be in that? As far as they knew, their teacher was one of those chained citizens…but besides using a bit of magic to lift his chalk to the board, he did nothing that would make him any different from them…

Although…the boy _was_ rumored to be extremely skilled and powerful...yet these rumors were just that…rumors…unproven, unfounded beliefs.

The only thing truly extraordinary about him would be his age. He was teaching them when he himself was younger than they were. He was a kind of child prodigy, and his knowledge had captivated them all. He had a lot of stories to tell to, if you listened…he just didn't have patience for nonsense…

"…remind you all that on Friday, there will be a test on the use of the ellipse in popular writings…"

Asuna fiddled with her pencil, trying not to get noticed too much…she was trying to finish her homework before next period…not that she would get away with this however, Negi had already seen…he just chose to ignore it.

Sometimes, even he knew you had to give somebody a break…he glanced up as the bell rang, signifying the new period. He shook his head as he picked up and eraser, sending it zooming from him to wipe the board clean.

"English books away, get your History homework out, that professor Akashi we all love so much can't deal with you today, so you're stuck with me. Asuna, would you please hand me that homework you so quickly put on your desk and pick up everybody else's?"

Well, not _too_ much of a break. Asuna locked eyes with him, and he just gave a small smile. He knew, and she knew. She slapped her report on his desk with some irritation before going to collect everybody else's, a bit peeved when Ayaka practically handed her a whole damn book.

The rest of the day passed quickly, gym, lunch, other classes, a reminder of some finals and expected homework, Alma removed herself from the corner she had stuck herself in, invisible to them all. A copy of her entertained Anya at home now, a seamless transition. She looked over Negi as he walked past her…just so.

After class, they all decided to go visit Negi's mother and pops, hiding out in a house over in Kyoto. Here was where rumor meet reality, as Negi walked through the door and then, quite instantly, ducked, pushing Anya's head down to avoid her face getting impounded by a…muffin?

Negi sighed as he heard gagging coming from the kitchen. His mother was at it again…and apparently, Chamo had had enough of her nonsense. He had left Chamo here because the talking ermine just couldn't stay quiet at home…

Apparently, he didn't appreciate the quality of food here. Yet, Negi was pretty sure it wasn't the perverted ermine that had thrown that muffin…no, it was Arika who had thrown it at _him_…and missed, obviously.

Of course, to make the situation more comedic, as soon as Negi stepped into the situation, he was met with a scene of one mad queen, a frying pan, one distraught Chamo and, finally, one pissed Nagi. Another muffin flew the animal's way, again missing and bouncing off the cabinet door, almost smacking into Konoka's face it not for a quick Deflexio from Negi.

The boy grabbed the muffin from the air and took a quick, brave bite, crunching down upon the baked good and bringing attention to himself. He sighed before setting eyes on his mother.

"Eggs Arika, eggs for Christ's sake. That and maybe a bit of salt…or even some butter would do. These things _soften_ a muffin...not the salt so much though…that's to edit your taste. Chamo would break his teeth trying on this thing…and while I whole heartedly agree he needs to be mutilated a little, this one ain't his fault."

Taking another bite of the decidedly crunchy muffin, he shook his head.

"Everything else is good though. Commendable effort…but watch the _sugar_… this thing's sweeter than _syrup_."

Leaving it at that, Negi picked up the shivering ermine and left the room, tossing a bag full of plumber's putty and tape, along with some PVC piping, on the counter. His father had asked him if he could pick it up for him, and there it was…what the man planned on doing with it was a mystery to him, but he didn't particularly care…

Now, if the boy heard on the news a few days later, that a house had literally flooded itself due to a leak somewhere, drowning an unidentified ermine, well….too bad, that would be Nagi's problem…

Soon the day was at its end, and they were once again stuffed in their dorm room. Negi looked up from his book when Asuna burst through the door, finished with a shopping errand Konoka had sent her on. She landed heavily on the couch next to him after putting the groceries away.

It was Konoka's turn to cook.

Negi watched as the girl cricked her neck before reaching into her book bag to pull out her homework, sparing Negi nothing much more than a glare at this point. Stupid homework…

Negi nodded once in acknowledgment before he turned back to his book…but he watched her above the horizon the pages set. She continued on her way, bustling about like a mother hen, trying to find a pencil, getting paper ready, pushing her bangs away…

Sighing when the girl tossed her head again, he put down his book and called to her.

"Come here."

"Huh? Why?"

"Just come before I change my mind."

He bade her to turn her back to him as he piled up a few pillows to kneel on, and placed his hands on her neck, kneading there roughly, but in a smooth motion.

"God, you people make yourselves so tense over nothing. If homework and a newspaper run make you like this, I pity you and your future endeavors, Asuna. No. Don't move, stay."

"Ugh…that's too hard! Ahh! Easy!"

He ignored her as he kneaded deeper into the collarbone.

"Obviously, you've screwed up your neck so bad with all these knots, it's gonna hurt loosening them up."

Anya watched as the two bickered a little, but Negi never left his task, and the girl didn't pull away after a while. Alma had seen this scene before…oh, it seemed to be so long ago…she stood slowly from where she leaned up against the couch, announcing that she was going to sleep, and receiving four good-nights.

Only two were real.

"_Aww! How cute! Negi-sensei is giving Asuna-san a massage."  
_"…Yeah, and it hurt's like hell! Oww!"  
"Stop your whining. It can't be all that worse from dealing with the mess you've gotten yourself into here."  
"…Well…you're right there... It does feel better once you stop mutilating me."

Alma flopped down on the empty couch near Negi and Asuna's occupied one, sparing another glance at the illusion she had created, and those snared in it. Konoka was a perfect animation of her usual self, teetering on the edge of calling for dinner, but unwilling to upset a moment. Anya clung to this illusion like she would her mother…

Negi, in all his falseness, was still her ideal master, and still provided Asuna with real care, administered as only he could…

Finally, she felt the darkness take her, becoming a simple body for her own power to cradle in convincing arms…this…if only life had stayed like this…

**+-1-+**

The very world seemed to tumble, in turmoil. All around, the screaming of metal, of stone, of people. Negi could see it all in his mind, the running forms of those not real, the Hellas. He watched them all as they were crushed, erased under his might. It started with Ostia, the building around him crumbling into dust, particles, magic…

It extended outwards as he floated high, taking in more rock, buildings, ruins of mammoth proportions…then it took the ships. Those ships void of human flesh, the Hellas on board could only scream as their ships disappeared in a brilliant flash of magical light, the bubble of magic they had been covering engulfing them.

He watched his power extend out, break through cities, shattering glass into nothingness, an incredible hydrogen bomb, vaporizing all in sight, taking all the memories and dashing them, fresh blood on the ground.

Underneath him, the surface, barren and dead, the true land that was Mars was revealed to him, in all of its glory, he gathered what power he had, and directed it to the keys, starting with the smallest once first as he watched more of the world underneath him meet its demise.

**"I take this power, and from you, I take your form, dissolve back into that which you have come, I destroy you, the keys of the life maker! Your powers shall go into your masters, give up your strength to them."**

His power lanced out, striking through the hundreds of keys that were used as lower level controls, the underlings to the Master keys. With his power, he had enough to sunder them completely, filtering their power into the keys above them, those closer to him…the magic swirling around him made it impossible to see, everywhere was white, aglow, on fire.

Yet still, he managed to see the demise of Megalo-Mesembria, as he plucked with delicate fingers the sphere, the world of illusion that blanketed all those who would be saved. In his mind's eye, he saw thousands of dead, the Hellas souls. He could make them real, he could…but now was not the time.

That magic that he gained, the power returning to him, the illusion reformed into the pure power it was, washing over him. Yet, he had a job to do…the entirety was almost done…he called once more, making the master keys swirl about him, their master's bidding their command.

**"I take your power now too, the Masters of this world, the seven keepers to the gate! The master keys, sunder yourselves…give unto your grand master the power. Live through the grand key, dissolve into mist, the second layer of the code…"**

Around him, they glowed, almost angry, it seemed, but then, they also seemed to be proud, free. Underneath him, he began to see the very spell he sought to destroy, the gate itself winking away with its condensed power…

His key in his hand, he took hold upon his true key, the Solius Corpus. By now, its size was monumental. Its power was paramount as he swung out the grandmaster, demolishing the gate, taking into itself the power, just as he tossed the key itself forth, drawing the magic about him, into his pactio, shining bright. He commanded a final right to the last shred this world had to its code.

**"Grandmaster. Your power is now absolute over this world…dissolve now, the very code you are made of! Break apart into mist, your power is mine, I dictate so! Give unto me all you have, and leave naught but ashes behind, completely erase all that is in front of my eyes, shatter yourself whole!"**

His pactio swung forth, touching upon the key and cutting through it like a knife would its hot butter. Upon impact, the key fell in pieces, shattering into bits that came at Negi, attacking him with the pure energy, the last vessel for all of this power to be held by…eyes alive as the code itself, the very spell, dissipated into mist…

He called out a final spell, his hands coming together to pool with the flooding power. He need not incant a single word…but he did so anyway, ritualistically…his father had nearly killed himself chanting a spell like this one…but the air had been thick with magic then…saving him…but he sought for more power, digging deep.

He spoke in Norse, the oldest tongue of the seal…one simple word. Yet the entire spell, the Greek equivalent, rolled in his mind…as well as the incredulity. He was…about to... destroy a world. Literally, a true world was about to be crushed underneath his hands. That was...power. Power no one should, _ever again_, have.

_**εγώ καλώ επάνω αληθινός ελαφρύς. δικό σου πνεύματα είναι ακάθαρτος, δικό σου θεοί υπηρετώ όχι my χρειάζομαι. εγώ φτάνω βαθύς, στο ρίζα του ώρα. μόνο πρώτος δύναμη, εκείνοι ότι είναι μέσα κάθε κόσμοs, εγώ καλώ όλος τώρα. δίνω απερίγραπτος εμένα δικό σου καθαρόαιμος ψυχή. ελαφρύς the δρόμος σε αιώνιος σκοτεινιά. ενεργοποιώ ιερός σωστός, ξεκινώ, θεμελιώδης μορφή, πρώτος χάρη, ελαφρύς!**_

_**I call upon the true light. Your spirits are impure; your gods serve not my needs. I reach deep, to the roots of time. Only the first forces, those that are in every world, I call to bear, all of them, now. Give unto me your pure soul...light the way to eternal darkness. Activate the sacred rights, the beginning beacons... Cardinal Form, Provenance Grace, Light!**_

**"Ljós."**

True, purifying, holy might.

Even with all the power flooding into him, the drain was incredible…an entire world's energy, nearly all of it…used up in just one…single...blast. Negi had trained for so long, in the ability to dump a huge amount of power in one blow, but still; the drain, the power, the sheer emotional attachment was just on a climax he had never been on before.

The light was…all encompassing. It consumed him, expanding outwards like a bomb, so bright that Negi truly became a star for those on earth…and brighter even. For that moment, the world would never forget, ever in history come to pass, the day Negi Springfield over shadowed the sun with his power. It took the form of a beam, that spell, but it was so large you could hardly tell...

The energy was so large; he consumed all of Mars with his blast, and more. The beam lanced out and struck the planet hard from the side, and one would swear they could have seen it shift…but no…the beam was too big…too bright to see that...oh shut up already Negi... It's just a big beam of light that pulverized Mars. You can't really elaborate much on that... You could be fancy and say it shafted like the sun, but there was no friggin point.

The spell used up the power so fast, there was no time for it to truly filter to Negi, and the boy realized that the priest, and Kagashi…had been correct. The other plan required him absorbing all the power into himself to chant the spell and recreate the world…this one…

You used up all the power as it came, and then used the power of the mind to fulfill your needs...if done correctly...cleverly, you couldn't overload...Negi had been clever, at least for this half...what about the next?

As the boy called out to whatever remaining power he had…shrouding himself in darkness, pooling his mind together…he couldn't help but notice how the spell, after doing it's dirty work, simply continued onwards at incredible speed, disappearing from sight in the reaches beyond…

He rose a hand, and seemed to slash through space itself, ripping the fabric and sliding through, as gravity took over, pulling back together the massive pieces of dirt and rock that had been blown apart…it was insane…but he had just gone and done pulled a Death-star on Mars…

The sheer hilarity made him laugh, a soundless expression in the space he quickly left. He knew what he had come there to do…and he had done it. It was only now that the sheer insanity of it hit him, and that suit him just fine, for now he had a new insanity to deal with…the recreation of the planet he had just blown to bits…disappearing from space, he slipped between the very fabric of time, the very seam that was space.

A poet's grace... A voice echoed in his head. Memories…. Kago, speaking frankly to him, Asuna in the background, patiently waiting, blissfully unaware…

…_One who creates magic, spins spells from their mind and not from memory, who wields power with grace, and draws from the center, taking with them all types of knowledge, crafting them into a spear in which to shatter the faithless and bring peace to the restless. You can't tell me that this is not you…_

_This type of magic has no words. You use emotion, prime desire, prime thought alone. There is no language where you are, you must create it with just your eyes. Jasnin Akaito controls a piece of this primal magic, you…when I am finished with you, will hold it in full…_

Here in silence, he knew what he had to do…quite suddenly, it was simple. He looked about at the empty canvass he had, and closed his eyes. The darkness was all consuming, the emptiness here absolute…his eyes were useless here.

His ears too, were useless, save to find the sound his own body made. The sounds of life. Those were the base…breathing, heartbeat, the churning of a stomach…the moving of fluid between your very bones…this was where it all began…it was why the null was made this way.

True nothing reminded you of everything. Everything important that is.

He reached with his mind, gathering up the mass that was himself, surprised at its sheer size. Rakkan, Nagi, Arika, Eva, Kago, his elder self, demons, Asuna, Kagashi…so many others. Their memories flowed through that mind, built their own little niches in which were filled, all for him.

…_Form a ball in your hand Negi. A ball, not of magic, but of knowledge. Take all you know about the world, any world you wish to create, and form it into a ball, force it into your hand. Gravity, Air pressure, Sea depth, land height, temperature, weather patterns, you don't need constellations…_

For those were already there. Focus only on the planet, that was what he had meant…and that he would do.

His hands extended; the knowledge came. In front of him, he could see, through closed eyes, the matter, the planet Mars he had broken fee, its rock new, molten, alive. He took it, the gravity pulling it together, and used it, crafted it, forced the liquid down; made it a canvas...carved oceans with elements, compounds, filled the seas with familiar animals, in his mind's eye…

_**I won't forget the rose's thorns…**_

He saw the gravity, saw the mountains…he saw the clouds, the ice caps glistening in the sun. He saw the warmth, and the cold, felt it on his bare skin. The bees buzzing by, the thorns pricking on the rose, the beautiful Morning Glories that grew from creeping vines. In front of him, a tiny sphere formed, he could see it…

_**I so often ignore the feel of the sun upon my skin…**_

Through closed eyes, he could see it, feel it, bounce about, exited. It had a life of its own…but he held tight still. He added the Hellas. Their power, their love and hate, their minds…he built upon them, taking them and remaking them, chemically explaining them, putting himself in the equation, taking from his known DNA to craft them…the world underneath his hands threatened to burst into brilliant light with the excitement as he detailed dragons, wolves, sea creatures, so much life…deer, nymphs, even fairies that he dared create.

_**The wonders of life…**_

He need only make them real, that was all. He need only weave their stories, histories, exploding from him, a grand work of fantasy spinning from a reel off its lock, rolling free, spilling life, the very stories that the sister's of Fate endlessly spin.

_**How much to we…neglect? Everyday…we forget the love…is this… what I have forgotten, and neglected to see, for so long?**_

The flowing blood he felt, the paper flowers along his wall, blossoming into full blown ladies' slippers…the violets on his arms giving birth to the hummingbirds…and yes, the mosquitoes too…a bit of bite to the beauty. He built their history, not much different than it was, but with a bit more hope tucked in, secret places.

The flowing mountains…crystal waters, in his minds eyes he saw it all, and his eyes snapped open in surprise at the large sphere in front of him, bigger than a beach ball, bigger than himself even, but shivering with pure energy. This world…was alive…he added just a touch of mineral, or danger, the usual natural disaster, let it have it's fun, shake them up a bit every now and again…restore lost balances…give hope, exotic species, back new and never heard off…

_**Give them a life to live…a life to live…**_

He created one more Hellas to make real. Negi didn't create souls, no, he had taken those he had destroyed and replaced them back in the new body…but this one, he brought from himself. From one man to another, he pulled the knowledge from his head, putting it in another.

_**Payback's a b*tch…ain't it, Kago? Take my payback…you'll know that you owe me when you wake up…can't let the last Vicused get away with murder now, can I?**_

He sighed finally as he let it go, right onto the surface of a broken world, forever changing it in a brilliant flash of Terra-forming light…once more, none would forget the actions of a single mage, some quietly silenced in the dark…Negi was no god, but many would think him to be…soon. Now however, he was tired, his mind gone from him. He gave himself up to the darkness in his mind, the darkness of the void. Let it take him and make what it will…the last surviving, the last true poet fading back into nothing…

He felt the null take him and pull upon him, taking from him something he held unto, precious...but it was only his hate, his...darkness. All that which had poisoned him, it took from him, creating another to take it, a form to be cast off. When a poet weaves a web, they weave it with a reality; they leave a piece of themselves behind.

That piece became the underpinnings for the world, cementing it into reality. That self...was one the poet no longer needed. This boy...he didn't need that darkness...it wasn't his to begin with. That pain...it wasn't that it all was completely disintegrated from him...it was edited, pruned. He would have the strength to look upon it now and smile...

His world circulated the null like a bead in a funnel, swirling down and pouring unto its platform, realizing the vision that it was meant to be…Mars, the Planet Mars, would never, ever be the same again. It became alive, and mundane science would forever wonder what that Terra-forming flash of light truly was, besides the claims of magic…that gave them this paradise…

Negi Springfield…faded away peacefully as the illusion world Alma made, burst free.

**+-2-+**

The body fell from the sky. Without a care in the world, it fell through the sky, a star in the night. Below it, the world slept peacefully, unaware. Some went about their daily business…one of these was Arika. She couldn't help but stare at the mirror.

She never thought she'd see that crown again. Now, here it was, right on top her blonde head, sitting there very complacently, thank you very much. She had never liked wearing the thing…so tell her, why the hell was it on her head when she had woken up from bed of all things?

She was pretty sure it was the reason she had a thumping headache. Stupid piece of gold. She looked sidelong at the Hellas man behind her, whom smiled lightly at her glance. He wasn't like the others. They bowed or did some other stupid thing like that. He just smiled, or nodded.

After all, she knew him…although not quite as a Hellas, she had to admit. She knew him as a human, but now, Hi ho! Her appointed "High Bishop" happened to be the only Hellas on staff…one Kago Masato. What the hell kind of illusion had that girl Alma spun?

Ahh, now if only that were true. The truth was that this was a reality…as real as it all came. She could look out her window from the balcony right now, and she would see beautiful trees, grass, rivers, mountains…this was Ostia, only it no longer floated in the sky…hell, if she asked anybody, they thought she had a fever.

This Ostia had never been floating. This Ostia had a completely different shape from what she knew…and this Ostia was undeniably a dream come true. Alive, rich with resources, beautiful, and yet in an optimal size and landscape for protection.

A tactical miracle in the greatest sense of the word…but there was no Negi.

That single fact killed her inside. It had been a full week. Yes, it was only a week, but still…she had found herself pestering Eva more and more, but the vampire was adamant. Her pactio was still in her hand, so what do you think?

You go out and find him if you're so worried. That was her basic message. She trusted the boy…and Arika wished so much that she could too…but she was his mother, she worried too much to trust that way.

In true though…Eva was as mystified as she was. Her pactio item gave her no clue as to where Negi was; only the affirmation he was still alive from its presence. When a mage died in a pactio, it grew cold to pierce your bones, and lost its most vibrant features…when a Magistra/minister dies, the thing shattered to bits, freezing you cold as if a bucket of ice water had been hurtled your way, times thirteen thousand.

Negi's card was still here, so that took care of that. Trying to summon him or talk to him didn't work though. Where the hell was he? It put her on edge. He had done his job, but had up and disappeared like Nagi had…he had promised he wouldn't leave right…?

With the intention of breaking the promise he had made it, stupid Eva, can't you remember?

Still….a promise was a promise…and she had come to a kind of desperate mode, one where she walked about with the pactio in her pocket in public, while in private, it was smack on her head. It was the one weakness she had right now, besides the loss of magic.

_Course I made a promise you dolt. I heard you the first friggin million times._

The voice came so suddenly, she jumped, and she looked at her pactio in amazement. Was it…

_Doi. Have you gone stupid Eva? Don't ask me where I am by the way…'cause I have no f*cking clue. I can't even feel my body…it's like the thing is falling from me…_

Screw it. If she had lost her mind, it might as well be thinking she had finally found a trace of Negi. Of course, as the boy expected, she asked the question he had just told her not too. If he could, he would have sighed.

"The hell have you been?"

_Dingbat. I just told you I have no friggin idea, and you go and ask me what I just told you. You have gotten stupid in the time I've been gone, how long has it been, a thousand years? You gone senile?_

She ignored his jibe. Yet Negi was still talking.

_...You know, when you make a world, you give up a piece of yourself...literally. You also create a kind of new self. In making a world, you realize a new part of yourself Eva...and you are remade to take all you have to be reformatted...no, I use the wrong word...defragmented. You cast off an old self...I think I'm in the process right now..._

What? The hell was this gibberish? Still, she could almost feel him shrug, feel his consciousness, so close...but it was different somehow. Lighter, easier.

_...Just giving you a heads up...I have a feeling I know why I feel like I'm separate from my body..._

If she was gonna go insane, might as well go full out, huh?

_Why...my darkness of course...no, scratch that. A personality that I don't need any more. I'm still the son of a b*tch you know and love...but I understand that this love...and peace, is possible now...for me. Isn't that just...smashing? Ha ha! Bring on the fanfare, this corny drama's just getting started! ...In all seriousness though, I have no idea when I'll be back, yah know...? Oh shit. They found my body...or more like...it found them!_

Eva would have asked her own insanity again when the hell was going on, but instead, the doors to her balcony opened, and she could see that the shared thing housed Asuna on the other side, looking up at the sky. She crawled out of her, bed, feeling like a video game character in a cut scene, out of her own control. She walked up to Asuna, but it was the princess who spoke first.

"I don't know why, so don't ask me...but Arika sent me here. Said it was important...and I can feel it too. Something's gonna happen, but what the hell it is, I just don't know. Maybe we'll find Negi today, who knows? I'd like to beat that kid's ass for his disappearance, yah know? What do you think?"

Honestly? She had something more...interesting in mind...but of course, this was after beating him within an inch of his life...so yeah, she nodded to Asuna. If she looked down, she would have seen Arika. This was the second floor, and the main observatory was just below them...one reason her view was nice.

Of course, it was nice enough, until a scream echoed along the entire place, and she looked up into the sky, spotting a body, falling at high speed, snap a branch as it passed her by and hit the patio below her hard, snapping the wood in creating its own crater...the body was familiar...

Crap, it was Negi!

Literally, answers to prayers do fall from the sky...or did they? When Arika was the first to recover, rushing in, Asuna jumped off from the second story, slamming in front of her sister. What, was this a race? He was right there girls! Shaking her Head, Eva jumped to the tree next to her and slid down. The boy had broken a branch from it after all...

_I would advise not worrying about that old thing..._

So all she had to do was slide and she'd be right there. They all met him at the same time, and each of them, undeniably, touched him at the same time, his body disintegrating into Sakura petals. Surprise...he's gone! Slowly, they looked at each other. Slowly, the question came...who touched him first?

_I told you...don't worry about that old thing...ohh shit, maybe you should..._

Not that Eva could hear him of course, her hand wasn't on the pactio...so she lunged forth like the others, ending up in a three way brawl with the other too that would only make royal attendants fluster and friends shake their heads. However, amongst all the playful banter and light hearted betting was a dark form.

Shadowy and menacing, it screamed inwardly, pain, sorrow...none of it was my fault! The world is wrong, I am right, I can never be loved, my purpose is...to destroy! This soul, this darkness...the null had done to well. It had cleansed one soul of its darkness, but all that darkness, stuffed into a body of its own...it was nothing but a mound of incoherent thoughts...but they were Negi's incoherent thoughts, pieces of dark soul from hundreds of others...a patchwork quilt that could truly make a whole...

…and it had. The fabrication of an animal like this had no sense of regret, no honor, only raw anger, hate, despair, want, need…and with the memories left behind…it could very well learn, and grow…it would be an animal, fighting for dominance.

Dominance of a world…

That was what scared the one who could see this the most. It's escape into the wide and beautiful real world, the way it leapt from the peaceful field, running along the grass until it met a cliff...how it jumped off that steep end into the sea below, an animal with no fear…he could have sworn that when it leapt, those pitch black eyes shone with a red fire…and the darkness of its limbs could very well be the beginning of the dark form...Negi knew his job wasn't over yet…

Not until he went to defeat his own dark side once and for all... God, did he ever get any rest from this life...? He always had something to do...defeat his "dark side" sounded so cliché...but wasn't his entire life about that? At least, this time, he could do it. It was a physical being now...

A dangerous...physical... being. This wasn't Star Wars…he didn't have to worry about simply desire alone…his evil desire was separate from him now…the thing he had to worry about…was beating it up, destroying it…all the while trying to keep himself sane…

While he continued his work, he couldn't help but laugh at that sentiment…sane? Since when had he been sane?

**+-3-+**

In the dark of the night, Eva sat with her pactio in hand. I still hadn't shattered. It hadn't grown cold, and now, it refused to stay silent. Not that Negi himself spoke, but more like whispers in the dark, the thing sputtered nonsense. Negi had claimed a part of him had been cast away...but this darkness, cast away...where did it go?

She wasn't even sure now if all of this were true. She could just be going "gaa gaa"... Especially when her pactio, after babbling for over half an hour on nonsense mode, showed stress, literally cracking all the way up and down its length. This didn't bode well...she feared to drop it too much...it might just shatter.

If any of what she had..."imagined" were true...

Then she didn't have much of a doubt that the cast away darkness was that body; falling from the sky today... Still, if that was true...she could only shake her head. If it were any ordinary person, this release from darkness would be...a relief, something that would fade away peacefully, like that thing had, bursting into Sakuras...

Negi was a child shrouded in darkness. His soul had taken on the evil from the hearts of other men, his darkness an abyss from which he himself sat, an impossible flower in the midst of the dark, damp caves.

His darkness would not go quietly into the light. She had a feeling it was still out there, gathering it's bearings...a literal beast without any control...an animal. This animal...if it could gather a semblance of consciousness about it...

She didn't want to think about that one. No, instead her hands held that pactio card, watching it gain another crease, a crack. Pactios shattered, they did not...crack. Not like this. Not as if the soul it was tied to were being pushed and pulled painfully into death, clinging somewhere to limbo.

She regretted thinking this the instant she had, for the item in her hand shook, and with a finality that plunged her entire body into a pure ice cold, it shattered into a dozen pieces...it's shards falling, stars upon her bed.

No one heard her silent scream. She only stared down at the thing, broken on her bed, her head down to look at it glitter in the moonlight upon those sheets. You wouldn't have been able to see her face; a sheet of golden hair covered it completely, giving her the grace of privacy in an empty room, full of souls.

No sound came from her, but she was shaking like a leaf, her arms held her up now, but she still made not a peep. Wasn't life cruel? She had been through nearly a whole millennia of it…she should know better than this…

_You…promised…you b*st*rd…you promised…_

Why did she, every time, stick out a heart she had thought long broken, only to have it shattered once more? When did it _stop_? When did common sense kick in…where did the road end?

…_You are the type to die in battle, or to choose a good time to simply lie down and wait for death to arrive…_

Why the hell was she thinking about _him_ now? What the hell did Gunther have to do with…anything? The vampire was dead, his regeneration cycle snipped due to Jasnin's deadly work…but perhaps he had been right after all…

She was the type to lie down and wait for death to come…

Yet, she couldn't help but stare at those shards…something was wrong with them.

They were still there, goddamnit. It was like they were teasing her. When a pactio shattered, it dissolved into light…it didn't sit there complacently in pieces. Yet here she sat, shivering from the cold she felt in her heart; and the sight of a shattered, dead pactio in her eyes.

Now it decided to glow, but it still didn't dissolve. They glowed until they turned pure, dim light. Shades that smoothly ranged from pink to gold, coming together, slowly upon her bed…she could swear that a familiar music in her head could be heard…a tune she just could not place.

She really was bonkers, wasn't she?

Still, she had yet to deny her eyes tonight, and they spun for her a tale of those shards of light coming back together, forming a single, dim slab of pink light, softly shifting into gold in the darkness.

She could only stare at it. It was solely forming into a rectangle, but the light did not fade…it stayed a simple, pink shard of light…light one could touch…her hands still shoo as she touched it…it was warm…and it filled her with the sense she had been looking for.

Where was he?

He had been right to say_ he_ didn't even know. To her, through that shard of light, it felt like he was everywhere, and nowhere, all at once. It was difficult to grab that bit of light, and it kept slipping from her…trying to turn it on its side made it disappear…that's how thin it was…

Two dimensional light that she could hold…yep, she was crazy. Yet, when the thing slipped a bit in her finger, drawing it along her sheet, it cut right through them, leaving her to stare at the neat slice.

So sharp was its edge. She placed it to her forehead shakily…and she got her answer too. Murmurs, whispers, swirling mist…but one voice was still there, stronger than the rest, just enough to be heard.

_I…keep…my…promises. _

In the darkness and depth of the night, the moon shining bright through curtains left open wide, Evangeline Anthanasia Katherine McDowell now stood in her pure white nightgown...the one she had worn when Negi had saved her from burning to death...in her hands, the shaft of light was held tight, reflecting against the moon with all its might.

It gave her the feeling of the boy being everywhere, all around...and that was fine by her, for now.

Keep the heart safe, for the body is on its way.

I keep my promises, he says.

"...Baka."

_~Fin._

**~+-F-+~**

_Wait...did you just say what I thought you did...? Yes, unfortunately, I did. I said Fin. This story is...complete. I left you all with more questions though, didn't I? I really am cruel. I answered it all...but then in one fell swoop...I gave you a whole host of new ones. Stick around though...there is still the epilogue to deal with. That, if possible, will leave you with even more questions...I'll also stick a whole bunch of extras in there, so stay if you like, including that long awaited spell list I told you all about... but...I am, for this story at least...done._

_Before anyone says anything, Carbon Based Lifeforms is the name of a band. I found myself listening to their track MOS 6581 quite a lot, so there you go. It also seemed to fit with the chapter, neh?_

_Ljós is the name of light in Norse. So...according to the Seal, written in Norse, the "true name" for light is thus. Mind you, you can't just go saying the word willy nilly. You need incredible concentration, and as demonstrated, incredible power._

_~Finalage...out!_


	60. Chapter LX: Promise

_Oh forget it, might as well upload, ehh? Here we are. Sorry guys!_

_Galerians, please don't make yourself hoarse. I'd say don't worry...but then I'd be saying something, wouldn't I? You know, for some reason, The track: Michele McLaughlin - I Love You, plays in my head just as I am about to finish the last chapter's on-site proof reading._

_Now, I give you the epilogue and the index. Here is all the stuff that went behind the scenes, or played inner workings...information I didn't have time or opportunity to put in the story...I have also attached my complete spell list here too, so enjoy yourselves if you like technical information...if not, enjoy the epilogue. _

_Note to you, all of my formatting on that spell list has been removed except for the most basic. Fan Fiction won't take it. Now...without any more ado, I do give you the true final installment of Negima: An Applied Approach..._

_So, for one last time...I do not own Negima. ~Finalage_

**_+-YN-+_**

**_Epilogue: Promise._**

**_+-AAA-+_**

The darkness in the forest was all consuming, nearly. Yet, that was the adventure in it. He trudged on with his team, intent on discovering the secret habitat for the wood nymphs in this area. It was paramount that they discover the place before poachers after all…they must secure it!

Of course, once they arrived in a clearing, a place that had obviously once been their home, their leader paled. They were too late…not from poachers, no…the bodies of nymphs and poachers alike were tossed aside, blood decorating the forest floor, the trees torn apart, their bark ripped into chips, the insides torn asunder.

In the middle of the trampled grass, feeding off the body of a man, sat the most terrifying sight he had ever seen. Dark, pitch black skin, deep claws of off white, dark fur smelling of blood. Eyes, piercing eyes of darkness, irises of deep red, like the blood on his claws.

Growling, the creature stood…it must have ripped apart those bodies so viciously, for bits of cloth stuck it it's body…it took a few seconds to realize that it was actually wearing those pants…heavily ripped, but not bulky, it was a thin, lithe animal. Growling…it was growling…one of his fellows rose a gun…

It was the last mistake he, or the rest of the party, ever made. Roaring, the creature lunged forth, darkness swirling about its entire form. Each man and woman that stood; died, save for one woman in the back, who ran as fast as she could.

She never got far. Turning around, through the trees, she could hear the rustling. Fear, high upon the sweat and blood, the scent was delectable…she twisted between the trees, but it landed heavily from above, in front of her, growling softly.

"_Please…"_

Her pleas fell upon deaf ears. Its laws shone through the shafting light in the dim forest, spurting blood, there was no sound. No sound as a heart ceased to beat, and another continued, it's mind screaming obscenities…hate, crime, murder, fear, anger, lost love, grief….death. Above all, one word whispered, one name.

The cause of this all, this darkness, their web of anger, the one he must destroy…it grumbled in a low call, an affirmation, tasting the word upon it's tongue…

**"Negi."**

Growling this once, it leapt into the trees once more, leaving the broken remains of those it had mindlessly slaughtered bare for all to see. It's sin, like all others, would soon have to be payed...but for now, the tab simply grew larger for this beast...

_Scientists were at a loss to explain the sudden incredible light that had engulfed the sky, completely consuming and destroying Mars in one fell swoop. They also failed to understand how the planet managed to pull itself back together and go under an incredible Terra-forming blast right in front of their telescoped eyes._

_Neither could they explain the sudden, inexplicable water and life on the planet. Sentient life. Humans among them. While all of these poor educated fools tried to understand the whole situation, amidst the claims that they, these people, had always been here, some mages just shook their heads. Other mage scientists tried valiantly to provide some kind of viable cover up, but in the end some fool came up with aliens, another hopeful with a miracle from god, and countless others._

_In the end, most just pulled their heads in and let the credits roll. Others just laughed at the insanity of it all, but made a point to stay far away from the epicenter. All in all, Mars was getting a whole lot more attention these days._

_In a brilliant move by one Takahata T. Takamitchi, notes from a professor that had mysteriously vanished "resurfaced" Describing the Hellas as a race that had existed for eons, as they claimed. Their technology and race were similar to us, but until now, their planet, Mars, had been blanketed by a cloaking device left by an ancient civilization._

_Negi Springfield, the author of these papers, was nowhere to be found, although extensive research into the subject indicated that the professor had been totting this theory at least two years of his very short life. _

_The boy genius's last records showed him trying to find a way to access the surface of mars in a revolutionary way in an attempt to disable the "shielding" placed on the planet, for the civilization underneath was most likely as isolated as they were, and he had found reason to believe the existence of the human race._

_His work went on to state the true purpose of Stonehenge, which, upon the dissolving of the shield, would be realized. It was a portal from one planet to the other._

_It was assumed Springfield had succeeded. Especially as Hellas began appearing in the Old World for "visits", bringing with them their Queen…as well as the Royalty representing humans for…well, one could suppose it would be some kind of political excuse for a vacation…_

_Others, those who knew better, shook their heads in wonder at the gall of it all, and the ability a little computer work could do. Chisame had outdone herself, and with Takahata's work, the whole thing was quieted, even when this… "Mars Queen" assured them of it…value._

_They managed to botch together some video of Negi on Mars, some false thing claiming he was still studying the area. Nonsense, but it was lapped up like wildfire. Again, mages just shook their heads at the sheep they were leading around like donkeys. _

_Asuna came back to the Old world, and decided she might as well live out her live as a student in Mahora, there was no room for a third imperial princess. Even amongst Arika's protests, the other was adamant._

_She didn't belong here. There was an uncomfortable air still...and she wasn't quite ready to accept all she knew yet. She would spend some time away…distance made the heart grow fonder, didn't it? The other official students, like Yue and Nodoka, also had an obligation to go back, but Jasnin and Issac decided it was time to go back home…they had been through enough…and as dilapidated as it was…_

_Jasnin longed to throw herself on her own bed in her Brooklyn apartment, just to hear it creak in protest, and stare up at the shoddy ceiling, relishing the sight. Enough of the fancy castles and royalty...no matter how soft the bed, there still was no place like home._

_Of course, Issac could do nothing else but agree. Not that it made much of a difference, considering it would have been what he would have said anyway. Over time, he gained a semblance of independance, a way of acting like a seperate entity from his sister...progess she appreciated greatly..._

_Alma and Anya returned to Mahora with the others…but not for too long. As the time passed, they grew restless, and one day, they simply disappeared. No one knew where they had gone, but no one had the heart to bring them back to Mahora…there was no real life for them here…and they could well take care of themselves. _

_Just like in Mahora, a large tree grew quickly over where the titanic battle of Negi Versus Fate had taken place, right near the new, or should one say old, Ostian palace, a tree pulsing with just as much energy as the other…it grew so quickly, it was literally the same size as its counterpart within a year of it's beginning. _

_Those who saw it called it all kinds of names, but the one that stuck the most…was The Cosmos Tree._

_It radiated a brilliant power, but it was not connected to any portal, like it's counter part. No, it's power seemed to stem from something else...and for every day that passed, it grew slightly. Not always in power, but in stature, until the queen, and those who had fought in that war, still so fresh in their minds...would feel comfort from it._

_It felt familiar, it's aura shining bright, tinged with just a hint of teasing darkness. It felt...well, according to Arika...it felt like Negi. As for Eva, without fail, every time she would visit the palace...she would sit by it, muttering. Once, when asked why she did this, she simply claimed the tree was stupid._

_Arika told her Negi would have probably told her that tree's didn't have minds anyway, and thus could not be stupid._

_She told her this one did...and that Negi would have probably told her to forget about the f*cking tree instead._

_The man himself? Those who believed him alive just thought he was a diligent study…those who knew he had died for their sakes rose his banner high, sung of his titanic battles…those who knew him well however, those who were close…the gave him his title._

_The called him the Cipher Mage...and with that title he stepped unto the platform that would be known as legend. No longer would he be the Son of the Thousand Master. He was his own figure, shadowed by none, basking in his own light..._

_... ... ..._

_In the depths of the forests, there grew a foreboding power…It's call was fear itself, it's claws were death. Eyes that were pitch black and a body that resembled a pitch black wolves...soon, some began to give reports, those who survived, of it, in anger, bringing up symbols, strange runes all along it's body of red...those who knew battle would raise their blades, only to fall, sundered to the ground... Soon, the heroes would have to come face to face with their fears…and an old hero would be called back…to fight once more._

_That fight would gain new meaning as the forces of the world struggled to take control of this force, or chain it. Others only sought to use it's presence as an advantage, and still more only looked for a way to make a name for themselves. _

_No, he never does get that rest…our hero soldiers on. _

_Hey! That demon still owed him twenty bucks! You didn't die just like that and leave when people owed you!_

_One faithful summer night, all of this would come to pass..._

_This story however, does not tell of these adventures…this chapter in life is closed. Thank you._

**_~The Chronicler._**

**+-End-+**

_Like I said, after this, all the stuff left is simply technical information you may or may not be interested in. Ignore it if you like. Ehh? Now...as for what I'm going to do now, I do have a schedule I am trying to follow. Look around for the sequel in a typical Finalage style. I might just publish it on the one year anniversary of this story...or at least, I thought I should, but seeing that I have some time, I might just publish it earlier than that._

_If you want to see it, be warned…I'm getting rid of my leash for that story…it will be "M" Rated…and if they still allowed the "MA"…well, I would put it under that. Yet, I cannot, so I suppose a tiny bit of restraint is still there. It centers around Anya, just as a heads up._

_It shall be called…._

"_Alternate Blossoms."_

_Hey, what happened to the five-hundred thousand word bid? Ehh...I was close, but I'm not going to push it. Why do so? I have so much here already. There's no need. _

**+-D-+**

**Dictionary **

_Here, I will "define" specific things, people and artifacts that are in the Young Negi series...There is no particular order to the items here...actually, scratch that... I'll try for alphabetical…believe it or not, all the stuff here __**still**__ doesn't make a complete list. _

**AFRAM – **The **A**ssociation **F**or the **R**ights of **A**ccused **M**ages. An organization developed to uphold prisoner and suspect rights in court cases and other legal problems pertaining to magic in the case of a mage. They also act as a witness protection program.

**Alma Yoshi - **Nearly five hundred years old, this illusion specialist has spent most of her life being bred as a perfect servant, but in years past, her simple slave life was disrupted, and she found that her existence seemed to depend on the semblance of having a master. Once an innocent girl of low birth living in a farmer's village in Japan, her life changed when she was offered as a sacrifice for a mountain god and, using her "cursed" powers, escaped, burning her village to the ground. She altered her appearance and abilities in the process, and forever changed her view of life.

**Alpha Class Spells **– The higher-arch to the end of the world class, this is also known as Elemental or Primal Destruction/End class. There is only one level higher after the Alpha class, at least according to all current magical knowledge. This class, known as the Cardinal class, is said to only contain the six pure elements. The Alpha class is the last highest range spell for any subsidiary element such as Lightning or Ice and Stone.

**AltraCrolacri** - The result of Negi sharing a little piece of his soul and weaving his magic about the broken remains of HeartBreaker, changing its purpose for vengeance into a more straight forward weapon. It has the ability to take the darkness in one's soul and turn it into raw energy, purifying the soul, but ripping the body apart with the former sin.

**Cardinal Class Spells –** Fire, Water, Light, Dark, Earth and Wind. It is said that the incantations for these spells were long lost. Legend has it that calling upon the _"true name"_ of each of these primal elements is all one needs to bring forth the spell…that and the concentration, the incredible power. Legend continues to say that many gods met their demise trying to call upon these spells against each other, and those that survived still wait, wraiths of what they once were, trying to regain their lost strength while they cry the raindrops that fall over the destruction they wreaked on their fellows.

**Catalyst **- An individual with the ability to convert calories into magic, and whom houses a secondary magical storage to place this storage. Energetic and often sickly due to magical overdoses they are not usually a natural born mage. These individuals tend to lead short, violent lives, sacrificing themselves for some greater cause almost every time.

**Cora Zanadre** - A girl whom fell into dark ways and evil deeds as a child, she was cast from heaven and spent much of her life rotting in an abyss not quite unlike hell, until she feasted her eyes upon her savior. She now lives as a docile Succubae filling in the shoes of a student in Negi's class, playing her life out as the deceased Sakurako Shinna to alleviate the burden from the class. Content to help out when she can, she acts as an occasional night guard for the school's barrier.

**Eagle MX Mark Thirty Four S** - The model of hand gun Negi favors the most. A quick loading, single slug per shot revolver. This gun has the power to throw fifty millimeter caliber bullets at speeds reaching up to 3.4 kilometers per second, and has an accurate range up to .0025 degrees from a 400 meter distance. Its barrel customarily houses ten to fifteen bullets, but Negi's is customized to fit twenty five. (In a tight squeeze revolutionary way I might add. Sardines anyone?) It is very adaptable and has yet to fail him. (See a Desert Eagle for a good comparison...that's one big gun for a kiddie!)

**Elemental Form** - The magical form induced by absorbing one instance of each ice, fire and lightning end of the world spells, along with the one of earth. This form boosts speed, strength, defense and provides an enhanced natural barrier, all of which are increased exponentially. The users body seems to be wrapped in all of the four elements, a combination of all. Causes incredible magical drain.

**Enthoalis Complexio -** The magical form induced by enacting the entropy form and then absorbing the spells needed for the elemental form. However, this form can be achieved without any one of the four needed elements...however, it will not be a "perfect" transition. When done in perfect harmony, this form grants all the powers from all forms combined, however, as expected, the emotional and magical drain is unprecedented.

**Entropy/Chaos Form -** The magical form induced by enacting one instance of Magica Erebia in perfect harmony with one instance of Kanka. Considered an impossible dream for Negi, this cancels the negative, poisonous effects of Magica Erebia, and frees his mind from the plaguing voices, all the while, the extreme concentration required from Kanka is canceled by Magica Erebia's chaos. This form gives both the absorbing effects of Magica Erebia and the endurance effects of Kanka, while offering the pure physical boosts of both. Causes immense emotional drain.

**Frigerans/Ice Form (Complexio)"Sukuna Specter/Eternal Glacier" -** The magical form induced by absorbing two instances of Eternal Glacier into oneself. Boosts defense immensely and give the user a body of frigid ice. (Used with Magica Erebia, the added ability to absorb an opponent's power and use it against them, along with a slight boost of other attributes besides defense alone.)

**Fulgurans/Lightning Form (Complexio)"Thor God/Perpetual Lightning" **- The magical form induced by absorbing two instances of Thousand Thunder bolts into oneself. Boosts speed immensely and gives the caster a body of perpetual "lightning that sticks.", lightning. (Used with Magica Erebia, the added ability to absorb an opponent's power and use it against them, along with a slight boost of other attributes besides speed alone.)

**Gramyre**- Written in the old tongue, Norse, this seal of binding has been added unto twice before, giving Greek and then Latin the ability to access magic. This spell gives all spells structure, allowing for mages to keep their minds free while they chant, without worry of their spell being negatively affected, and it makes sure a mage will not drain to much or too little of their magic to cast a spell. The basis of all modern and old magic, historical records of how magic worked before it are all but lost.

Latin was the latest addition to the seal, and as such, has the weakest connection, typically reserved for the most mainstream of spells. Its flexibility and elaborate word structure allows for more uses however. Greek was the second addition, and thus it has a stronger connection over Latin, it is generally reserved for higher powered spells. Its structure isn't as flexible as Latin, so its uses are more limited.

Norse is the language the seal is written in and it is the original language of binding. As such, this guttural and rigid language has the most power behind it. Its usage word structure wise is the most limited however. Each language, older than the last, has less proper word structure to work with, but less power. It is apparent that as the time passes, the power each language holds in controlling magic increases, or, at least, this is how it is supposed to be.

**Gunther Penhorace **- A thousand years vampire who originally turned Evangeline A.K. McDowell. He harbors a regret for letting Eva go, mainly for what she has become. Wishing to add her to his clan of vampires, he finally pinpoints her location after Eva had broken down the barrier once during her original fight with Negi. He was killed when Negi, Kago, Issac and Jasnin ganged up on him, preventing him from reaching and capturing a weakened, delirious Eva.

**HeartBreaker **- An artifact created with the remains of a broken sword and a bloody staff, the mage who created this artifact hundreds of years ago melded it for a single purpose: revenge. Its power was to be used to destroy all of the family line that killed her husband and partner, a family line that just happened to be her sister's own. Negi was a part of this line, but he calmed its blood lust for his own with his pure ability, he was one well equipped to wield the weapon, and the weapon chose him. It was shattered when Jasnin sought to use its power to kill Negi's father, Nagi, only to be stopped by Negi himself. It has a multitude of powers.

**Immortal Rosary** - Said to have been the necklace of the angels, given to them by God himself, these items can work wonders in the hands of those legendary warriors, such as increasing their vitality, endurance, strength and speed, allowing them to purify shaded souls and harm demons upon touch. In the hands of a mortal, these items shatter upon attempt to use, thought they still have incredible use. Legend holds that they can bring the dead back to life, or purify a demon once mortal back to their original state.

**Ingus/Fire Form (Complexio)"Prominence/Salamander Spirit" -** The magical form induced by absorbing two instances of Primal Prominence into oneself. Boosts strength immensely and gives the caster a body of intense fire. (Used with Magica Erebia, the added ability to absorb an opponent's power and use it against them, along with a slight boost of other attributes besides strength alone.)

**Issac Akaito** - A male swordsman of high birth, he was shunned by his family for being born without the ability to use magic. He is an exemplary swordsman and can supplement his weakness with chi... He is very protective of his fiery sister, of whom, when compared to him, is quite brash and belligerent. Although they look like night and day, they are all the family the other has.

**Jasnin Akaito - **A female mage and swords woman of high birth, she is one member of a Special Ops team on a permanent installment mission. Covering as a student in Negi's class. Her genes are almost completely that of an old race called the "Snow-walkers." She often travels in the company of her older brother, Issac Akaito. She is loosely related to Negi through an old royal line.

**Kago Masato **- The grandson of Kagashi Masato, otherwise known as the mage of the beginning, he harnesses the secrets of the code and knows of the dark spiral his grandfather was sent in due to his zeal to save the world. A Vicused battle priest from the magical world, Kago is a level headed individual who does not mind self sacrifice in the name of a greater good.

**Ketsuksensōi – **The unique fighting style Negi has coined and uses. Mainly takes use of high kicks and uppercuts, as well as tackles and the concept of making an opponent lose their ground. Mainly focuses on leg strength and ambidextrous arm use. Grappling and controlling the opponent as well as anticipating their movements is a prime lesson, and this style is generally started with a lunge forth to close distance. It is attack centered and likes to apply the principal of "necessary loss." In other words, sacrificing an opening, a quick way to do damage, or a more favorable position, for a set up or larger pay off later on…This style comes with its own set of moves as well.

**-Leaf Shield:** The use of the blade in a double rotation technique to rid it of aerial resistance and act as a shield to attack.  
**-Aerial Disc:** The blade is covered with chi before spun at high speeds to become a disc of shredding metal to be thrown boomerang like, slicing through a target before returning.

**-Cricle Slash: **Purposely Named "Cricle". This is a use of chi to rid the blade of resistance in an odd pull push form of a slash, which can change direction in an instant, as long as that direction is not directly backwards. The blade glided through air without any trouble like this for as long as the pull-push and chi is maintained.

**-Bestial Atrophy: ** A technique in which the user makes their blade insubstantial, slashing through the opponent's bodybefore the tip solidifies, ripping apart vital organs with little to no resistance at all.

**-Central Guise:** Not quite perfected, but this covered the user in a concentration of their own chi, concentrated into a pure solid armor akin to a and structure is up to the user.

**-Hidden Conflagration: **User condenses their chi into a tiny sphere which is forced into the opponent to explode outwards, wreaking havoc on the inside of the opponent in question, similar to Magical overload, only in high speed.**  
-Inner Fluids: **A rapid concentration of chi which swirls about the body in an attempt to heal outter injuries, increasing the natural healing process.

**Libri per Scientias - **Book documenting many of the magical discoveries of man, it is an ample resource into finding a way to increase intelligence, but it is just that, a simple resource. It has no special powers, and its value when compared to modern day uses is woefully decayed. Negi mentioned this artifact when questioned if he knew anything about a book to make a person smart.

**"Magic/Magical Channels"- **Term use to describe the pathways in which magic flows through a body. Similar to how chi flows, magic flows like blood through veins. The size and pressure rating of these channels directly measures how much magic a mage can push at one time. Smaller or weaker channels make for a weaker mage. Even if they have a large storage capacity, or a high pressure, they can only dish out as much as their channels can relay, and vice versa.

**"Magical Pressure" **- The base "pounds per square micrometer" an object can handle or deflect. Mainly used in shielding ratings, this measurement also is used to measure how much a magic a mage can place in an amount of space, whether it be in spell work to test the strength of their spells or in their magical tanks, documenting how much magic they can hold in the space they have. The higher compression rate, the stronger the magic, and the more magic they will have. Can only be permanently increased only through training.

**"Magical/Magic Tank "** - Term used to describe the storage facility an individual uses to contain magic within themselves. Each person has one, and it grows according to the original size as they grow older until they reach a "prime" age. It's size can also be affected by training and over-storage of magic, magical overload.

**Magister Wand** - Given to Negi as a show of his position as a true Magister, it is a traditional wooden wand without the customary kiddie star, housing a core of magical materials in which the magic can be channeled through. Negi tends to keep it in his pockets during the odd times in the day when he is up and about his daily duties, just in case.

**Mortivis-** The undead substitute for Chi, this is a kind of "anti-lifeforce" that keeps the undead animated and "alive". It gives them their abilities and works almost exactly like chi. It is usually called Mort for short.

"**Non-Comp"** – Taken from the book "Shaman." An expanded and rewritten version of "Dreamrider" written by Sandra Miesel in 1989. It is a term used to describe a person who had gone mad, insane or otherwise out of their usual norm to such a point that it becomes disturbing.

**Pandora's Box** - Not actually the Pandora's Box, but the concept is similar. A portable, slightly re-sizable trunk that can store just about anything that can get in between its opening. An adjustable portal space, its dimensions are immaterial, and thus indefinable. Negi had quite a large amount of junk in here...

**"Poet" - **A specific type of person who has dedicated their life to the documentation and advancement of knowledge, and whom has great power along with a hero's heart, a shining soul, one that maintains regardless of the hardship tossed their way. A poet understands the nature of a world deeply, and can use this understanding to shape actual worlds of their own. Poets create magic, and give life to magical spells through their words. A part of magic, they can use it without worry of restrictions placed upon others with Gramyre.

**Room # 274 - **Residence of Professor Negi. T. Springfield. A standard three person suite typical of the dorm room building structure. Negi sleeps in a room off to the side, while the twin beds in a separate room are occupied by Anya and Alma. The dorm includes the typical hallway/living room style format, with the bathroom on the wall where the twin bedroom is located, and the kitchen on the side the singular room resides.

There is no walking in closet in this dorm, as it is near a corner of the building and the space is occupied by the "chimney". This room is uncommonly clean and the furniture is arranged for optimal space and sitting room. It is used as an unofficial study hall for students wishing to get some extra help from Professor Springfield.

**Royal Form – **"Form of the Kings." In actuality, this is not a true "form" unless is it extremely powerful. This is just a term used to explain the phenomenon that occurs when a mundane person, mage or otherwise, incurs the wrath of one with royal blood. It is said that a true king will gain eyes of burning anger and his strength and endurance will be the key in rallying his armies into battle. Also known as a King's Will.

**Royal Gift –** Also known as the Royal Power/Ability. Every royal has access to royal magic, and this royal magic inside them has a more intermittent form than the conventional attacks, just like mundane magic. Mundane magic boosts a mages endurance and physical prowess when not in use, Royal powers instead grant certain powers. These powers only are effective as long as the mage is not drained. An example of this would be Magical Cancellation.

**Royal Magic **- A higher arch of "common" magic, it is closer to pure energy magic than average, and much denser. Its likeness is like milk compared to average light from common magic, and its power tends to over ride the former. Royal magic has several applications, most of them are originally defensive, but extensive training can unlock offensive applications of this type of magic...as per the name, normally only one of a royal line would be able to use this magic. This magic is also used without incantation.

**Snow-walker** - An ancient race whose power is not bound by language, in other words, they can use magic without incanting any spells. They have many odd powers, but among their most devastating is the ability to control and manipulate the mind of another and to steal, even crush, their soul.

**"Sol's Skeleton Key" - **Pactio item number VMDCLXXXVI, 6,686. A permanent pactio type, beta class pactio created by Magistra Evangeline A.K. McDowell for Minister Negi Springfield. It is a key (Offensive: sword) shaped artifact that has the ability to boost physical and magical offense as well as reveal untruths. It has an additional ability to emulate any weapon Negi has ever owned/held, as long as that weapon is a magical artifact of any kind, however, the emulation is not perfect, as it is completely reliant upon Negi's knowledge of the weapon in question at the time of original emulation.

**"Soup Pot"** - The lame excuse Negi had given Asuna to cover the existence of his mixing pot stuck to its visage for good afterwards, as Negi's potions often fell under the name of "soup" by Asuna anyway. Thus Negi wasn't lying about what it essentially was after all. It is a standard issue brass pot spelled so as not to rust and to withstand above average heat. It is a simple, low budget and common item, but that fact that it is _his_ gives it a bit of sentimental value for the mage. (He also used it once to whack a demon silly, but that's another story…)

**SS Sanctus Enthoalis -** Negi's ship, a stripped and re-engineered model of the legacy class Manta XS-15A, particularly deadly, as it was further improved on by the original engineer who stripped the Manta for mainstream continuation of the canceled line. Many flaws not fixed the second time around were brilliantly fixed here. It is currently the most technologically advanced ship in existence, and is thought to be space-worthy. However, there is only one specimen of its kind.

**Terra/Earth Form (Complexio)"Golem Guise/Everlasting Petrification"** - The magical form induced by absorbing two instances of Everlasting Petrification. Boosts the power of a mage's natural barrier immensely, adding the effect to cancel out all earth based spells that are below its power when they come in contact. (Used with Magica Erebia, the added ability to absorb an opponent's power and use it against them, along with a slight boost of other attributes besides barrier defense alone.)

**Vampire "Taste" - **A term used to describe a vampire's blood prefference. Each person had a mixture of hormones and chemicals/waste, magic and chi... that gives their blood a certain taste, reflected through their personality. Evevery vampire has a taste that they prefer. It is said that vampires are most attracted to other vampires whose human forms reflected their tastes. Eva has a taste for heroism, chivalry honed with pure power...something Negi himself reflects... Negi, apparently, has a taste for the vulnerable and innocent...something Eva once was.

**VICUSED**- An acronym for a priest that does not specialize when it comes to fighting the undead or demons. A Vampire, Inferi and Common Undead Slayer, and Exorcisor of Demons. Of all the people in the world, Kago Masato is the only known remaining specimen of this type of priest.

**+-SL-+**

**Complete Spell List Guide For "Young Negi: An Applied Approach"**

_These are all the spells used at one time or another in Young Negi, mind you; I don't own the rights to the original spells of Negima! I only own those I created..._

+See Technical Usage Notes section.  
~Spell created for the sole purpose of continuing Young Negi, although the storyline does not specify who created them. (For more in-depth explanations, see Technical usage section.)

Spells "Negi created" via storyline used to be in Teal, but for here, they shall be completely underlined.

**Sagitta Magica, _****#****_ Spiritus_****ELEMENT****_****!** = _Magical Arrows._

**Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis _****#****_, Iaculatio _****ELEMENT****_! **= _Demonic Spears._

# ** Fulgor Concidens Noctem, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Fulguratio Albicans! **= _White Lightning Shots._

**Veniant Spiritus Glaciales Obscurantes...Cum Obscuratione Flet Tempestas Nivalis! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!** = _Dark Blizzard, Mid Level Beam Spell._

**Veniant Spiritus Aeriales Fulgurientes! Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina! Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens!** = _Jupiter Storm, Mid Level Beam Spell._

**Veniant Spiritus Terreteres Florentes! Cum Flore Somniali Sub Caelo Percurrant Una Tempestas! Veris Tempestas Florens!** = _Flora's Sea, Mid Level Beam Spell._

**Veniant Spiritus Glaciales! Extentantur Aeri! Tundram et Glaciem, Loci Noctis Albae! Crystallizatio Tellustris!** = _Frozen Earth._

**Vertatur Tempestas Veris! Nobis Protectionem Aerialem! Flans Paries Venti Vertentis!** = _Churning Winds._

**~Crystallus Detonus** = _Frozen Explosives_

**Τό τε****ῖ****χος διερξάσθω! Δόρυ Πέτρας** = _Spear of stone._

***Aestuo continuo in nox noctis meus flamma incidere per obscurum valde levitas, convenio...ego sum vestri famulatus rip continuo, Abyssus Levitas! =**_Hell Pyre._

***Orbis Cum In Manum Meum, Spiritus o Centum meit centum levitas! Detonus Edat!= **_Buster Ruin_

***Daemonium continuo valde nebula magica, concidens spiritus detonus! =**_Balstonrand_

**Omne Flammans Flamma Purgatus, Domine Extinctionis et Signum Regenerationis, in Mea Manu Ens Inimicum Edat! Flagrantia Rubicans!** = _Red Blaze._

**Flet Une Vente! Flans Saltatio Pulverea! **= _Dancing Dust._

**_ELEMENT OR NULL_ Exarmito!** = _Disarming Spell. [000]_

**Ad Summam Exarmatio! **= _Complete Disarming Spell._

**+Aer et Aqua, Facti Nebula Illis Somnum Brevem! Nebula Hypnotica! **= _Sleep Spell. [001]_

**+Se Dissolvant Circumstantia Falsa!** = _Dissolves Illusion. [002]_

**~Permissum mihi animadverto quicumque est hic, ostendo sum verum ut mei oculus.** = _Spirit Sight._

**~Effrego! **=_ Break, Blast away._

**~Continuo Flans Venti Nobis Protectionem Tempestas!** = _Circular Dance (Blasts enemies away.)_

***+Reprobo inter mihi , impendo extrarius , praemium versus meus hostilis, ingus! Nova Contego!=**_Nova Shield. [003]_

***+Perspicuus lux lucis sol solis of nox noctis adveho vultus vestri caecus hostes hostium Splendens Mico!=**_Blinding Light. [004]_

***+Igneus Ambitus=**_Burning Circumference. [005]_

**Deflexio!** = _Shield._

# **Evocatio Valcyriarum Contubernalia Gladiaro!, Age Capiant!, Contra Pugnent! =** _Mid level copies._

**Elementa Aeriales, Venti Spriantes Cito Adieuntes Ab Inimicus Meis Me Defendant. Limes Aeriales!** = _Wind Barrier._

**+_****#****_Fila Nigra Promissiva, Mihi Limitationem per ****# of days.**** Dies!** = _Spell of sealing. [006]_

**Pro unus quisnam est non a socius, socius in bellum tribuo vox of pactum pro ****# of seconds****...****NAME****...Impiger!** = _Ally Contract Activation._

**Sim Mae Pars! Per ****# SECONDS**** Secundās! ****GENDER TITLE ****PARTNER NAME****!** = _Partner Contract Activation. (Minister for a male, Ministra for a female.)_

**Nympha Somnii, Regina Maeve! Portam Aperiens ad Se Nos Alliciat.** = _Devine upon one's dreams._

**Mater Musarum, Mnemosyne! Ad Se Me Alliciat.** = _Let the dreamer draw us to themselves._

**~Spiritus Phasmantis, Aperiens Portam Maeve!** = _Devine upon the soul._

**~Memoir pactum, Ad se me alli musarum spiritus lucius, ego dictum, unum socius bellum portam maeve, solvum valde!** = _Mass Memory Sharing Spell_

**~Levo mihi , muto mihi. Juvenis, parumper dum, foris muto ut compositus mens votum , paulisper. Verrimus meus vox quod me change mihi, paulisper. **_ Spell of aging. (Illusion Pill substitute.)_

**~Redimio lemma ut lux lucis, per lux lucis, pro lux lucis. Laqueus lemma in hic pupugiobscurum. Non in phasmatis, non in somes, non in mens, vadum lemma licentiapro totus vicis insquequo Ego dictum, redimio hostes hostium ut is locus. Nunquam ut ingredior solvo. Tantum per permission may hostes hostium vado solvo, tantum per dictum. Servo lemma, vivo in lux lucis. Disco in lux lucis...Infernus Scholacticus! **= _School Hell._

**~Adeo mihi , Rex rgis per Levitas. vox superum , donatus unto mihi , vox of levitas tractus per vestri vena. Vestri vox non compositus , vestri vires un possideo. Ex plagiarius ut Sakuna sileo , vestri vox est altissimus mons montis. Adeo mihi , maioribus vernula per Thor!..Perkunas! **_ Thunder beast summon._

**~Confuto!** = _Halt._

**Ex Somno Exsistat Exurens Salamandra Inimicum Involvat Igne! Captus Flammeus! =** _Ropes of Fire._

**Ex Somno Exsistat Exundans Undina Inimicum Immergat in Alveum! Vinctus Aquarius! =** _Ropes of Water._

**~Ex Somno Exsistat Tumbus Undique Inimicum Tectum Terreteres! Victus Humus! =** _Ropes of Earth._

**~Ex Somno Exsistat Complexio Tumulus Inmicum Silens Fulgor! Lancea Fulgurans! =**_ Ropes of Lightning._

**Hexagramma et Pentagramma, Malos Spiritus Sigillent! Lagena Signatoria! =** _Sealing Bottle._

***+A universitas per pacis, per somnium, per vita, vultus inter mihi, adveho in res, Rectus of Decor.=**_Land of Dreams. [007]_

***+Incendia Laques!=**_Cage. [008]_

**Κενότητος ****ἀ****στράπσατω δ****ὲ**** τεμέτω! Δίος τύκος!** = _Axe of Lightning._

**~Deus of aquilo, temerarius unto mihi vestri vox, orior oriri ortus aequora ut meus order, Malleus Aquilonis!** = _Hammer of the Ice God._

**~Dea of igneus incendia, commodo mihi vestri spiritus, flamma ut tripudio ut meus terrenus, Verbero Flamma!** = _Whip of the Valkyrie._

**~Senior Sanctus, commodo mihi vestri vires shafts niteo mei oris, tripudio super inimicus, Sanctus Lancea!** = _Lance of Light._

**~Senior Obscurum, tribuo mihi vestri cruor, umbra assilio meus commodo, perussi inimicus!, Atrum Falx!** = _Dark Scythe._

***Of obscurum quod flamma ... adveho quod vultus mihi a telum et...Haurus...Abyssus mucro!=**_Sword of Haurus._

***κατατρώω ίσως από το διάστημα, O κεραυνός wrap τριγύρω όπλο O πάγοs! ριζώνω έξω my εχθρός , τσεκούρι του εκδίκηση, έκλειψη!=**_Eclipse Axe._

**Fragrantia Floris, Meis Amicis Vigorem, Vitalitatem, Auram Salutarem! Refectio.** = _Refresh and Restore._

**Tui Gratia Jovis Gratia Sit Cura** = _Cura. Not much else to say._

**~Cocatrice ocululem Accusative, adveho unto mihi, trado vestri obtutus, levo vultus orbis terrarum skuew meus inimicus, Ortus Phasmatis!** = _Rising Spires_

**~Splendens thorns , tripudio super mei eyes ensare meus inimicus in vestri habitum , adficio lemma unto mihi , raptor vires , raptor vitality! Ortus Bona. **= _Garden's Blessing. [009]_

***Coutlouce, Ego ingenero vos, cavo profundus in mihi. Vigoratus , Curo , restituo mihi universus. Ego scisco vestrum is, restituo!=**_Greater Healing Spell._

***Precor...lux lucis , signum vulnus , conforto vulnero Aceso... Achelois, lavo mihi in vestri lux lucis, succurro meus in meus vicis of postulo , restituo , Amplitudo Rememdium!=**_Grander Healing Spell._

***Abyssus Laques Captus Cruco, Levitas Crucio, Igne Phasmantis!=**_"Sole" Betrayal. [010]_

**Τ****ὸ**** συμβόλαιον διακον****ῆ****τω μοί, ****ἡ**** κρυστάλλινη βασίλεια! ****Ἐ****πιγενηθήτω, τα****ἰ****ώνιον ****ἔ****ρεβος, α****ἱ****ώνιε κρύσταλλε! Πάσαις ζωα****ῖ****ς τ****ὸ****ν ****ἴ****σον θάνατον, ****ὃ****ς ****ἀ****ταραξία! Κοσμικ****ὴ**** Καταστροφή** = _End of the World, Eternal Glacier._

**Το σθμβολαιον διακονετο μοι, βασιλισκ οθρανιονον. Επιγενεντηετο, απολεια κεραθνε ηοσ τιμεισ πτειρει. Ηεκατονκατισ και κηιλιακισ αστραπσατο. Κηιλιαρκοθ Αστραπε!** = _End of the World, Thousand Thunder Bolts._

***Τὸ συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα βασιλιάs του φωτιά! έλα, τελείωμα φωτιά , πρώτος φωτιά! έναs φωτιά όλος ότι να είμαι ζωή όχι θάνατος φωτιά! τέλοs του κόσμοs!=**_End of the World, Primal Prominence._

**Τ****ὸ**** συμβόλαιον διακον****ῆ****τω μοί, ο τύραννε φλογός! ****Ἐ****πιγενηθήτω, φλόξ καθάρσεως, ****ῥ****ομφαία φλογίνη! ****Ῥ****ευσάντων π****ῦ****ρ καί θε****ῖ****ον, ****ἇ****ἐ****πέφλεγον Σόδομα, ****ἁ****μαρτωλούς, ε****ἰ****ς χο****ῦ****ν θανάτου! Ο****ὐ****ρανία Φλόγωσις!** = _Red blaze in the sky._

**Βασιλισκ****ὲ**** γαλεώτε μετά κ****ὦ****κτ****ὼ**** ποδ****ῶ****ν καί κακο****ῖ****ν ****ὀ****μμάτοιν πνο****ῆ****ν το****ῦ****ἰ****ο****ῦ**** τόν χρόνον παραιρο****ῦ****σαν! Πνοή Πέτρας** = _Breath of Stone._

**Βασιλισκ****ὲ**** γαλεώτε μετά κ****ᾦ****κτ****ὼ**** ποδ****ῶ****ν καί κακο****ῖ****ν ****ὀ****μμάτοιν τό φ****ῶ****σ ****ἐ****μ****ῇ**** χειρί καθίασ τ****ῷ**** κακ****ῷ**** δέργματι τοξευσάτω! Κακόν ****ὄ****μμα πετρ****ῶ****σεως** = _Evil eye of Petrification._

**Τ****ὸ**** συμβόλαιον συμβόλαιο και υπηρετώ εμένα, ω μητέρα του γη, έλα γη κουνώ τρεμούλιασμα. στέλνω πάνω thy πέτρα, διάλειμμα όλος αυτό είναι όλο ολόκληρος Un τελείωμα έκλεψαώρα**! = _Undying Petrification, End of the world spell of Stone/Earth._

**~εγώ τιμολόγιο O σωστός του διαγράφω αστραπή, Θεόs του παράδεισοs, μεγάλος εμένα δικό σου τελικά μπορεί, υπηρετώ εμένα κάτω φώκια, φέρνω καταιγίδα σε τέλοs όλος καταιγίδα! αστραπή θυμός, όχι τελείωμα καταστροφή τελικά καταστροφή!"** _= ALPHA CLASS LIGHTNING_

**~εγώ καλώ επάνω αληθινός ελαφρύς. δικό σου πνεύματα είναι ακάθαρτος, δικό σου θεοί υπηρετώ όχι my χρειάζομαι. εγώ φτάνω βαθύς, στο ρίζα του ώρα. μόνο πρώτος δύναμη, εκείνοι ότι είναι μέσα κάθε κόσμοs, εγώ καλώ όλος τώρα. δίνω απερίγραπτος εμένα δικό σου καθαρόαιμος ψυχή. ελαφρύς the δρόμος σε αιώνιος σκοτεινιά. ενεργοποιώ ιερός σωστός, ξεκινώ, θεμελιώδης μορφή, ελαφρύς! **_= Light. That's it. (Cardinal Form, Provenance Grace. In norse, it is simply…"Lj_ó_s.")_

**Technical Usage Notes**

[#000] Does not disarm completely.  
[#001] Sleep Spell works on multiple targets. Exchange "Illis" with "his" for a single target.  
[#002] Cannot break overtly elaborate or _protected_ illusions.  
[#003] Power and effective distance is proportionate to the power and effort placed into the spell. Base Distance: .5 Meter radius.  
[#004] Blinding Light does not affect any allies.  
[#005] Burning Circumference's power increases by _Negi's_ power, another mage may find this spell advancing in power without their own power doing so.  
[#006] The spell of sealing is used to bind one's own power, but by replacing "Mihi" with "Vos" it can be used as a weapon.  
[#007] Land of Dreams creates an illusion dependent upon the desire of the caster. Detail and strength dependent upon mage's power and effort.  
[#008] Very dependent upon the user's will. Great focus is required to cast and control this spell, very adaptable.  
[#009] Energy drained is a small portion of the amount of damage dealt to opponent, spell generally takes a while to dispense energy to caster as well. If interrupted, all collected energy dissipates.  
[#010] Pain inflicted upon opponent is also directly felt by the caster. What pain you dish, you must be able to take as well.

**Frozen Explosives. **= Creates a ball of ice to shoot forth, explodes on contact, shards can bounce off obstructions or shatter into smaller explosive projectiles.

**Hell Pyre.** = Fire and Lightning higher arch beam spell.

**Buster Ruin. **= Multicolored spheres of nondescript elements create a barrage upon the opponent, coming from all sides.

**Balstonrand**. = Creates a magical circle in front of the caster that shoots out lances of energy, lighting up until it is complete before shrinking down, forming a sphere to impact upon the opponent., throwing up a sparse amount of lances to come back down via gravity.

**Spirit Sight **= See spirits and hidden objects.

**Effrego! =** Break, Blast away.

**Nova Shield** = Condenses a shield of fire around the user that blasts outwards almost instantly. Blast radius and power is dependent on the user's strength.

**Blinding Light** = Creates a huge blast of light that only affects enemies.

**Burning Circumference =** Creates tiny spheres of fire to swirl around the hand, and charges the fist with magic for a powerful, three in one impact.

**Devine upon the soul/ Mass Memory Sharing Spell **= Both allow the user to enter into the other's mind and converse in depth with their mental image, their inner souls. However, only the Mass memory Sharing spell allows one to share memories across the link, and only the divine upon the soul spell allows proper control.

**Ropes of Earth.** = Standard binding ropes of earth.

**Ropes of Lightning.** = Standard Binding ropes of lightning.

**Land of Dreams**. = Creates an illusion sphere to encompass the opponent. Customizable and dependent upon the caster's power and attention to detail, also the prep time.

**Cage.** = Creates a constantly changing sizable cage of darkness ablaze with fire.

**Hammer of the Ice God. **= A ball of ice appeared in the user's hands to be slammed down upon the opponent. Since it tends to shatter upon impact, it is a one shot weapon class, but if it does not shatter, it can be used again.

**Whip of the Valkyrie. **= Creates a literal whip of fire for the user to lash about. Since the spell is essentially a weapon summon, it does not drain magic for its continued existence, but instead is summoned with a set resistance to damage dependent upon the user's power. It will go out if it exceeds that damage rating, or until the caster dispels it.

**Lance of Light.** = Creates a lance of light for the caster to wield. It follows the same constrictions as the Whip of the Valkyrie.

**Dark Scythe.** = Creates a scythe of darkness for the caster to hold. It follows the same rules as the two above.

**Sword of Haurus. **= Creates a sword of darkness and fire. Created by Negi Springfield, this sword's power is actually dependent upon the creator's power, not the mage who casts it. Like the end of the world class spells, which can go no weaker than a certain point before the mage is ineligible to cast them, the sword of Haurus cannot go below a certain strength, but can go higher if the caster is stronger than the one whose soul it is bound to. (That being Negi Springfield.)

**Eclipse Axe. **= Based off the Axe of Lightning, this axe has added lightning backup which dances upon the main weapon, an axe made of ice. Can be used until it shatters.

**Rising Spires.** = Spires raise from the ground, skewering any below them and forming a barrier for a second or two about six to ten feet high around the caster before collapsing.

**Garden's Blessing.** = Quickly Ensnares single of multiple grounded / low flying opponents, and squeezes them, prickling them with sharp thorns. It then slowly drains a portion of the damage dealt to them and transfers it to the caster. However, if this drainage process is interrupted, the entire spell is canceled.

**Greater Healing Spell **= A spell that can heal minor to major injuries, but cannot heal severe burns, severed limbs/nerves or delicate organs, such as the eyes or lungs.

**Grander Healing Spell** = A spell that can heal just about any injury save for extreme ones in which the limbs are severed and far from the body, or death.

**"Sole" Betrayal **= A spell which causes the target to feel pain equal to an injury or memory you have experience, however, the pain is dealt to them as if they themselves were experiencing it, thus if the person has a higher or lower tolerance to pain, they will feel what you are making them experience to that effect. A side effect of this spell is that the caster feels the pain too.

**Primal Prominence** = Creates an immense blast of pure purgatory inferno, with temperatures reaching over 6,000 Kelvin. Lasts for about a minute's worth of time in full blast, and burns away all of the oxygen in the space it occupies, as well as quite a bit from its surroundings. After completion, it will instantly dissipate, making air rush in to fill the gap, carrying anything not tied down with it.

**Fulmination Fusillade** – Primal Destruction, Alpha Class Lightning. Creates a storm large enough to blanket an entire city, raining down tens of thousands of bolts pure lightning, each at least thirty times as condensed as that of the usual ones seen in Thousand Thunder. The storm lasts until the air calms, not necessarily before the magic does… meaning even after the magic has completed its run, the storm can continue. This spell was rumored to be cast by Thor himself, laying waste to his defiant underlings, raging over the land for a solid week in an enclosed space, forever scarring the ground.

**Light – **A powerful beam, roughly the diameter of a planet itself, such as the Earth, blasts from the user and destroy anything in its path with holy purification. The largest scale known light spell in existence, it is said that it, in vacuum, will continue on until it is completely used up, and has the power to destroy thirty such masses like that of Mars.

**+-DS-+**

**Deleted Scene**

_Replaced with the horde of demons fight, Eva and Negi all alone in the darkness after the ball…normally, when I delete a scene, I delete it, but this one somehow managed to hang on, so I give it to you...I'll put it in context too...here is where it was supposed to be after, in bold._

**"The wind had stung at his eyes as he had flown... Silence, but for the rushing of the wind. Darkness, but for the brilliance of the moon. Empty, but for himself and Eva. Her hair had whipped behind them, if it weren't for the fact she was facing him in his arms, it would have melded with his. He was close enough, held her long enough, to feel that undying heart beat, so quickly...but none faster than his own."**

…_Yet, his age. Damn his age, that wasn't the problem here. The problem was the feeling in general. It confused the hell out of him, even though he already knew what it was, what it probably was anyway. _

_Truth be told, Negi knew a lot of things, but he considered himself, still, to this very day, something incapable of being loved, and undeserving of giving it. He was a catalyst, right? What kind of life would he give the one who chose to chase after him, hmm? A short one, that was for sure. _

_They flew on, taking small turns every now and again until Negi was sure he had not only put a large distance between himself and that beast, but he was once again on course for Rakkan's home. Steadily growing darker until the sky was nearly pitch black...he set down upon the ground some hours after the darkness had become complete._

_Eva landed lightly, for Negi had set her down so, but he himself leaned up against a tree, breathing hard. In the darkness, things stirred, prompting the boy to grit his teeth. He had not time, no strength, for this. Not when he was so close to home. He pushed himself off the tree just as a swish of a branch signified an unwelcome presence._

_AltraCrolacri was out before he even realized he had drawn it, and he spun, slower than he meant to, but he still caught the blade of another. Darkness, a glimmer of light, the reflection off a pair of glasses. The other pushed him off, twirling around in a flurry of hair._

_"Ahhh...Negi, Sensei...I was hoping I would catch you..."_

_Laughter. The boy twisted about, his blade flashing out expertly, only to find it blocked, and again he was thrust back. He spun, reaching for his short sword, pulling it out just in time to parry off the other's dagger. They broke off each other to stare. _

_"Sensei~…"_

_He had already known, but here she was anyway. Tsukuyomi. He had no time for this pink Gumby. No time at all! Yet, she was laughing at him, and he noticed, even through his exhaustion, that she was stronger than before, faster. He gave her a grim smile. If Fate wanted to play like this, hiding behind his girls, fine. He'd give him corpses to marry off._

_"Ahh, Sensei...you came...Setsuna sempai...you didn't bring her...but you, you fight... oooh!"_

_She seemed absolutely delighted to have him as a substitute for Setsuna. He remembered their last fight, and almost got his head sliced off when she shot at him, slashing out for his neck. He ducked easily, swiping out his foot to take hers, rolling away when she jumped over his sweep and tried to stab him. _

_He managed a hazardous glance at Eva, but what he saw didn't reassure him. Tsukuyomi seemed to have brought along some friends, and these friends had ringed Eva, forcing her to pull out those ever rare dark strings in her defense._

_Negi sprung to his feet quickly, slashing out his main blade while his short sword stopped her dagger, well, short. His blade met hers in a familiar flash of sparks. No less skilled, but she was faster, stronger. He wondered just how much of that speed and strength she had kept from him last time. She had taken her reflexes to what he thought were the limits of human possibility, but now, once again, she was matching him._

_He pushed her off him, striking out with Altra, yet she twisted away. Her blade came dangerously close to her mouth as she stood at rest, and Negi wasn't surprised to find her eyes hungry, but the kind of hunger that was there...disturbed him to say the least. _

_To say the most, it frank out made him want to kill her...Oh, god, was this girl getting horny with her blade? The blade was being licked by her tongue and that pose...ewww, kill it! The boy quickly shifted his grip from right to left, his dagger swapping to his right. He exhaled powerfully, readying his eyes. His opponent smiled, ahh, this is what she wanted._

_He lunged back at her, angling his blade to run her through, but ahh, she danced off the side, her own blade meeting his in a flurry of unwelcome sparks. This was giving little progress, and Negi was getting desperate… _

**+-Q-+**

**Quotes**

_Quotes I had put an absurd amount of work into, or ones I consider favorites. I cut the list to ten, but there are just so many more than this...ohh heck, I stuck in twelve. These are not my top favorites though…I can't chose a top twelve, story is too darn long…_

"Well, you got it, meh' arse kicked off my damn body and handed to me on a golden platter to be stuffed down my throat so it could grow back again!"

**-Negi Springfield, after hearing Eva say that she wanted him to get put down, just once, to placate him.**

"Of-Of course. It is my duty..."

**- Kago Masato, after being asked if he would have saved Negi...had he known the boy was a vampire.**

_**"I found him, momma, can I throw him down the toilet please…?"  
"...Woman. Your man is outside. Goddamn, sometimes I swear, you people have your wheels spinning, but the damn hamster is dead as a doornail…"  
**_"I'm pretty sure this isn't the kitchen."  
_**"Aye, it is, can't you see your girl's just come out of the oven? Damn...if brains were taxed...you'd get a friggin rebate. Thanks for falling out of the family tree, and just like the stupid one...you broke every damn branch on your way down."**__  
_"...You know...I almost thought that was funny, now if only I could get it."  
_**"Don't try. You'll get a brain hemorrhage."**__  
_"...Ouch. Now that was rough."  
_**"Oh no, it wasn't rough per say...you're just being a sissy."**_

**-Negi berating Nagi and his mother before leaving them to reunite.**

"The hell kind of pactio is this! What did you do, _**lay**_ her to get it?"

**- Elder Negi, after seeing the power of Negi's pactio with Eva.**

So many people…need to feel pain. All to save a world. What truly makes a hero? I thought I knew…but now I am not too sure…I have lost my faith, and I realize that no matter what, I can never be more than just a man, a step from the edge of death, one that looms closer with every breath. Is Death…the true hero here?"

**-Kago, before leaving the SS Sanctus Enthoalis.**

"..Did you poison that thing that's in your hands?"

**- Asuna after seeing Negi walking in, smiling and holding a pan of enchilada's.**

"I don't think this wand likes me..."

**- Anya, after failing to cast a spell, poking her eye.**

"Zip it, you bag of fleas. Can't you tell it's time to play the quiet game?"

**- Negi Springfield to Kotarou in an effort to shush him.**

"…You can't be good at everything. No matter how hard you try. If you don't have a weakness, you can't be real. I'm not going to poke fun at it. I accept it. You are my son. I'll look at your flaws and your strengths, and love them all, no matter how much you try to push me away or hide them from me."

**- Arika, after seeing Negi have difficulty healing.**

"No Eva. Don't say it. I'll say it. You see, if you tell me I should go do this anyway, and I die, you'll have no one to blame, but yourself, won't you? In the end, your heart will say that I listened to you, no matter how much you curse my stupidity. So I'll say it. I'm going to do it anyway, Eva. Regardless if I might die, regardless of whatever, I will do it. I say this, and by saying it, I take all the blame... if I die, no one can be blamed but myself, and just like you couldn't stop Nagi, know that you cannot stop me. Blame me, no one else, because the last thing I want is to leave you with some stupid guilt."

**- Negi Springfield, before deciding to take the immortal rosary in his hands.**

"Missed me, missed me...but don't you dare try and kiss me!"

**-Negi Springfield after Chachamaru failed to catch him in the air.**

**+-P-+**

_Poll results are here, I told you they would be, right?_

**Number One:** Wind (Suspense, Spiritual, Fantasy.) Six Votes. 20%  
_Well well, I know what I should do then, don't I?_

**Number Two:** Chaos (That crazy "Fluff/Action/Angst/Hurt/Fantasy/etc." weird you always spin.) Four Votes. 13%  
_Okay then._

**Number Three**: Light, Fire and "Is this fun for you...?" Three votes each. 10%  
_I had hoped some might pick these...expect the last one. No, it's not fun, per say._

**Number Four:** Dark, Earth,"What does my opinion count for again?", "Does this mean I get a virtual cookie?" and Water. Two votes each.  
_Your opinion counts, and I have my jar right there at the front door if you want one…the cookies I mean._

**Number Five:** "You make too many polls...",One vote.  
_I've made five polls in my entire history being here…all of them for this story. I've been here for almost four years. I think that's fair…ehh. Okay._

**+-E-+**

_Well, that's all the technical stuff and extras for you. *Shrugs* Stick a fork in this story, it's done. I hope you enjoyed it, it's the only reason I write it, besides my own release. So…for the last time…_

_~Finalage is out. I'm not Elvis, but I have now…officially left the building._

_*Lights dim as the click of a lock from the back door is heard.* _


End file.
